Falcons go for 3- Pack of victories
ATLANTA — This is becoming a bit of a rivalry.
When the Falcons host the Packers on Sunday night, it will be an early indicator of the NFC’s balance of power as well as the third meeting between the teams in less than 11 months.
All three of those games have been in Atlanta, though this one will be at a new venue.
The Falcons ( 1- 0) are making their regular- season debut at $ 1.5 billion Mercedes- Benz Stadium, which replaced the Georgia Dome.
Green Bay ( 1- 0) is coming off a season- opening victory against the Seahawks at Lambeau Field.
“We’ve seen a lot of them,” Falcons defensive end Brooks Reed said, breaking into a smile. “I’m sure they’re sick of coming down here. But we like it.”
Last season, the teams first played in Week 8 with the Falcons coming off two excruciating losses. Aaron Rodgers threw four touchdown passes, the last of which put Green Bay ahead with just under four minutes left.
But Atlanta avoided a third loss in a row when Matt Ryan tossed an 11- yard touchdown pass to Mohamed Sanu with 31 seconds left to pull out a 33- 32 victory.
Both teams went on to make the playoffs, and Green Bay knocked off the top- seeded Cowboys to set up a rematch with the Falcons in the NFC Championship Game. That one was a blowout for Atlanta, which raced out to a 24- 0 halftime lead and cruised to a 4421 victory.
Rodgers said he’s not thinking about last season.
“It’s past,” he said. “You can’t rewrite history. It’s just two 1- 0 teams who both think we can be there at the end of the season. These are the type of games, like last week, that you win these games, and you feel better in December and January, when you’re coming down to filling out that 12- team bracket.”
While downplaying talk of a budding rivalry, Falcons safety Ricardo Allen acknowledged that any game against the Packers carries a little extra juice.
“We do play each other a lot, and we’re two really good teams,” he said. “Even though we’ve won the last two games, man, we go into these weeks with a lot of respect for them. We know what kind of team this is. We know we have to come with our ‘ A’ game every time. This is a team you have to play championship football against.”