Why Sunday's Match-Up Depends On the Defense

So now that it's actually the regular season, we can talk about the players, since they'll be... gasp, playing the full game instead of giving way to backups before they've hardly worked up a sweat. And what better way to start than by continuing to look at tomorrow's matchup.

Thursday's season opener was all offense, all the time. And Atlanta hopes that theme continues when the Bears take them on at noon. Most of the focus that I've seen centers on the Bears having to match points with the Falcons, but that's not how I see the game. Follow me past the jump and I'll tell you what I think.

When I first was doing this post, I was going to do the hack bit of "the difference maker," and my first thoughts kept floating to Matt Forte... but my second thoughts went towards Tim Jennings against Julio Jones and how well the defense has usually kept the known weapons of Roddy White, Michael Turner and Tony Gonzalez at bay. The offense as a whole is saying the right things about being able to put up as many points as they need to to win the game, but early in the season, reducing the number of points needed to win makes the offense's job that much easier, especially when said team's offense, despite having several good games last season, is largely unproven.

So what do you guys think? Does the offense have to set the tone against Atlanta or does the defense?