When the Falcons face the Colts, you would not expect to be more worried about their running game than their air attack. But with Marvin Harrison, Anthony Moorhead and potentially Anthony Gonzalez out, the Colts passing game is pretty banged up while Joseph Addai has been running wild all season.And the Falcons' defensive line is even more banged up than the Colts receivers. The Falcons placed starting defensive tackles Trey Lewis and Rod Coleman on injured reserve yesterday. Throw in Bobby Petrino's stupid decision to waive starting tackle Grady Jackson last month and the Falcons will go into the rest of the season with their No. 4 and No. 5 defensive tackles, Montavious Staley and Jonathan Babineaux as the starters and street free agents as the backups.
Against the Bucs it was pretty apparent that the Falcons' front four wore down as the game went along. Earnest Graham and the Bucs rushed for less than 50 yards in the first half, but nearly 100 in the second half, including a long touchdown run and more disconcertingly a lot of five, six and seven yard gains.
So expect to see lot of Addai running wild on Thursday night. DeAngelo Hall might be able to help slow down Reggie Wayne and the Colts passing game, but it's going to be hard for the Falcons to stop the Colts offense in general.
