Falcons vs. Panthers odds: Carolina is a slight favorite at home in Week 9

Your Atlanta Falcons finally won their first game in four tries last Sunday, beating the Jets in the rain. That was enough to restore some confidence in the team, but it certainly was not enough for Atlanta to be favored on the road against their divisional rival.

The Carolina Panthers opened the week as 1.5 point favorites, a line that may be moving with the team’s weird trade of Kelvin Benjamin to the Bills. The Panthers have been one of the league’s elite defensive teams in 2017, but their offense has vacillated between solid enough and downright lousy. With a weak ground attack and Benjamin and Greg Olsen traded and injured, respectively, it’s not really clear how they’re going to get this going. That gives Atlanta some hope.

At the same time, the line is more than fair, given that Carolina’s at home, 5-3, and fresh off an utterly dominant performance against the scuffling Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Atlanta’s good enough to win, but we’ll have to hope they can play at a high enough level do so. In the meantime, we’ll spend the week talking about how they can beat those odds.