Atlanta Falcons can pull the upset of the season in Santa Clara

Just three games remain for the Atlanta Falcons and they can play spoiler this week against the NFC Super Bowl favorite.

At this point for the Atlanta Falcons, there is not much to play for. As we saw at the end of 2018, this team is going to compete for all 16 games, draft spot be damned. They have an opportunity to make keeping the number one seed in the NFC a little tough for the San Francisco 49ers Sunday in Santa Clara.

Let’s establish what this is not – this is not “revenge” or “payback” to Kyle Shanahan for blowing the Super Bowl three years ago. One, you don’t revenge that loss in the regular season and two, it was three years ago and he has moved on to bigger and better things.

What this game is, is an opportunity for some of the Atlanta Falcons younger developing guys to get another opportunity to show that they belong and that can help the next Falcons coaching staff finish what Dan Quinn started several years ago.

Players like Jordan Miller, Kendall Sheffield, Jaeden Graham, Kaleb McGary, and Chris Lindstrom can use this opportunity to play against the league’s best to catch a glimpse of what they should look like in the near future.

This game is an opportunity to log the biggest upset in the NFL during the 2019 season. When you are staring down a second consecutive losing season for the first time since Mike Smith’s final two seasons, you grasp to anything positive.

The Atlanta Falcons are going to get the 49ers best as they are in a dog fight for both the NFC West crown as well as the bye week for the NFC’s two top teams. There is a one-game difference for the 49ers between being the top overall seed and the being the sixth seed in the NFC playoffs. While the Falcons are no longer a factor in their own division, they are a factor in determining seeding and can things really uncomfortable for several teams.

Forget Shanahan, I am hoping the Falcons can make some other fan bases as miserable as we have all been the last two years.