Falcons to face Packers at Dome in NFC championship game
The calculations for the Falcons regarding their potential NFC championship seemed simple. Take on Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the Georgia Dome? Or go to Dallas to face the top seed and its star rookies?
Yet the answer didn’t seem obvious. After the Falcons beat the Seahawks at the Dome Saturday, coach Dan Quinn said he wasn’t sure if he’d pull for the Packers, although he wanted a home game “for the fans.”
“Past that, the coaching side of me and the matchups, I’ll have to go in and find that out,” Quinn said after the 36-20 NFC divisional round victory over Seattle.
It turns out Quinn’s focus will be on the Packers. And it’s possible that, even on the road, they are the tougher foe for the NFC championship. Rodgers, a two-time league MVP, carried the Packers to a last-second 34-31 victory at the Cowboys on Sunday in an NFC divisional playoff game.
The NFC championship game is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. on Sunday at the Georgia Dome. As of Sunday night, the Ticketmaster web site indicated that only single seats were available for sale. A Falcons spokesman had no immediate update on additional ticket availability for the game.
The game will feature Rodgers against Falcons counterpart Matt Ryan. Rodgers rallied the Packers to victory at Dallas with a 35-yard pass to North Gwinnett High’s Jared Cook on third-and-20. That set up Mason Crosby’s game-winning 51-yard field goal as time expired.
The Cowboys had come back from a…