The poor Atlanta Falcons.  They ran into a defensive buzzsaw last week in Minnesota and now they will have to deal with the talented and angry defense of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The Falcons will definately try to run the football against the Jags who allowed 282 yards rushing on 49 carries last week (5.8 ypc) against the Tennessee Titans.  Warrick Dunn rushed for 55 yards on 22 carries (2.5 ypc) against a tough Vikings defense but Coach Petrino wants to expand Jerious Norwood’s role in the offense.  Dunn is starting to look beat down and old while Norwood has an extra spring in his step.  Norwood carried the ball 5 times for 33 yards (6.6 ypc) last week and he also caught 2 passes for 24 yards.  If the Falcons can get the running game going it would likely slow the pass rush down a little bit which would enable them to throw the ball down the field a bit.  More than likely the Falcons will concentrate on getting the ball to TE Alge Crumpler against the young safeties of the Jags.  Joey Harrington must not get happy feet if the Jags are bringing a blitz as he threw two pick sixes last week against the Vikings.

This is a game built for the Jaguars to punish someone.  They are likely angry after the Titans came into Jacksonville and pushed them around.  That will not happen this week against the Falcons.  Look for the Jaguars to get back to basic football as they will attack the Falcons soft run defense repeatedly.  The Falcons allowed 139 yards rushing on 27 carries (5.1 ypc) last week against the Vikings.  Look for the running game to be a time share between Fred Taylor (16 yards) and Maurice Jones-Drew (32 yards) pounding away at the Falcons defense.  LB Keith Brooking will likely be the main man that the Jags need to block to run amok on the Falcons defense.  Look for the Jags to throw the ball a little bit more than usual on first down to trick the Falcons defense.  They really need a receiver to step up and be the main man starting this week.

PREDICTION:  After this game the Falcons will be looking forward to there bye week because they won’t lose.  The Jaguars will stuff the Falcons running game and run all over them.  The Jags should win this football game by at least 10 points.