The game: Atlanta at New Orleans (+3)
The Falcons get the chance to continue their roll against the hapless Saints on Thursday Night Football. The Falcons have bounced back from being the best worst team of last season and the Saints have done their best to claim that title this year.
The History
The rivalry between these two NFC South teams predates the NFC South. From 1970 to 2002, both teams were in the NFC West of all place and faced off twice a year every year. Before that they met twice in 1967 and 1969. The Saints won that 1967 game 27-24.
The Falcons lead the series 49-43 and has won the last two contests, a 30-14 win last December and a 37-34 overtime win Sept. 2014.
The Saints last victory over the falcons was a 23-17 win in Nov. 2013.
The two teams are deliver perennial prime time match ups. They’ve met on Monday Night Football six times and on Thursday night three times, including an pre-TNF game back in 1992.
From Sept. 1995 to Dec. 1999 the Falcons beat the Saints 11 consecutive times, with the Saints breaking the streak on Oct. 22, 2000.
The longest Saints win streak over the Falcons was from Dec. 2986 to Nov. 1989 when New Orleans won six games in a row.
The Falcons on Offense
Matt Ryan leads one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL to New Orleans, but few of his weapons come into the game healthy. Julio Jones is nursing a sore hamstring, No. 3 wideout Leonard Hankerson has injured ribs and fantasy football’s new anointed superstar Devonta Freeman has an injured toe. Ryan still has plenty of weapons to distribute the ball to even with those guys dinged up with Roddy White itching for a break-out performance. Rookie running back Tevin Coleman should also make the most of his return to the starting backfield.
The Saints on Offense
Regardless of what goes wrong for the Saints, they still have Drew Brees at quarterback and that’s something. What they haven’t had is the breakout season they expected from pretty much any of their other offensive players. Willie Snead has been a nice surprise in the passing game, catching 33 passes for 381 yards and a touchdown, but that’s part of the problem. No Saints wideout has more than one touchdown and Marques Colston has been all but invisible this season so far. Trailing so often, New Orleans has a tough time getting one of its best offensive weapons, running back Mark Ingram, who’s been effective but is just averaging 52.2 yards per game.
The Falcons on Defense
Dan Quinn was hired to make the Falcons tougher and better on defense and it took him all of a single offseason to do it. New starters all over and an emphasis on tackling and solid defense over pretty stats has created a solid unit across the board. Atlanta’s defense doesn’t have to shut any team down, just slow them down enough for their offense to run over them. Even saying that, third-year linebacker Paul Worrilow has secretly been one of the best players in the league at his position for years and is heading for another triple-digit tackle season. He may be joined at that mark by safety William Moore, who Quinn morphed from a solid starter to a potential superstar.
The Saints on Defense
The Saints have invested a lot of free agent money and a lot of draft picks to field one of the more mediocre defensive units in football. Much of the blame falls to the feet of defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, who can’t see the blame past his own belly. Three of the top four tacklers on New Orleans’ defense are defensive backs which means the line and linebackers aren’t getting the job done up front. Every linebacker except rookie second-round pick Hau’oli Kikaha who not only is playing hard for a defensive rookie of the year nod, but a possible Pro Bowl berth with his 27 tackles and three sacks.
The pick: The Saints have some talent, but their problems this year don’t seem fixable. They’re helped by a hobbled Atlanta team, but I still don’t see the Falcons stumbling against New Orleans. Falcons 23, Saints 20
