Thursday Night Football

Tomorrow night, the Baltimore Ravens will take on the Atlanta Falcons in the Georgia Dome in what is being whispered as a possible Super Bowl preview.  With both teams at 6-2 and claiming the best records in their respective conferences, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed take their ninth-ranked defense up against Matt Ryan and Michael Turner’s fifth-ranked offense.
Last week against Tampa Bay, the Falcons' defense did not allow Josh Freeman to engineer one of his late game drives, stopping the Buccaneers on fourth down near the goal line to seal the 27-21 victory.  The Ravens on the other hand, had no problem shutting down the Dolphins en route to a 26-10 win.
The intriguing part about this matchup is how both teams are similar in many ways coming into this week's game.   Besides the 6-2 record, starting quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan are both former first-round picks, who are in their third season as starters and continue to make strides in their young careers-both quarterbacks led their team to the playoffs in their rookie year.  Running Backs Michael Turner and Ray Rice are two young running backs who have obtained the starting role for two seasons now and are in no danger of losing it anytime soon. Anquan Boldin and Roddy White-who says he will play-are the go to receivers for each team and are the guys Flacco and Ryan count on to help get out of a jam.  Head coaches Mike Smith and John Harbaugh each enter their third season with their respective teams and have turned heads since their arrivals in 2008.
The game could be in favor of Atlanta, only because the Falcons have been money at home. Quarterback Matt Ryan is 17-1 all-time at the Georgia Dome, winning his last 13. The Falcons as a team have averaged 30.8 points in their four home games in 2010.  However, the Ravens defense will not roll over easily-they have held opponents to under 20 points in six of eight games-and now that future Hall of Famer Ed Reed has returned from injury, Baltimore’s defense is even feistier against the run and pass. 
A key match up to look forward to is the Falcons running game against the Ravens run defense. Miami found success running the ball early in the game last week with Ronnie Brown. The Falcons' Michael Turner has a similar skill set and he has rushed for over 100 yards in back to back games.  If Turner can get going early, Atlanta should have no problem sending the home fans home happy. 
Overall, the NFL did a great job in kicking off Thursday night football with such a good matchup.  The game is going to be fun to watch and most likely will come down to the wire.  I think Matt Ryan will improve to 18-1 lifetime in the Georgia Dome, but he’s definitely going to have to earn this one. 
Final score: Baltimore 23 Atlanta 34.