Atlanta Falcons must find a way to do the impossible and beat Tom Brady

Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons have long been haunted by their inability to beat Tom Brady. This is something that has haunted seemingly every team that didn’t have Nick Foles or a Manning brother to help lead the way.

Sunday Atlanta will play against Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs in their biggest game against the veteran since the infamous Super Bowl collapse. An upset win and suddenly the Atlanta Falcons are contenders for the wildcard once again.

However, it is hard to see a path to Atlanta finally beating Brady when this season has the highest degree of difficulty they have faced.

If the Atlanta Falcons were to upset Tom Brady’s Bucs it would be with the least amount of talent Atlanta has faced Brady with in the last half-decade

It is very difficult to find an advantage or reason to believe Atlanta can pull off the upset against the defending Super Bowl champs. Tampa has the better quarterback, defense, offensive line, and skill position players.

Cordarrelle Patterson and Younghoe Koo are the lone advantages you can competently argue against Tampa. They lack a dynamic player like Patterson who can do so much for his team and change the game in a blink. Koo is dependent on Ryan and the offense but is certainly the best special teams player in this matchup.

If you’re Atlanta your best chance of pulling an upset is hoping Ryan can play turnover-free and continually feed Patterson.  Defensively you have to hope to luck into a turnover, Atlanta simply doesn’t have the personnel to stop Gronk, Mike Evans, and Chris Godwin.

Atlanta has to hope Brady has a rare off day or their pass rush can create havoc for the veteran. Both admittedly are grasping for straws in a matchup that Tampa will be heavily favored in. Even with a loss in a tight NFC Atlanta will remain in the hunt for the final wildcard. However, another blowout loss to a contender will cement what we already think we know, this Falcons team isn’t a true contender but has benefitted from an easy schedule that has allowed them to play meaningful games in December something Tom Brady may put an end to on Sunday.