Doing the numbers, unweighted I have San Francisco by 1.8 (so 2), weighted I have Atlanta by 0.2. Things to factor in, San Francisco are traveling over 2000 miles, the game is the early game and there is the issue of familiarity which I believes counts for something. The previous games the 49ers played in Atlanta were 2010, and 2007. Both were early games and both of them they lost. Previous game before that was 2001 when Garcia and Owens were playing for them. For most of the squad it will be their third time at most playing in the Georgia Dome. I feel the traveling, time zone issue and familiarity is enough to wipe out a 2 point margin despite the Georgia Dome being just an average Home Field Advantage (I have it marginally below average over 6 years at 0.49 points below the league average for the same period and 17th overall). Ultimately I feel it will come down to some of the intangibles on the field that Chase mentions above. I expect the Falcons will try and take away some of the edge to try and limit runs by Kapernick given their noted weaknesses with mobile QB’s. This I think opens up the middle for Frank Gore and LaMichael James (dependent on the reads obviously). If they can set-up play action off of that it could be over early. I also agree with the point that the 49ers run defense should make the Falcons one-dimensional. On ranking terms the 49ers played the tougher schedule, had the better offense and the better defense (and whilst you could argue the same applied to the Seahawks last week I think a lot of things caught up with them including the traveling of which they would have had 4000+ miles extra during the playoff by going to Washington).

Thanks for the comment, Shawn. Was able to update the post with the accurate information.