Just one week after righting the ship at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were challenging New Orleans for the lead in the NFC South, the Saints must now travel to Atlanta to take on the also-improving Falcons for the same right to sole possession of first place in the division. At 5-3, the Falcons look to overtake the Saints, currently a half-game ahead of them at 6-3, this weekend with a home victory in the Georgia Dome.
Head Coach Sean Payton broke out the bats to have the team “Bring the Wood“ just in time to invoke a victory against the Buccaneers this past Sunday. They might as well go ahead and keep those bats in hand for this trip to Atlanta with it being the biggest game to determine dominance in the division that New Orleans will have played yet this season. The outcome of the contest between the Saints and the Falcons this Sunday afternoon could easily help to decide who gains an advantage over whom come playoff-time this year.
The Atlanta Falcons, winners of their last three games in a row, look to become the first team in the history of the NFC South to win back-to-back division titles this season. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints will seek to reverse division dominance back to its former home in the Big Easy where it resided in 2009 when they also went on to claim the Super Bowl title in 2010.
This will be the first of two regular season match-ups between these NFC South juggernauts this season, with the second coming up again the day after Christmas in the Crescent City. The Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints split the series last year, with each team winning on the other’s home field. Animosity between these two clubs was intensified late last season, on December 27, 2010, as several Saints‘ players posed for pictures on the Falcons‘ crest at midfield after their 17-14 victory over Atlanta in the Georgia Dome. Though they later said that they were just taking back some fond memories of the win and meant no disrespect in the gesture, Falcons players certainly thought otherwise and will surely want to exact some form of revenge this time around.
The all-time head-to-head series between these two teams currently stands at 45-38 in favor of the Atlanta Falcons, with New Orleans also trailing in post-season meetings by the margin of 0-1. After a string of Falcons sweeps over New Orleans in the series from 1995 through 1999, the Saints have been working on evening the overall score, from 2000 on, to the tune of a 14-8 advantage over Atlanta for the past 11 years.
The last time Atlanta swept the Saints was in 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina. Of course, New Orleans would get revenge on the Falcons with sweeps in 2006 and 2007, split the series in 2008 and then sweep them again in 2009 on their way to winning Super Bowl XLIV in Miami over the Indianapolis Colts.
For the first meeting between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons in 2011, both teams appear to be playing their best football of the season thus far. Quarterbacks for both squads come into this match-up in fine form and set the stage for a potential dome-style shoot-out.
At the same time, they can each also boast having successful running games to boot. Saints RB’s Pierre Thomas 23, Darren Sproles 43 and Chris Ivory 29 (with Mark Ingram 28 temporarily sidelined with a bruised heel) have re-established a solid rushing attack to compliment Drew Brees and his potent aerial assault for the Black and Gold, while Michael Turner and Jacquizz Rodgers are handling the running duties for the Dirty Birds quite effectively as well. The Saints, ranked 6th in the league for total rushing yards gained, are averaging 4.7 yards per carry on the ground while gaining 126 yards a game. Atlanta ranks 14th in rushing yards with an average of 4.3 yards per run and an average of 119 yards per contest.
While the injured Mark Ingram still leads the New Orleans Saints in the rushing department, Pierre Thomas is coming on like the stud that he was on the team’s Super Bowl run of ’09. Darren Sproles is providing yet another very productive weapon out of the backfield and Chris Ivory is warming up to add even more balance to an already potent offensive unit for New Orleans.
Defensively, the teams are just about dead even with the Falcons ranked 14th in the league while giving up 341.8 yards per game and New Orleans ranked right behind them at 15th and surrendering 348.1 ypg.
Whoever can play the most complete game in all facets will undoubtedly come away with the victory here. Look for both of these teams to try and out-balance the other in this Sunday’s divisional grudge-match. As is always expected of these NFC South contests, you can count on this to be a close one to the very last whistle.
My final score prediction is New Orleans Saints 34, Atlanta Falcons 30.
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Saints News:
DE Greg Romeus 79 returns to the practice field off the Reserve/Non Football Injury list this week as indicated by this report (read the whole story as reported on NOLA.com by clicking the link) from Mike Triplett of The Times-Picayune.
Also, while Mark Ingram returned to practice in Wednesday, some other new faces were absent from the practice field following the victory over the Bucs this past Sunday. Read the full report entitled “New Orleans Saints injury report grows from last week“ also from Mike Triplett of The Times-Picayune here.
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Saints Inactives: LB Jonathan Vilma 51, RB Chris Ivory 29, DE Turk McBride 90, DB Patrick Robinson 21, FB Kory Hall 35, OT Ray Willis 67, WR Adrian Arrington 87
Falcons Inactives: William Moore, Darrin Walls, Spencer Adkins, Brett Romberg, Sam Baker, Carlton Powell, Cliff Matthews
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Get a New Orleans Saints 2011 Schedule for your desktop wallpaper here: http://isportsweb.com/2011/06/24/orleans-saints-2011-schedule/
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