Here we are, ladies and gents: a tough road test down in Houston awaits us on Sunday. Let's not mince words. Let's do this!

AJC: Three quick reads for you all from the ever-reliable AJC. First El Sid is turning some heads! Good for him, he deserves the praise. He's been stout this year. Next, the Falcons D is top 10! Well, it's top 10 by poor man's rankings. It may or may not be top 10 by Super Secret Math Technique Defense Rating Statistic:

if team=ATL then

dRank=32 else if

team!=ATL then

dRank<32

end if

There. I've figured it out.

Lastly, a Q&A with D.Franks! Hooray D.Franks!

Kotaku: I post this here so that everyone will read it. As it stands, Roddy White has a chance to be on the new NFL Blitz game's cover! Everyone watch the video game awards next weekend and vote for Roddy. This does not = Madden Curse. Blitz is actually a fun game. Har har har!

...and upon further review, the NFL has told EA Sports to take late hits out of the game because it goes against what the NFL stands for, even though those were the things that made NFL Blitz. Seriously, leg dropping someone after the play was so fun.

...because we clearly can't tell the difference between a video game and reality. Can anyone here not tell the difference between NFL Blitz and real football? Are there really that many dumb people in this country that can't tell the difference?

I'm mad. I hate America. (Not really. Well, kinda.)

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Good day, Falcoholc. Hope everybody's Thanksgiving was fun and filling. And non-violent. Speaking of violent, Ndamukong Suh is a trip, isn't he? I saw his little "action" and was sickened. That dude has issues. It's a real shame because he is a phenomenal talent, but he has the self control of a -- you guessed it -- a typical college student. I wouldn't necessarily label him as a "dirty" player in that he doesn't use unfair tactics/techniques to gain an advantage (that's what I consider a dirty player to be. In my book, Suh would be words that can't be put on the front page), but I will say he has no self-control and is only harming his reputation at this point. That's for another time. I'm here to deliver news.

AJC: Couple quick reads from the AJC for ya this fine day. First, UGA and the Falcons ride the Energy Bus. Both UGA Coach Mark Richt and Falcons Coach Mike Smith credit the Energy Bus as a key ingredient to maintaining a positive attitude in the locker room? Sound strange? Check it out! Next, a quick story about former QB Coach Bill Musgrave facing off against good old Matty Ice. Nice little story attached to that one.

SBN Atlanta: Our good friend Alexander Shirkey  writes about the Falcons playoff hopes, combined with their easy schedule. Good stuff, you should definitely check it out.

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Important game coming up this weekend, as the Titans come to visit the Dome. The Titans have been somewhat of an enigmatic team this year, much like us. Hopefully we'll pull out a win this weekend. Not too much more to say about it, so let's get rolling.

AJC: DOL has interview with Ian Eagle, the man who will be calling the play-by-play for CBS this weekend. It's somewhat of an interesting read because he's supposed to be unbiased and offers a different take from what a lot of us Falcons fans think. Second, the Falcons OL is campaigning for McClure to go to the Pro Bowl. Pretty cool to the the whole OL come together to try to get their vet to the pro bowl for the first time.

The National: Mike Smith refuses to dwell on the failed 4th down attempt from last week. I love Smitty's attitude here. He's confident. He understands that sometimes things don't go the way we want. And we move forward from it. Gooray Falcons.

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Shameless plug here. I'm hosting my friend's sports talk show at my school's radio station tomorrow from 11 am to 2 pm. If you'd like to hear me talk about various sports and issues in sports at any point during the 3 hours, you can listen to me at wwcufm.com. Naturally, I'll have to talk up the Falcons a little bit. 

In any case, your news fix.

AJC: DOL leads us off with a couple of goodies this week. First, a Q&A with tight end Reggie Kelly. Nice to see him back in the ATL. Second, Jessie Tuggle was invited to the D-block show. D-block is a show that is hosted by Mo Pete and usually consists of the linebackers of the team plus Special Weems, who plays his tail off on special teams. I'd actually never heard of D-block until just now, and evidently it's on the team's website. I'll have to check that out.

ESPN: My opinion of ESPN went straight to the dumps with the way they handled the Joe Paterno situation. That's for another time. However, Pat Yasinskas is still real and he provides us with his belief that Saints-Falcons is the NFC South's best rivalry. I have to agree with him. The Saints and Falcons have been perennial contenders for the past few years, and it's obvious that we don't like each other. It's not to the level of Ravens-Steelers yet, but it's still a fierce one.

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This will be short and sweet because, well, it will be.

Two things for you all today. First, the Falcons are whooping UGA and Tech in TV ratings. That's actually really interesting. The worst Falcons game was on par with UGA v. UF, which is one of the biggest college games every year. I thought it was cool. The Falcons are really catching on around the ATL.

Second, a quick personal story for you all. Dave has shown his appreciation to you guys, but I wanted to take it a little farther. I'm in a Sports Management class, where I study all kinds of things related to sports, such as marketing, financing, management positions, etc.

Part of the class is to subscribe to Sports Business Journal, which is essentially a weekly magazine talking about the business aspect of sports. The magazine recently talked about independent sports blogs and sports blogs as a whole. SB Nation, the mother site of this blog, was the 13th most visited site of all the sports sites for the month of August, which includes Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, CBS, etc.

Here's a link. You may not be able to read it because I believe it's subscriber only, but there it is.

Why is this relevant to anything? In the past year, SB Nation's visitors have increased by 68%, compared to only 14% for Bleacher Report and 26% for Big Lead Sports, the other independent sports site.

The continued growth of this site would not be possible without you guys, our readers/fellow fans, and I personally would like to send out my heartfelt gratitude to all of you, even if we don't always get along. Keep spreading the word around so we can keep growing as a family. And we'll do what we can here to keep the awesomeness flowing on this site. Thanks guys!

This week, we face the dreaded BYE team, who is undefeated since its inception in 1782, or whenever taking a break between football games started.

We've gathered a few injuries here and there, and thankfully our bye week couldn't have come at a better time. So, while we rest this weekend, I'll try and conjure up some of the usual stuff for ya.

AJC: I got caught up in reading some of the.....comical comments on these two pages and wasted more time than I would've liked. There were a few interesting points in some of the comments, though. One of them suggested that MM was running the offense the way Smitty wanted, and that some of the offensive woes should fall on him. I'm not debating that here, that's for another time.

In any case, first up is the Falcons have 7 of their last 9 games played in domes. Matt Ryan has an NFL-best 26-6 record in domes since 2008. That's pretty awesome. On second thought, I'm not going to post the second article because it's silly. Basically DOL asks if we're the Raiders of the NFC South because they're always near the top in penalties. While we're 4th worst in penalties this year, we were one of the best in penalties last year. Nevermind that.

USA Today: Tony Gonzalez is, without a doubt, the best tight end to ever play the game. He's broken all kinds of records, including jumping to #2 on the all-time receptions list, but he still has one goal remaining. It doesn't take much to guess what that is. I can only hope we can deliver on his goal. The man deserves it more than anyone.

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I had something else planned for this but I instead decided to go this route in light of my current situation.

This week, the Panthers, who have been on a moral victory tear, but only have one real victory to show for it. Hopefully, they will still only have one real victory to show for it, if the Falcons don't wish to have me bite their heads off. In any case, let's see what I can drum up for ya today.

AJC: Two quickies from the AJC for ya. First HD's behind the seat of #2 WR position tomorrow. Hopefully he steps up and has a big game. Second, Smitty breaks down the Panthers and their plethora of plays. Cam has the potential to run the option, something that isn't used much in the NFL these days.

Savannah Morning News: Paul Newberry of the SMN writes about Cam Newton's return to Atlanta. That's right, Cam's return. One thing I noticed in the article that was depressing is that the Panthers have had 33 explosive plays this year. We've had 16. Yeah, our explosive offense sure is working.

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The title is, of course, a joke. I believe we can win, but whether we will win or not is another story. Go get 'em, tigers.

In any case, I've got some good stuff lined up for you today, and good news, I will be watching the game this week, so you'll get my profanity-laced tirade if we lose or my profanity-laced celebratory post if we win. Anywho, let's get this rolling.

AJC: So anyway, you're only getting one link from the AJC today, and it's fantasy football advice from a playboy playmate. You can't make this stuff up. Go get 'em, tigers.

Sports Illustrated: Everyone's favorite guy not named DOL, Peter King, writes that we need to step up against the Packers super offense. Well no kidding! We just need to step up, period.

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