Falcons, Dolphins Set for Matchup We Haven't Seen in Almost 20 Years

In their quest to become a playoff team for the first time in nearly a decade, it's easy to underline the importance of the Atlanta Falcons’ divisional matchups. However, a 5-1 divisional record wasn’t enough to get the Falcons to the playoffs in 2024.

Even the lone loss to the Carolina Panthers was rendered moot in the season’s final week, as the Falcons had been eliminated from the playoffs by the time the final gun sounded.  

The Falcons dive straight into things in Week 1 when the reigning NFC South Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to town.

Far-flung Falcons fans in particular are also bound to be buzzing that their team will feature in a marquee international game on German soil this season, but this year's trip to Berlin means the air miles will significantly pile up.

In fairness, you don't have to dig that deep through the Falcons' slate of games to find plenty of intriguing subplots from start to finish.

Week 8 vs the Miami Dolphins could offer up a rare quarterback head-to-head battle, when a pair of lefties in Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa face off.

Question marks remain, however, especially when you factor in the troubling injury history of the Fins' starting passer, so it's no gimme that Tagovailoa will still be in uniform come Week 8.

But if Tagovailoa is available, he has an impressive  38 - 24 record as a starter in this league. All told, that's enough games under his belt to give the Dolphins an edge at the quarterback position that they lack when he’s not available. 

Quite astonishingly, we haven't seen a contest between a pair of lefties since former Falcons legend Michael Vick locked horns with fellow southpaw Chris Simms way back in 2006.