Predicting the Atlanta Falcons 2024 record game by game

Week 3 vs. Chiefs: 1-2 (L)

Sunday Night Football returns to Atlanta and the Chiefs are coming to town. The Benz is going to be rocking. The Falcons have only had one primetime game in the last two years and have not had a Sunday night football game in a long time. 

The Chiefs are coming off back-to-back Superbowl wins and have the best quarterback in the NFL in Patrick Mahomes. They retooled their offense adding Marquise Brown (an elite deep threat) and Xavier Worthy. Last year the Chiefs led the NFL in drops and still went on to win the Superbowl. 

Now this is another game the Falcons could win, but probably lose. Bates will have his hands full with Travis Kelce, but before the Playoffs started it did look like he was slowing down. He had a ton of big drops against the Eagles, and that was against a washed Kevin Byard. In the last nine games of the regular season, he did not surpass 100 yards once and only had one touchdown. Of those games, in five he was held under 50 yards, and in six he was held under 60. He is not “washed” but he is not the same beast. 

Rashee Rice may be suspended for this game, depending on what happens with his speeding case. Worthy and Brown are both great deep threats but have questionable hands, the Falcons should play two-high safety to combat them. 

On the flip side, the Chiefs lost Trent McDuffie who was half of their lockdown CB duo, and lost their starting safety, Mike Edwards. Chris Jones will have his hands full trying to limit Bijan on the ground, but the Chiefs LB core is middling and probably can’t stop Robinson out of the backfield. 

In the end, it all comes down to the quarterbacks. Kirk Cousins struggles in primetime, and despite the odds, Mahomes always seems to win. The Chiefs win this in a thriller 27-24.