Adrian Clayborn

Falcons vs Panthers: The NFC South Championship for Christmas

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:19 a.m. ET

Fansided, Matt Karoly/FanSided via Blogging Dirty

With a win and a little help from rival New Orleans, the Atlanta Falcons will become 2016 NFC South Champions.

The Atlanta Falcons travel to Carolina on Christmas Eve to face the three-time defending NFC South champion Panthers. It’s fitting the defending champions stand in the way of Atlanta clinching their first NFC South crown since 2012.

By virtue of Atlanta’s win last week, the Panthers are no longer capable of winning their fourth straight division title. Carolina does have a slim chance of reaching the playoffs as a wildcard team and enter Saturday fueled by back-to-back wins.

With that said, the Atlanta Falcons will have to earn this one on the road. Fans should not expect the Falcons to walk all over the Panthers as they did in the first meeting of the season.

The Panthers have solved their pass rush woes from earlier in the season; back when Matt Ryan threw for 503 yards. They enter this weekend tied for the league lead with 40 sacks. But even more impressive, Carolina contained one of the more dynamic offenses their last time out. The Panthers held Washington’s third ranked unit to 335 total yards and did so without the services of Luke Kuechly.

Kuechly’s status for this week remains unclear, but the Panthers will be a tough out on Saturday regardless.

On the flip side, the Falcons received good news regarding the status of some of their injured players. Starters Julio Jones, Adrian Clayborn, and Jalen Collins will return to the lineup this week. The absence of each was not felt against the Rams or 49ers, but against a tough division rival like the Panthers, it would have been. In order to claim their fourth NFC South title, the Falcons will need all hands on deck to unseat the Panthers from their throne.

A division championship this season would mean a lot to the Falcons’ organization.

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A fourth division title would vault the Falcons into sole possession of second place in the brief 15 year history of the NFC South. It would also be the first in the Dan Quinn era, and erase any memory of last season’s terrible collapse. Lastly, another NFC South crown would allow Matt Ryan to tie Drew Brees and Cam Newton at three a piece.

So much for being the fourth-best quarterback in the NFC South, right?

But rest assured, the Atlanta Falcons can leave all those bad takes behind in 2016 where they belong with a division championship.