At 6-8 and third place in the NFC South, the Atlanta Falcons are firmly in must-win territory when the Indianapolis Colts are at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Falcons will host the Colts with Taylor Heinicke set to start at quarterback after Desmond Ridder was benched for the second time this season.

After two straight losses, head coach Arthur Smith knows his team's chances to advance to the postseason are not great. But more importantly, he knows that Week 16 has to be a victory.

“It certainly doesn’t hurt you,” Smith said about the Los Angeles Rams helping out with a win over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's D. Orlando Ledbetter. “But our focus is nothing matters if we don’t beat Indianapolis.”

It will likely take three straight Falcons wins over the Colts, Chicago Bears and Saints to advance, and this Atlanta team has not won three consecutive games at any time during Smith's tenure. But the team knows what's at stake.

“Winning and letting everybody know that we still can win,” Falcons outside linebacker Bud Dupree explained, per Ledbetter.

“Go around here making these plays, continue to grow. Continue to press. Have a lot of energy. Have a lot of enthusiasm. Come in and turn the Benz stadium upside down. It’s frustrating to lose period. No matter what the situation is. How you lose the game,  it’s frustrating to lose. At the end of the day, everybody wants to win. The name of the game is winning.”

Colts are on fire

Colts' Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman Jr.

It'll be a tough battle for the Falcons against an 8-6 Colts team that has won five of its past six and has its sights set on capturing the AFC South title.

“That’s the Colts, though,” Dupree continued. “That’s the type of game that they play. They are going to run the ball. They are going to be physical. They are going to try to play bully-ball. That’s just how the Colts have been since I’ve been in the NFL.”

The Atlanta Falcons currently have an 11 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to The New York Times' playoff predictor. But the team knows how important Sunday is, and Arthur Smith's squad should bring one of their best efforts of the season to the crucial matchup.