Madden Curse? What Madden Curse? Calvin Johnson Chasing History vs. Falcons on Saturday Night

Tonight's Monday Night Football game is being played on Saturday night (since Monday is Christmas eve), and it's a huge match-up for two reasons. 1) Atlanta is chasing the No. 1 seed in the NFC postseason. 2) Calvin Johnson Jr. is chasing down Jerry Rice's coveted receiving record.

Sure, a win for the 12-2 Falcons would clinch a first round bye and the No. 1 seed in the postseason. But I'm more intrigued by watching the Detroit Lions' (4-10) wideout Calvin Johnson Jr. possibly break Jerry Rice's single-season receiving yards record.

With 1,667 yards through 14 games this season, the sixth year pro Johnson is just 15 yards away from setting a career-high of 1,681 yards, which he set last season in his monstrous breakout year that landed him the coveted Madden cover for the 2013 video game.

But more importantly, Johnson Jr. finds himself just 182 yards away from breaking Rice's record of 1,848 yards for the 49ers in 1995. Johnson set career-highs in receptions (96), yards and TDs (16) last season, but has already broken that mark in receptions (106 through 14 games) and is about to break his career-high in yards tonight as well.

Clearly out of the playoff hunt with a 4-10 record out of the NFC North, Johnson's record chase seems to be all that the Lions' have left to fight for this season, so there's no doubt Matt Stafford will be gunning for him. And the Falcons secondary will be paying extra attention––well, obviously a guy of Johnson's talent will be double-teamed whether there's a record in reach or not.

In the midst of all these young quarterbacks that have entered the spotlight this season, it's refreshing to see records such as single-season receiving yards, rushing yards and sacks in reach of being broken all within the same season.

Both San Fran's defensive end Aldon Smith and Houston's J.J. Watt are at 19.5 sacks this season and are just 3.5 shy of breaking Michael Strahan's single-season record of 22.5 with two games to play. There will be more on that particular record tomorrow morning. For now, enjoy tonight's game!

All-Out Blitz's prediction: Falcons win 35-21, and Calvin Johnson inches closer to Rice's record with 125 yards and a TD.

Note: We do not own the above images. No copyright infringement intended.

Dallas Looking to Make Statement Saturday Night vs. Tampa Bay

On the verge of falling out of the NFC playoff picture, the Atlanta Falcons got back in the thick of things with a convincing 41-14 Thursday night win over the struggling Jaguars, improving to 9-5 on the season.

Tonight, in the season's first Saturday night matchup, the Dallas Cowboys are looking to make a similar statement on the road against the 4-9 Buccaneers.

Tony Romo, as we are all well-aware, has a history of falling apart in the month of December. This year has been no exception as his 'Boys are riding a two-game losing streak with back-to-back defeats to Arizona and NFC East counterpart Giants.

Sitting at 7-6 (2-4 on the road), Dallas is tied atop the East with the Giants–well, not quite, New York owns the tiebreaker. So if Jason Garrett expects to make a playoff push they will need to win out, including a victory over New York (Week 17) to clinch the division.

Over the last two weeks, Romo has played great according to the box score. He hasn't turned the ball over and threw for a combined 620 yards and five touchdowns, but did not receive much help from the rest of his team.

Against Arizona, Dallas averaged under four yards per carry (75 yards on 20 carries) and allowed five sacks of Romo. Against New York, the offense did its job in putting up 34 points on the board, but the defense struggled to put pressure on Eli Manning up front and allowed 400 yards through the air as well as 37 points. New York scored 15 points in the final three minutes of the game to complete a late 12-point comeback.

I've heard numerous arguments against Romo over this two-game stretch and I don't quite understand how you can solely put the blame on him. Yes, I would agree to a certain extent that he doesn't always show the strongest leadership abilities on the field, but he orchestrated two quick scoring drives late in the game–one from 80 yards, and one from 49. Dan Bailey missed what would have been a game-tying 51 yard field goal with under a minute to play to end the game for Dallas' offense.

How can this possibly mean Romo is to blame for Dallas' two-game skid? He has played near-perfect football, protecting the ball and getting his offense in the end zone time after time while his defense gives up 56 points over that span.

Even just "looking at the box score" would do Romo justice. You can avoid actually watching the game and instead checking the numbers and you can basically get the whole story. Now, I'm not saying that's what I did, because I did actually watch him play. I'm just saying the box score explains everything and it's tough to argue against his four-touchdown, 321 yard, 141.3 QBR game against New York.

As for tonight against Tampa Bay, I don't think he'd have any trouble continuing his recent success through the air. Tampa Bay is ranked 27th against the pass in terms of yardage, in the bottom five in rushing yards allowed and has allowed the most (19) touchdowns on the ground as well. So even without rookie DeMarco Murray the 'Boys are expected to have great success on the ground tonight. Felix Jones racked up 106 yards against NY last week, and I would expect a heavy dosage again tonight.

This means it will be tough for Tampa to make Dallas' offense one-dimensional. Big day offensively for the Cowboys, I can feel it.

My Prediction: Dallas 31, Tampa Bay 10

Photo credit

Tony Romo: Tom Pennington/Getty Images

LeGarrette Blount: Grant Halverson/Getty Images