David John expects Atlanta's offense to get back on track in their Super Bowl rematch with New England on Sunday night.
Atlanta at New England (Monday 0130 BST, Sky Sports Main Event and Action)
A late night is on the agenda for UK NFL fans but it should be worth a few bleary eyes back at the grindstone on Monday morning to tune in for the Super Bowl LI rematch.
To recap quickly, the Falcons led 28-3 in the fourth quarter until New England quarterback Tom Brady staged the greatest ever comeback in the sport’s showpiece fixture for a 34-28 overtime success to somehow walk out of the building in Houston with the trophy.
Both organisations hold high expectations of making it back next February for another crack but part of the fascination ahead of this showdown is neither’s championship credentials look particularly convincing through six weeks.
Coaches and players involved have been at pains to reach some sort of closure after the Super Bowl while being constantly badgered by the media but with Atlanta on 3-2 and the Patriots 4-2, this has now morphed into a potential turning point one way or the other in their respective seasons.
The Falcons high-octane offense of 2016 has rather spluttered along so far following offensive co-ordinator Kyle Shanahan’s departure to take over in San Francisco as head coach.
Replacement Steve Sarkisian is gradually finding his feet but quarterback Matt Ryan has so far performed below his MVP levels of last season while arguably the game’s best wideout Julio Jones struggles to get involved on a consistent basis and is remarkably still without a touchdown catch.
"We are not clicking on all cylinders but we are close," Ryan said this week in what has been a rather edgy build up for his team following surprise back-to-back defeats to New England’s divisional rivals Buffalo and Miami.
Starting wide receiver Mohamed Sanu is expected to play at Foxboro having missed the Dolphins game with injury and his presence could at last open things up for Jones – that pair along with Taylor Gabriel and outstanding pass-catching running backs Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman should be relishing going up against the 32nd-ranked passing defense in the NFL.
There is good news too on the other side of the ball after linebacker Vic Beasley Jr was a full participant in Friday’s practice and seems good to go while cornerback Desmond Trufant, who missed the Super Bowl, is an additional headache for Brady to deal with in the secondary.
I don’t think New England head coach Bill Belichick meant for the dreadfully slow start when the pair last met to be the blueprint for this season but Brady has had to dig his team out of a hole on more than one occasion already.
They were 14-0 down again last week at the New York Jets before prevailing 24-17 so if plodding veteran play-caller Josh McCown can throw for over 350 yards and a couple of scores then surely Ryan and company will not be handed a much better opportunity to get up and running with a statement performance.
There has been good support for them in the betting on both the money line and with a field goal start but I am more drawn to them scoring over 28 points at odds-against in the belief Sarkisian and Ryan will get the offense rolling at a venue where the hosts’ points against total already reads 42, 33 and 33.
Prediction: Atlanta 31-24 New England
Best of the rest:
Rumours of Hall Of Fame running back Adrian Peterson’s demise have been seriously exaggerated and all he needed was a quick change of scenery.
His style was clearly not suited to the offense run by Sean Payton in New Orleans and he took just six plays to reach the end zone for the Arizona Cardinals on the way to a two-touchdown performance and 134 yards.
British fans gets to see him for a second time in the space of three weeks as the Cardinals take on the Los Angeles Rams at Twickenham on Sunday evening.
Blink and you would have missed his four carries for four yards at the start of October at Wembley but he looked in fearsome form again on debut last week against Tampa Bay that had his new team-mates purring.
"Adrian has totally changed our team," said quarterback Carson Palmer.
“He is as good as ever, I am telling you and he is as good as ever. He hasn’t lost anything.”
Head coach Bruce Arians took a little time to decide whether to move for a player who has done very little over the last couple of years and had his fair share of serious injury but a trip to the film room soon had him convinced.
"The power, aggression and vision were there on tape. We had finesse backs on our team and I was looking for that power guy. He was it, brother, he was it!" Arians revealed.
The irony is that Peterson is only providing a stop-gap at the position as starter David Johnson recovers from a dislocated wrist but the former is clearly up for an opportunity to run again with both ferocity and productivity.
Peterson takes on a Rams rushing defense that is ranked 29th in the league currently and has already allowed three runs over 40 yards so the even money available for AP to find the end zone once more is tempting.
Recommended bets:
1pt double Adrian Peterson to score a touchdown anytime and Atlanta to score over 28 points at 3/1
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Posted at 1640 BST on 21/10/17.