The Atlanta Falcons are flying across the pond this upcoming season. On Thursday evening, the team announced that they would serve as a home team in an October game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the league’s International Series. The opponent and exact date have yet to be revealed, but the Falcons are officially locked in as the “home” team.
While we don’t know the opponent just yet, we can narrow the team down to a few options. Apart from the Falcons’ divisional rivals, Atlanta’s home opponents in 2021 include the Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Football Team, according to NFL.com.
What’s unfortunate about this development is that the Falcons will indeed lose a home game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium despite the fact that the NFL added an extra regular-season game to make it 17 total games. All teams will rotate in having nine home games as opposed to eight, and the NFC teams are the ones who are going to start off with having eight. This means that the Falcons will have seven games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, one in London and nine on the road in 2021.
The NFL has been playing games in London since 2007, and the Falcons had one matchup against the Lions in England back in 2014. Sadly, it was another game in which the Falcons suffered a historic collapse, as they blew a 21-0 lead to lose 22-21.