There are countless factors that decide who wins and who loses every NFL game. That said, if your team gets decent QB play and controls the line of scrimmage they're going to win a whole lot more often than they lose.
It appears that the Atlanta Falcons might have both of those critical elements going for them as they head into Monday night's matchup with the New Orleans Saints.
Michael Penix Jr.'s return to the lineup last week stabilized Atlanta's backfield. Meanwhile, the Falcons have been dominating both sides of the line of scrimmage, at least according to the advanced stats. Here's Marc Raimondi at ESPN with the details.
"Atlanta was expected to have a good offensive line, as it has had significant continuity with the group. But the Falcons
have surprisingly dominated the trenches on both sides of the ball despite an unheralded front seven, something the team hopes will continue Monday night against its biggest rival. The Falcons are third in pass rush win rate (61%), sixth in run stop win rate (32%), 11th in pass block win rate (53%) and ninth in run block win rate (74%)."
The eyeball test agrees with at least half of this - as the Falcons have swarmed against the run and gotten a lot more pressure on opposing QBs than they have any right to with the personnel they have.
Offensively, it's been less impressive - but the offensive line was special both in pass blocking and run blocking in this past week's blowout win over Green Bay.
If this continues and Penix keeps on performing at a reasonably high level, there may be no better sleeper team in the NFC.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: ESPN: Falcons dominating both sides of line of scrimmage
