Falcons Look to Clinch Home Field Advantage [Saturday Night Football Live Thread]

Tonight is a Monday Night football special played on Saturday night. Figure that one out. Tonight's matchup pits the Atlanta Falcons and the Detroit Lions. While still no one believes in the Falcons come playoff time, their calculus for the regular season is simple: with another win, they will clinch the #1 seed in the NFC playoffs, and with it home field advantage throughout. In theory, wrapping that up tonight shouldn't be an issue given the Lions' freefall over the past few weeks.

Not everyone has noticed given the other disasters populating the league, but Detroit has quietly gone 4-10, with the nadir being last week's loss to Arizona. Questions are abound about Matthew Stafford's progress and Jim Schwartz's future with the team. The one plus on Detroit this year is Calvin Johnson. Megatron comes into tonight's game with 1677 receiving yards, just 182 off the record for yards in a season, set by who else? Jerry Rice. If nothing else, that gives us something to watch for on the Detroit side.

If the rest of the Lions has shown any evidence they could keep up, then maybe they could pull off the upset, but it's unlikely as long as the Falcons show up. Of course, you have to play the game. Kickoff is around 8:30, or whenever ESPN decides to give its talking heads a rest.

Q it up here throughout the game.