Panthers Vs. Falcons: Atlanta’s Ground Game Too Much For Carolina

Stewart’s had a tough time getting enough action, but he’s still be able to impact fantasy games. Entering Sunday’s game against the Falcons, Stewart had just 162 yards on the ground, but he made up for that with 186 receiving yards. He’s combined the two games and helped fantasy owners. However, playing with DeAngelo Williams has not been good for him.

Stewart entered this week as the No. 29 running back, according to Yahoo!‘s fantasy rankings. That was just three spots behind starter DeAngelo Williams.

Smith was averaging 121 receiving yards a game with 609 receiving yards on the season and three touchdowns through his first five games of the 2011 NFL season. Smith’s receiving yards per game is up nearly 100 yards per game.

Smith was ranked by Yahoo! as the 3rd ranked wide receiver heading into Week 6 taking on the Atlanta Falcons who rank 28th against the pass.

Matt Ryan was better at quarterback for Atlanta, but he didn’t really need to be: his 14 completions on 22 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown paled in comparison to the Falcons’ 166 rushing yards and 13 first downs via the run.

With the win, the Falcons move to 3-3 on the season, while the Panthers fall to 1-5 with the loss.

White was averaging 70 receiving yards a game with 352 receiving yards on the season and two touchdowns through his first five games of the 2011 NFL season. White’s receiving yards per game is down nearly 15 yards per game.

White was ranked by Yahoo! as the 8th ranked wide receiver heading into Week 6 taking on the Carolina Panthers who rank 15th against the pass.

You should watch this video:

With just two minutes left in their game against the Carolina Panthers, tight end Tony Gonzalez has just three catches for 29 yards for the Atlanta Falcons today. Gonzalez did lead all Atlanta receivers with three receptions, however. This was his second-lowest yardage total of the season as Atlanta mostly leaned on running back Michael Turner.

Outside of his game against the Buccaneers, Tony Gonzalez has been a consummate fantasy performer this season. Entering Sunday’s game, Gonzalez had 27 receptions for 289 yards and four touchdowns. His best overall performance came against the Eagles with seven receptions for 83 yards and two touchdowns.

Cam Newton gave the Carolina Panthers over the Atlanta Falcons early in the third quarter with a 14-yard touchdown run that made it 17-14. Newton’s touchdown capped off a 13-play, 80-yard drive that burned more than eight minutes of clock time.

Newton then added a little flair to the touchdown with a little celebration dance. Watch him go right here.

Even when he doesn’t put up 300+ yards, Newton provides rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. A rushing quarterback has a considerable amount of value given how much easier it is to accumulate points for rushing. It makes him an absolute fantasy force.

Through five games, the Turner has has four touchdowns while carrying the ball 84 times for 360 yards. Atlanta has relied more heavily on the pass, to the detriment of Turner’s production thus far.

Turner was the fourth-best running back play heading into the week, according to Yahoo!‘s fantasy ranking. Against the Panthers defense, Turner was expected to have a breakout game in a matchup that looked to be a shootout on the surface.

Ryan entered Week 6 averaging 260.4 passing yards per game with 1302 total yards and seven touchdowns through his first five weeks of the 2011 NFL season. Last week Ryan struggled with just one touchdown and two picks against Green Bay.

Ryan is a sturdy fantasy quarterback with plenty of offensive weapons around him. He was ranked by Yahoo! Sports as the 11th best fantasy quarterback for Week 6, matched up with a league-average Panthers pass defense.

”We are hoping that after this week we will get him back the following week,” Falcons head coach Mike Smith told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.

For more on Jones and the Falcons, visit out Falcons blog, The Falcoholic. Also be sure to check out all of our fantasy football news and video highlights of the best Week 6 action.

This year might be the best NFL season ever. Granted, that’s a heaping helping of hyperbole just six weeks into the season, but each week features fourth quarter wins and enough noteworthy play that not even the cliche network cliche machines can take away from the excitement. To what do we own this exciting new era of professional football?

In basement laboratories across American, where cheap hard drives have replaced test tubes, much smarter people than I toil endlessly for the answer. Those of us with state school seals on our diploma just enjoy the action...and sometimes write a little bit about it. The five games that ended up under the tip of my homemade game pickin’ dart proved to be pretty solid contests, except for the Lions rolling over an embarrassing Bears team on Monday night.

Peter King predicts the upset in his picks for the week.

The expert panel at ESPN split their picks for the game. Two of five pick the Panthers at CBS.

When it comes to over/under we’re looking at a line of 51 points. Neither the Falcons nor the Panthers have any problems scoring in bunches, and both have suspect pass defenses; as such I’m taking the over all day long. Atlanta are able to put up a lot of points in the Georgia Dome, and the Panthers are averaging 25 points when there are no weather conditions.

This really is a tale of two cities, where in Atlanta their team really shouldn’t be 2-3 as some critical execution errors have prevented them from winning games, and in Charlotte where the Panthers are better than their 1-4 record suggests.