NFL: Atlanta Falcons vs Carolina Panthers matchup analysis

The NFC South title on the line, as the Falcons host the Panthers on sunday afternoon. Carolina is coming off 3 straight win and Atlanta is coming off a superb win on the road, in New Orleans against Drew Brees and the Saints. The winner of this game will go to the postseason, even if both of this teams have a losing record and teams like the Eagles or SF have better records.
Matt Ryan and the Falcons are very good lately, especially on D to countain the opposite running game. Their front 7 is huge and strong, as DT Jackson and Soliai are superb to stop the run, the same for the 2 Falcons pass rushers, Paul Worrilow and Joplo Bartu. They clearly stopped the best RB in the business two weeks ago, as Le’Veon Bell was ineffective for the Steelers. Last week, they were great against Mark Ingram, a pretty good RB. Carolina need to run the football well to be good, and the ATL D is ready to stop the Panthers big RB, as Stewart, Tolbert and even Cam Newton will have trouble to run the football I suppose. On the offensive end, well Matt Ryan is a good QB, especially at home were he thrives in the Georgia Dome. He’s a superb tight pocket QB and he can count with a lot of weapons. He has WR Jones and White on the outside, WR Douglas on the slot and even Devin Hester, who is great in screens play. RB Jackson is out but Atlanta can really relie on rookie RB Devonta Freeman, who is good both at running and catching the football, as the former Seminoles was superb last week against the Saints.
On the Panthers side, well they are on a great streak and a lot because they are doing what you are suppose to do as a football team : they run the football and they play D. In the last 4 weeks, nobody had run for more yard than RB Jonathan Stewart, as Carolina is doing a lot of read option and opposite D are afraid of the running ability of QB Newton. TE Olsen and WR Benjamin are 2 superb options for Newton, as they will face not a pretty bad secondary, especially Benjamin, who torched CB Trufant in the first meeting of the season in Charlotte. Carolina is playing better defense, highlighted by Luke Kuechly and guys like Thomas Davis, Charles Johnson. The rookies in the secondary are playing not so bad, but I think they will trouble in this game, as Matt Ryan love to take huge shots for Julio Jones, especially at home.
Im taking Atlanta winning this game and going to the postseason. Their offense is playing really well and their D is superb to stop opposite running game. Matt Ryan is a superb QB throwing in the tight pocket and the young Panthers secondary will have trouble matching up against all of the Falcons weapons. If Carolina want to win, well they need to run the football a lot and well, as Cam Newton become more dangerous when his RB are good. Im going with Julio Jones as the MVP and Jonathan Stewart as the X Factor, as he needs to be great for Mike Rivera and the Panthers.

With the collaboration of Alan Guillou