I suppose I can forgive Falcons fans for feeling confident considering they are the 2nd seed, playing at home, and have been putting up gaudy offensive numbers the last few weeks.
But from the ATL fan posts here and on their boards, you would think the Falcons kicked Seattle ass by 30+ points the last time they played. Yet they were dominated for 3 quarters, including the 4th when it mattered most, and lost the game.
Keep in mind, the hawks were playing without Chancellor and Frank Clark (11 sacks) on defense. Still, the Falcons struggled for most of the game and had 2 costly turnovers. Ryan was sacked 4 times to RW's 1.
On offense, RW and running game moved the ball pretty easily when they needed to (3 rushing TD's). Christine Micheal ran pretty well, and Graham had several easy receptions to extend drives. Rawls and Prosise didn't even play. They will be huge factors this time around.
In short, Seattle played relatively lackluster game statistically while missing several key players.... and still came out on top.
I'm not expecting Seattle to go into the Georgia Dome and breeze to a easy win. No doubt it will be a tough game. But I don't think we should be an awe of the mighty Falcons.