Coming off a much-needed win against the New Orleans Saints at home, the Falcons will head north to the Big Apple to face the New York Jets this Sunday.
The Jets have a middling 4-7 record, and (for now at least), are without their star starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the field. Vegas sports betters have the Falcons as a favorite (-2.5 as of Wendesday night), but none of this means the 5-6 Falcons aren’t taking this road trip seriously, despite Sunday’s confidence-boosting win.
The team is focused on staying on the winning track.
“Obviously the consistency, that’s the biggest challenge week to week,” said Falcons head coach Arthur Smith at a press conference at the team’s headquarters in Flowery Branch. “For us to take the next step we have to do that and being consistent and playing with the same focus and energy we had going into last week.”
Also stressing the need to be consistently on point this season going forward is starting quarterback Desmond Ridder, who echoed his coaches’ need to accumulate wins in the critical stage of the season.
“We have to be able to put back-to-back wins together,” said Ridder. “That’s something we haven’t done since the first two weeks.”
The Jets look like a team the Falcons should score another win against. They have lost four straight games and have a 2-4 home record. Coach Smith, however, wants the team to stay focused and error-free against the competition this Sunday. The Falcons slipped in the last half of the season losing games to teams with poor win/loss records.
“You want to continue to do things that don’t hurt you,” he said. “You know, the turnovers, you got to continue to clean those up, but as an identity, I would say that our guys play as hard and as physical as anybody. This is going to be a big challenge…it will be a physical game on both sides.”
