Magicgames II » The Atlanta Falcons had the taste of victory

touch their lips for the first time in over a month this past Sunday Stitched Logan Paulsen Jersey , with a thrashing of the Arizona Cardinals. After going down 7-0, the Birds strung together a 40-7 run to close out their final home game of the season.The offense was expected to struggle against Arizona’s underrated defense, but they ended up firing on all cylinders (with the exception of Austin Hooper).For the second straight week, the column went a respectable 6/8 in terms of how close the advice was to actual player performance.We’ll try to keep things rolling as fantasy football championship week descends upon us.Matt Ryan - StartOk, last week was my mistake. I doubted Matt Ryan for the first time since Week 1, and he went out there and scored three touchdowns while leading the offense to a tremendous scoring output. I won’t repeat that same mistake again this week.This is a Carolina Panther defense which Ryan gashed for 272 passing yards and four total touchdowns in Week 2. Yes, they did just shut down Drew Brees on Monday night, but Brees has been well below average in every game of New Orleans’ three game road trip which concluded in Charlotte (averaging 177 passing yards and having a TD/INT ratio of 2/3 over the course of those three games).Even with the great performance on Monday, the Panthers defense still gives up the eighth-most fantasy points per game to opposing QBs. Roll with Matt Ryan on your way to a fantasy title.Tevin Coleman - StartTevin Coleman burned me when I suggested to sit him last weekend — he had 145 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, and flashed his big play ability with two runs of over 40 yards — and the opportunity is there for him to put up a big performance again this week.While the Panthers do rank in the top 10 in fewest fantasy points allowed against opposing fantasy running backs, they’re the same defense that Coleman gashed for 107 rushing yards on 6.7 yards per carry in Week 2.The biggest reason for my faith in Teco this weekend has to do with backup RB Ito Smith being placed on injured reserve following Sunday’s win. That should open the door for Coleman to get as many touches as he can handle, with Brian Hill and Jeremy Langford being the only other healthy RBs on the roster. The opportunity and confidence are there for Coleman to have a big afternoon.Julio Jones - Start (if he plays)Did you know that Julio Jones is already at over 1500 receiving yards with two games left to play? Did you also know that he’s scored six touchdowns in the past seven games? You know where I’m going with this — start Julio, if he plays.If Julio ends up being ruled out, however, then of course you should sit him.Calvin Ridley - SitRidley has hit the rookie wall and has been putting up poor fantasy numbers all too frequently in recent weeks. He’s only put up a performance of 6.0 fantasy points (in standard scoring) or more in one of his last six games, and twice since Week 4.No matter what the defensive matchup is, it’s difficult to place your trust in Ridley with how poorly he’s performed since that hot three-game stretch at the beginning of the season.Mohamed Sanu - StartI trust Sanu in this one a bit more than Ridley, as he’s a veteran player who has experienced going through the grind of a 16-game schedule. The Panthers defense ranks in the top 10 in most points allowed to opposing fantasy WRs. With Ridley struggling Youth Logan Paulsen Jersey , this is the perfect opportunity for Sanu to claim his spot as the number two receiving option next to Julio this weekend (no I don’t mean long term, I mean just for this game).Austin Hooper - StartHooper put up quite a dud, in the form of 0 catches, this past weekend. He was listed as a sit in last week’s column, as the Cardinals were a stingy defense against opposing fantasy TEs coming into the game. Hooper has proven to be more matchup dependent than any other player on the Falcons’ roster.Fortunately for him, the Panthers give up the third-most fantasy points to opposing TEs, so that sets the stage for the Stanford product to have a nice bounce-back game. Moreover, he had 59 yards and a touchdown against Carolina in Week 2, in what was one of his best stat-lines of the season.Matt Bryant - StartAtlanta’s offense is expected to be firing against what could be a downtrodden Panther defense that just had almost all of its playoff hopes evaporate, at the hands of the Saints on Monday night.That’s good news for Matt Bryant, who’s been excellent once again this season (just one missed FG and two missed XPs all year, with a back injury playing a role in more than one of those). The Falcon offense should frequently find itself in field goal range on Sunday.Atlanta Falcons D/ST - StartLast week was the first time I listed the Falcons defense as a start in this column since Week 1, and they went out and had their strongest performance of the season. This week, they face a Panthers offense which won’t have Cam Newton, and which put up only 7 points against New Orleans.The defense should be able to tee off against Taylor Heinicke. They’re a worthy stream. On Friday, two baseball mainstays released new versions of their existing product. For one, the Miami Marlins, it was the launch of redesigned uniforms Stitched Brandon Fusco Jersey , primary team colors, and logos to better represent the city they represent on the field. The other, New Era, released a limited edition clothing line collaboration with designer Eric Emanuel that reimagines baseball merchandise as resort wear for four MLB teams — the Yankees, Braves, Pirates, and Dodgers. Both releases attempt to do one of the most difficult things for baseball: update some of the most traditional designs in all of sports for a younger audience without coming across as pandering or making a hideous traditional/hip mashup. If executed properly, it would hopefully inject some much needed excitement into the baseball merchandise market — not just the hats and shirts with a different font for the team name or some crystals thrown on the logo that companies currently present as the most creative alternatives for fans to represent their teams. Surprisingly, or if you know the Marlins at all maybe not so surprisingly, New Era pulls this off far better than Miami was able to mostly because they actually pushed the limits of what baseball merchandise can look like whiles the Marlins didn’t go far enough to make the gambit worth it. They played their redesign safe, and ended up with a color scheme that allows people to see what a truly good neon version of their uniforms could look like while not actually delivering that satisfaction. New Era’s collaboration with Emanuel — their first licensed apparel in North America so a big step for the company and their baseball offerings — uses neon pink, green, blue, and orange in simple designs that still feature the traditional logos for each team, just altered. A neon green script “A” for Atlanta on a navy satin hat, a Pirates hoodie and hat combo that takes cues from the Pittsburgh-hailing Wiz Khalifa’s usual look. The goal of the collection was to make apparel that does not lean towards any gender, and it succeeds because of this. That freedom let Emanuel get as far away from the usual color schemes as he wanted without having to abide by an industry’s tendency to market a pink pair of team shorts specifically to women. The Yankees sweatshirts and shorts are neon pink with a navy script logo screen printed on them because he wanted them to look that way, not because they were crafted with a specific fan or fashion lover in mind. For all the fans Youth Brandon Fusco Jersey , and all fashion lovers. And all neon. These designs don’t leave traditional aspects of the four teams behind — every product has the traditional primary or secondary logo featured somewhere — but they move so far away from anything you’d expect out of baseball in every other aspect of the look that it strikes the correct balance between bringing fun to baseball designs and still being a baseball design. Just because you’re wearing neon blue terry cloth shorts doesn’t mean they can’t be an obvious baseball product. In this, New Era found a way to have a lot of fun while still making sure the designs are representing the sport, not ignoring what the sport’s designs have to offer completely. After years of companies trying to broaden designs and make them more “hip” or “fun” to accommodate more female or casual fans, these succeed because it seems the designs came first and they’re so enjoyable it only makes sense that fans from all walks will follow. The Marlins, on the other hand, clearly had a good idea in mind. The new team logo isn’t bad! The jumping fish stays, in a less abstract form than the previous design, and the script is clean and appealing. The neon pink and blue are in line with the “Miami Vice” look that fellow Miami team the Heat have embraced with their city uniforms and court design — both of which are as universally loved as an alternate uniform can probably be. Yet with this neon plan, Miami didn’t go nearly far enough. The new look is being rolled out with flashy videos and an #OurColores slogan, a blatant attempt to get the local fans more involved by embracing what makes Miami special. This is a goal Jeter has outlined in every version of his plan to turn the team around — get locals attached to the team and fill more seats. Through that lens, the effort was there. The campaign comes across as sincere and only a little pandering, and it does represent Miami in a way. But that way is further from the Heat’s unimpeachable success and close to watching a Florida sunset after taking a triple dose of Nyquil. Miam-eh Vice. The redesign’s accompanying video has multiple shots of neon lights and signs throughout Miami, but then the uniform falls short of matching that same spirit. Apart from the blue alternate uniform — which is the best thing from this relaunch — the energy that should be emanating from these uniforms is just not there. They nailed the colors and then didn’t commit to using them other than in token touches in the logo. It’s closer to a botched gender reveal than a celebration of the city’s color and reputation. Surely this stemmed from a desire to balance the style of younger fans more open to change with the preferences of the fans who have somehow kept their allegiance to the team over two decades of mostly losing seasons. But by splitting the difference, the team ended up with something that exemplifies neither. Instead of saying “let’s just go for it and hope enough of the fanbase loves us trying something different” they went for a half measure that can barely be classified as neon. Incorporating new color schemes far from the traditional palette of baseball is hard, especially something that doesn’t appear naturally in uniforms like true neon colors of this ilk. But New Era cracked the code by fully committing and not letting baseball’s tradition limit them, but simply touch on the new and colorful direction. The Marlins had one eye on tradition while designing the new logo and it shows. For a team so set on reinventing themselves in the hopes of turning the franchise around they didn’t go far enough towards the new. And it ended with only a hint at what could have been in a bright, neon-speckled city instead of an awesome new uniform unlike anything baseball has tried before.