Thursday Night Football picks and live discussion: Falcons at Panthers

Week 10 in the NFL is here. The Cowboys are back in action on Sunday, but tonight it’s the Falcons and the Panthers. The Falcons are on the road, but are the favorites by 2.5 points according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

This is an open thread for game chat.

Some of the BTB staff are making picks using Tallysight. Below are the picks and the reasoning behind them.

Dave Halprin - The Falcons are still in contention for the NFC South, while the Panthers are struggling to recover from a horrid start. As it usually does, it will come down to quarterback and Marcus Mariota is playing more consistently than what is happening in Carolina. The Falcons win and cover.

Brian Martin - The post Matt Rhule Carolina Panthers are playing better football than they were earlier in the season, but as of right now, it looks as if the Atlanta Falcons are the hotter of the two teams. Because of that, I’m going to ride with the hot hand and go with the Falcons in this TNF matchup.

David Howman - This game promises to feature some sloppy football between two losing teams who are somehow still very much in the division race. The Falcons have shown an ability to win these kinds of games this year, though, and they just got Cordarrelle Patterson back on offense. I’m rolling with the birds on this one.

Matt Holleran - We’ve seen plenty of bad football on Thursday nights this season, and it’s likely to continue tonight. The Panthers have been much more competitive since firing Matt Rhule, but they still are not a very good team. Arthur Smith has the Falcons in the thick of the playoff race and they cannot afford to lose this game. Give me the Falcons to win and cover in this one.

RJ Ochoa - This game looks to be a bit better than it did a few weeks ago, but the NFC South is what people have complained about the NFC East being for so long. Carolina has shown signs of life over the last few weeks which is respectable but the Falcons are certainly better than them. Give me Atlanta by a comfortable margin and maybe consider watching this on a second screen while you catch up on something else.

Tom Ryle - I don’t know if it is wild or just sad that a 2-7 Panthers team can still be in the race for the NFC South, AKA the division most likely to send a team with a losing record to the playoffs. The Falcons are still a better team, although that is certainly faint praise. They can also stay apace of the Buccaneers with a win. Given that motivation, I’ll take Atlanta in this one.