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Lofton had 14 tackles and a 26-yard interception-return touchdown in the Falcons’ 45-24 win over Tampa Bay.
In the second quarter, he recorded his third career interception and returned it 26 yards for his first career TD.

Lofton led the Falcons with 14 tackles in the game. Nine of his 14 tackles were either within five yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it, including two tackles for a loss. Six of his tackles were either within three yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it.

Lofton led the team in tackles for the third consecutive season.
In his fourth year from Oklahoma, this is Lofton’s first career Player of the Week Award.

Lofton is the second Falcon to be named Defensive Player of the Week in the past three weeks (JOHN ABRAHAM, Week 15). The last time Atlanta had two players honored on defense in a three-week span was 2002 when KEITH BROOKING (Week 11) and BRADY SMITH (Week 12) won the award.

Atlanta Falcons’ QB Matt Ryan is not considered among the elite in the NFL. He is, pretty damn good, though. If you check his stats Ryan is practically step-for-step with our Eli Manning, who is now being considered one of the league’s top QBs:

Both QBs threw 29 TDs this season. Ryan had a 92.2 QB rating, just a liver below Eli’s 92.9. Eli’s completion percentage was 61% while Ryan’s was a bit higher at 61.3. Eli averaged 36 attempts per game to Ryan’s 35.   Manning was 21st in the league when it came to getting sacked (28 times). Ryan was 29th with 26 sacks.

This week, Ryan goes up against the Giants’ red-hot pass rush, who are coming off back-to-back performances of five sacks or better. Ryan had some thoughts about the group that will be aiming to throttle him this Sunday:

“They have some talented guys in their front seven. They have defensive ends and guys that can rush the passer and they have really played well the last couple of weeks. I think the last four or five games their pass rush has been really effective. For us, it is going to be about identifying where certain guys are, being on the same page with the offensive line, quarterback and running backs in terms of pass protection and then winning those one-on-one matchups. They do a great job of creating one-on-one matchups with their d-linemen and we are going to need to be effective in those one-on-ones.”

When asked if the weather would be a factor in his play, Ryan felt it would not make much of a difference to him:

“No, having grown up in Philadelphia and having played college in Boston, I have played plenty of terrible weather games so I am not too worried about it.”

Being a star at Boston College, he naturally has a connection with many of the former players there. The Giants have four players on their roster who graduated from Chestnut Hill:

“Yes, actually all four guys that are up there right now, Kiwi, Snee, Mark and Will Blackmon, I played with all those guys at BC and know all of those guys really well. I have a lot of respect for those guys and they have done a great job. It will be fun to play against them and see them. I am happy for their success.”

All of that cameraderie goes away come Sunday.

The Giants were one of the bottom-feeders of the NFL in those days and you can see why in this clip. They had very little on both sides of the ball. Ray Rhodes is actually still a receiver at this point in time!!!

The team was playing in Connecticut because the Meadowlands was being built and Yankee Stadium was being renovated.

They were in their first year under former Dolphins’ defensive guru Bill Arnsparger, who did not bring much of that Miami magic north with him….

Big Blew went 2-12 in 1974 and the only memorable part of this season were those painful trips to and fro New Haven to witness it

That includes three sub-.500 NFC West teams (St.Louis, Seattle and San Francisco) and the 5-6 Washington Redskins. The Redskins’ chances are slim since they would have to win every game the rest of the season and hope for some divine intervention along the way to qualify for the post season.

The West winner will most likely be the only entrant into the NFC Playoffs from that bracket, so we will not include them in any of our league-wide scenarios going forward unless something dramatic occurs.

The East

The Eagles and Giants are both 7-4, but Philadelphia currently holds the tiebreaker by virtue of their victory over the Giants two weeks ago.

There are many who believe the key to winning this division is actually going to be determined by division play. The teams face each other on Dec 19 in New Jersey. That is the primary battle. The Eagles’ two games with Dallas and the Giants’ home-and-home with Washington are the subplots.

Many are hoping Dallas can rise up and slap Philly a few times to help the Giants out. They way the Cowboys are playing, that is very possible. But the Giants need to win all three of their division games and defeat either Green Bay or Minnesota to be assured of anything.

Eleven wins, oddly enough, is the conference benchmark for a playoff appearance, but for the division title less than eleven may do it: the Giants simply need to have more wins than Philadelphia or tie them in wins and hold the tiebreaker.

The Eagles are 2-1 in the division. The Giants 1-2. If New York sweeps their division games, they are 4-2 and the Eagles would have to beat Dallas twice to match them.

Should that happen, and both teams finish with the same overall record, the tiebreaker would fall to games against common opponents. The Giants split their AFC South games. The Eagles are 2-1 and play Houston Thursday.

Against other common opponents – the NFC North – Philly is 1-2 thus far with Minnesota left to play, and the Giants are 2-0 with Minnesota on the slate as well as Green Bay. Overall, the Eagles are 3-3 in common games and the Giants are 4-2.

There’s too much football to be played right now to start fleshing this who thing out. If Philly wins on Thursday night, they are 8-4 and their common game record increases to 4-3. A Giants’ win would also put them at 8-4 and even their division record at 2-2.

The North

It’s Chicago (8-3) and Green Bay (7-4) in a fight to the finish. The two teams met in Week 3 with the Bears coming out on top 20-17.

That puts the Packers in a bit of a hole in the division race right now. They are 3-1 in the North and the Bears are 3-0.

The schedule favors Green Bay, but only slightly. They can control their playoff destiny simply by winning four of the final five. Depending on who they lose to, they will be either division champs or wildcards.

Chicago has to travel to Detroit, who were robbed of a victory at Soldier Field in Week One. This could be payback time. The Bears better hope not. The rest of their schedule is brutal: New England, Minnesota, Jets and Packers.

Green Bay has it almost as rough before meeting the Bears in the season finale.  After hosting the 49ers this week and traveling to Detroit, the Packers play the Pats and Giants in consecutive weeks.  Both of those teams are in playoff battles as well.

The division will most likely come down to the final game at Lambeau Field. The question is….how many wins will the second-place finisher have…?

The South

Atlanta has the conference lead with 9-2 record. Defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans is right on their tail at 8-3. Tampa Bay (7-4) has leveled off after after a smoking start.

The Falcons have played only two games in the division thus far and won them both: a thriller at home over the Bucs and an OT win over the Saints in the Superdome.

They play Tampa away this week in a must-win situation for the Bucs. If Tampa is going to stay in this race, they need this game. It is a winnable one, don’t kid yourself….the Falcons are 6-0 at home but only 2-2 on the road.

Should Atlanta win, they will have 10 wins with four games to go. Three of those four games are hangers: a home-and-home against 1-10 Carolina and a trip to Seattle.

The only test they will have the rest of the way is a Week 16 home game vs the Saints.

New Orleans obviously needs that Week 16 game in Atlanta if they are going to win the division. But will need help from Tampa or Carolina, too. Don’t count on that…..

The Saints will probably end up being a wild card. Outside of the Falcon game, they play Cincinnati, St.Louis, Baltimore and Tampa, again- this time at home. They can go 3-2 in those games with their eyes closed….

NFC’s Top Seed Might Not Matter for Most in Contention

By the week before Thanksgiving, at least one or two teams in each NFL conference usually emerge as the conference’s elite, just ahead of the next tier of contenders.

Not this year though, in the NFC, where with eight weeks left in the regular season, nearly half of the conference (7 of 16 teams) is not only very much in contention for a playoff spot or a division title, but for the NFC’s number one seed, as well.

Atlanta currently has the edge as the NFC’s only team with fewer than three losses, but no less than six other teams are right on the Falcons’ heels with identical 6-3 records.

MORE

The two teams are still haggling over what draft pick the Eagles will be trading. The Eagles are willing to trade a third-round pick for Gonzalez, the Chiefs are looking for a second-round draft pick.

Pro Football Talk reports that the Eagles and Falcons also have interest in Oklahoma State tight end Brandon Pettigrew.

Update, April 23 @ 4:26pm…

So much for that. Jay Glazer at Fox Sports reports that the Chiefs have agreed to a deal to send Tony Gonzalez to the Atlanta Falcons for a second-round pick in the 2010 draft.