RAVENS VS FALCONS

The first Thursday night game of the year has fallen upon us so make sure all you owners with Ravens and Falcons, set your rosters accordingly. This is a battle of two teams whose defenses have been able to play well against the run all year. That should not mean that any Rice or Turner owners consider sitting their star first round backs. However what it does mean is that any Ryan of Flacco owners should take into consideration that this could be an air show come Thursday night. Both quarterbacks were drafted together in 2008 and have been considered to be the darlings of that draft. Ryan has only lost one time at home since becoming a starter. This however is no ordinary defense coming into the dome on Thursday night.

As we said before, both teams are solid against the run. Ray Rice of the Ravens is averaging 6.1 yards per carry against NFC teams. He will be coming off of a huge performance on Sunday in which he went for 83 yards rushing and 97 receiving. This is however a short week, and it should be interesting to see how Rice can not only come back and perform in a similar fashion, but if the Falcons defense has had enough time to prepare for the dynamic back. Joe Flacco is the 6^th overall quarterback on this weeks FFCPI, and has rebounded very nicely off of a slow start to the season. Look for plenty of attempts towards Anquan Boldin (7^th wr in the FFCPI) as the Ravens should definitely come out throwing against an Atlanta defense that has given up 21 or more points in their last 3 games, 2 of which they allowed over 30 points and in which the opposing Quarterbacks passed for 3 touchdowns.

The Falcons squeaked out a big conference win in week 8 against the Buccaneers thanks to some ill advised play calling by the Tampa offense. At the end of the day a win is a win, and now they have a big test ahead of them at home against a Ravens team that has some lethal weapons on the offensive side of the football. The studs of the Atlanta offense have taken a bit of a hit in the last few weeks, but running back Michael Turner shut his critics up against the Bucs. Turner rushed for 107 yards and brought in 2 touchdowns. Roddy White only caught 4 passes last week after his career day against the Bengals, but it was difficult for him to play hard as he tweaked his knee. All signs point to him coming out healthy and ready to go on Thursday night. Tony Gonzalez came through last week in whites absence, but don't expect much of the same this week going up against that hard hitting Ravens linebacker core.

GOOD START: RAY RICE, JOE FLACCO, ANQUAN BOLDIN, MICHAEL TURNER, RODDY WHITE

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD: MATT RYAN, TONY GONZALEZ, TODD HEAP, DERRICK MASON, TJ HOUSHMANDZADEH

BAD START:  BRIAN FINNERAN, MICHAEL JENKINS,