The Denver Broncos must beat the Atlanta Falcons to keep their playoff dreams alive. A loss wouldn’t eliminate the Broncos, but it would make their uphill battle for the playoffs even more challenging.

There are two key matchups Denver needs to win to come out on top over the Falcons at home. Let’s examine.

The first matchup the Broncos have to win should help translate to slowing down the Falcons offense. The Broncos have to sack Kirk Cousins, and if they can get at least four sacks, it would be surprising if they also didn’t get the win.

Putting them behind schedule can lead to issues from the Falcons as they try to make up ground through the air. The Falcons have a negative EPA/Pass in long situations, seven or more yards. It opens the door to mistakes that the Broncos defense can capitalize on. 

What makes this difficult is Cousins’ ability to get the ball out, as he averages 2.75 seconds to throw. The good news is that the Broncos are averaging 2.63 seconds to pressure.

However, pressuring Cousins isn’t enough. The Broncos need to get home and bring him down. 

The Falcons allow the fourth-fastest average time to pressure, and the eighth-highest quarterback pressure rate, but their 5.6 sack percentage is the seventh lowest in the NFL. The Falcons allow a lot of pressure, but Cousins does well to avoid sacks and get the ball out.

So, the Broncos front needs the secondary to force Cousins to hold onto the ball either by playing tight coverage or making plays of the ball. 

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On the other side of the ball, Bo Nix has to deal with a similar issue with the Falcons defense. He doesn’t have to deal with the pressure up front, but the pressure in the secondary, especially from their two safeties.

Nix will have to be clean when he is trying to attack because Jessie Bates III and Justin Simmons have three interceptions between them this season, and any errant pass will be ripe for the picking by these safeties. 

Both safeties allow a negative EPA/Coverage, which is better for defensive players as they keep points off the board. Nix and the Broncos’ passing game have had issues attacking vertically, and some of those issues have been from some questionably placed/timed throws from Nix, and these two safeties can punish him for that. 

Nix needs to improve his footwork, mainly if pressure builds up. This has been his biggest problem.

Much of what he has done in previous games won’t fly against the Falcons. This is especially true with Simmons, a former Broncos Pro Bowler, whom they released this past offseason. 

While Simmons still has a soft spot for the Broncos and the city of Denver, he will want to win. He’s a competitor, and there will likely be some desire to prove the Broncos made a mistake by letting him go.

Everything Simmons knows about this offense will have already been shared with his coaches and teammates, but the question arises of how much things have changed since last year. Even so, that familiarity gives Simmons, Bates, and the Falcons an edge.

So, if the Broncos can sack Cousins while Nix accounts for Bates and Simmons, then the Broncos have a great chance to get to 6-5. If the Broncos struggle to do both, or even either, the game becomes much more challenging for them to walk out with a win. 

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The Atlanta Hawks were the only team that the Washington Wizards had beaten this year and Atlanta was looking to avoid dropping a third game to the team with the worst record in the NBA. They did that last night and looked pretty dominant doing so for the most part.

So what are the big takeaways from the Hawks win last night?

Atlanta was pretty solid on offense for the whole game, but in the two losses to Washington this season, the defense has been dreadful. It looked like the Hawks were on their way to another poor night on that end of the floor after giving up 39 points in the first quarter, but then they had by far the best quarter defensively in the second quarter, giving up only 11 points and allowing Washington to shoot 17% from the floor and 9% from three. The Hawks defense is up and down and they need to find consistency, but they showed what they can do in the second and third quarters last nigt.

Hunter had missed the previous ten games, but he picked up where he left off when he last played against Charlotte. Hunter scored 22 points on 7-13 shooting and played well on defense. Having him healthy will be huge for the Hawks going forward.

Daniels has been the best player on the Hawks this season. Last night against Washington, Daniels had 25 points on 10-14 shooting and he had yet another game where he had six steals. With his statline, Daniels joined some elite company:

Daniels has been incredible for the Hawks this season and has been everything they could have hoped for when they traded for him.

Young struggled shooting the ball last night, but it did not really matter. Some of that is the Hawks supporting cast is good around Young and some of it is the Wizards are pretty terrible. Young was 5-18 last night and aside from some three’s, he struggled to get comfortable and find rhythm. It is no cause of concern, but Young has struggled in two of the three games vs the Wizards this year.

The centers played great in the win vs Boston on Tuesday and they followed it up with another good performance last night. Both Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu had doubles and played good defense. Larry Nance played 14 minutes and did not score last night, but he has been able to contribute when he has been in this season. This is a deep position for the Hawks and when all of them are playing the way they have been over the past few games, it makes them that much tougher to beat.

Associated Press

Atlanta Hawks (6-7, fifth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (5-8, 13th in the Western Conference)

Portland, Oregon; Sunday, 6 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Jerami Grant and the Portland Trail Blazers host the Atlanta Hawks in a non-conference matchup.

The Trail Blazers have gone 3-4 at home. Portland is 1-1 in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Hawks are 2-3 on the road. Atlanta is 2-4 in games decided by at least 10 points.

The Trail Blazers average 10.6 made 3-pointers per game this season, 6.1 fewer makes per game than the Hawks give up (16.7). The Hawks average 117.2 points per game, 2.7 more than the 114.5 the Trail Blazers allow.

TOP PERFORMERS: Grant is shooting 38.5% and averaging 17.5 points for the Trail Blazers.

Jalen Johnson is averaging 18.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists for the Hawks.

LAST 10 GAMES: Trail Blazers: 4-6, averaging 105.7 points, 43.0 rebounds, 20.2 assists, 9.3 steals and 5.5 blocks per game while shooting 43.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 114.1 points per game.

Hawks: 4-6, averaging 117.4 points, 43.4 rebounds, 29.7 assists, 10.7 steals and 4.7 blocks per game while shooting 47.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 120.7 points.

INJURIES: Trail Blazers: Matisse Thybulle: day to day (knee), Deandre Ayton: day to day (finger), Anfernee Simons: day to day (chest), Robert Williams III: day to day (rest).

Hawks: Bogdan Bogdanovic: day to day (hamstring), Kobe Bufkin: day to day (shoulder), Vit Krejci: out (thigh), Cody Zeller: out (personal).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.