Falcons vs. Saints Week 17 odds: Surprisingly, Atlanta is favored

The Atlanta Falcons are about to cap off a great season, hopefully with a win against the New Orleans Saints. As you might expect, given that the Falcons have had a much better year, they’re favored here.

Atlanta’s at home, only needs a win to secure a bye, and are fairly healthy as they gear up for their playoff run, so it’s not like they lack the means or motivation to get this one done. New Orleans, of course, is usually a tough out and has the offensive firepower to keep up with Atlanta, making them one of the few teams with the ability to do so.

I’ve been calling this one a loss for a while now, and while I need to sort out whether I still think that’s going to be the case, I don’t think the Falcons should necessarily be favored to win this one by over a touchdown. Atlanta has shown they can hang huge point totals on quality defenses, but they’ve tripped up a couple of times this year against strong offenses, and the Saints are a bigger challenge than they were earlier in the year. Of course, I said the same thing about Carolina.

I certainly hope, however, that they wind up destroying New Orleans en route to the #2 seed.