TNF: Falcons keep the one seed in sights; Saints fall out of the picture

With their 23-13 victory over the Saints, the Falcons keep the inside track on clinching the number one seed in the NFL, while they all but eliminate the New Orleans Saints,who essentially fall out of the playoff-picture, much to the enjoyment of many nervous Atlanta Falcon fans.  The Falcons were able to find some sort of redemption on the Saints, who snapped their undefeated bid just a few weeks ago, by beating the Saints, and essentially eliminating them from playoff contention, as well as putting a halt to Drew Brees touchdown record. While the Atlanta Falcons would score the first 17 points, and not find the end zone for the rest of the game, the New Orleans Saints would drive the ball up and down the field, but left too many points on the board, with the obvious stat being the five interceptions thrown by quarterback Drew Brees, and the obvious instance being having the clock run out on them on the three yard line to end the first half. Matt Ryan’s day could be summed up by the first drive.  On his first pass attempt, he would get knocked into, the ball bobbling in the air, and instead of the sprinting Malcolm Jenkins picking it off, Tony Gonzalez was able to wrestle it from him.  The Falcons would run it down the Saints for the rest of the drive, with Michael Turner punching it in to the end zone for the score.  Ryan would get picked up by his teammates today. His numbers weren’t bad, but the team found itself in a similar position as it did the last time these two faced off, as Ryan would fail to get the Falcons into the end zone on a first and goal from the 4-yard line in the second half.  The Falcons would also have to settle for a 55-yard field goal kick that Matt Bryant would boot in, giving the Falcons a two possession lead after the Saints had charged back into the game.  The Falcons would turn the five Drew Brees interceptions into a mere 6 points. But all that didn’t matter, as the New Orleans Saints played a game that might have been a microcosm for their season.  After getting pummeled early, the Saints looked really good in spurts, going 80 yards for a touchdown drive to cut the Falcons lead to 10 in the second quarter.  Shutting down the Falcons’ on their subsequent possession, they got another good drive going, but after Darren Sproiles got tackled on the 3-yard line with no timeouts, Brees would not be able to spike the ball in time, resulting in the Saints coming up empty handed before the half, instead of making it a one possession game.  Trying to do too much with too little may sum up the Saints’ season. Brees looked like he could have used a full week to prepare after being hounded and harassed all of last Sunday by the San Francisco 49ers.  While the defense stepped up, the Saints were not able to overcome having a -4 turnover differential. So a week after seeing some good football on Thanksgiving Day we seem to have returned to the sloppy football that the added Thursday Night games bring us. The new Thursday night games have had the road teams go a dismal 3-8. Nonetheless, the Atlanta Falcons will take this win, and hope that beating a New Orleans Saints team that is responsible for 3 of the 4 losses at home that Matt Ryan has ever had in the regular season, is the first step toward conquering their playoff struggles.  Meanwhile the New Orleans Saints road doesn’t get any easier, as they will head to New York next week to face the Giants.  The only chance they have to make it to the playoffs now is to win out and hope for some pieces to fall into place.  And we will have to wait until next year to find out if this is a passing of the baton, or a one-year reprieve for dem Saints. The post TNF: Falcons keep the one seed in sights; Saints fall out of the picture appeared first on Bay Area Sports Nut.