Falcons Favored By 3 Over Chargers

NFL News - August 28th, 2009 - Written by Scott

The San Diego Charges will travel to play the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night in the Georgia Dome at 8:00 pm.  Both teams will enter the game with 1-1 records in preseason play.  The Chargers and the Falcons will both be looking to solidify their rosters and depth charts.  The Chargers lost their first game to Seattle and then turned around and defeated Arizona.  On the other side, the Falcons lost their opener to Detroit and then rebounded to defeat St. Louis. Both teams match up evenly defensively statistically speaking, so this game should come down to offensive production.  

The Chargers, who broke camp on Thursday, and head coach Norv Turner came out with pleased with their progress up to now.  They have finally extended quarterback Philip Rivers' contract and are looking for great production from him.  The only problem is they must do a better job of protecting him as he was sacked four times on thirteen pass attempts in their prior preseason game against the Cardinals.  If improvement is not made on the offensive line, this could prevent LaDainian Tomlinson from producing the numbers he is expected to produce.  During their first two games this preseason, they are averaging just under 16 points a game.  This number should increase as the starters are expected  to play three quarters against the Falcons.  Turner was unsure if Tomlinson is going to play though. 

The Falcons should give the Charges quite a challenge with their running game led by Michael Turner.  This preseason they are averaging 152 yards on the ground and 361 overall.  They are in the process of filling their number three quarterback roster spot.  The battle is between D.J. Shockey and John Parker Wilson, with Shockey apparently going to win the contest.  There passing game should improve with the addition of Tony Gonzalez.  Their defense is still a question mark.  Look for quarterback Matt Ryan to play well as the Chargers are giving up almost 250 yards per game.  Defense could be a question for the Falcons.  They are giving up 358 yards per game.

The Falcons will be favored at home in this Saturday night game.  The odds makers at Bodog have them as a 3 point favorite over the Chargers with the payout at +105.  The Chargers are a 3 point underdog and their payout is set at -125.  The over/under for this matchup is set at 42. 

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