Welcome everyone to the latest game preview for the New Orleans Saints! This week, we break down the Saints matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.
Last Week: Last week, the New Orleans Saints avoided an upset on Sunday afternoon with a 31-19 win over the New York Jets. The Falcons hung on for dear life on Monday night when a missed field goal from the Bucs as time expired gave Atlanta a 24-21 victory.
Last Meeting: The last time these two teams faced off, the Falcons came out as the victors thanks to a late interception in the endzone courtesy of Deion Jones.
Storylines to Watch:
Must-Win Game: It’s pretty obvious that this is a must-win game for the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. This team showed a lot in terms of not looking past a team like the New York Jets this past Sunday.
However, they weren’t able to put the boots to them early on when they had a lot of the momentum. If they want to get one step closer towards the NFC South crown, there can’t be a quarter like there was in the third quarter against the Jets where they had one total yard in their first three drives. Have that kind of quarter, it’s another loss to a team that has been a pain in the Saints backside for the last several years.
Dome-Field Advantage? When the Saints have played at home the last couple of seasons, the energy hasn’t necessarily been there. It’s justifiable when you look at their performances as of late, but this year has seen a resurgence of sorts of the Dome-Field advantage.
With everything that happened a few weeks ago in that Thursday night game, Who Dat Nation is going to be all kinds of fired up and making a whole lot of noise on Christmas Eve. If that kind of crowd is in there, it’s going to be the Mercedes-Benz Superdome of old and that will help towards making it a place to be feared once again.
Need to Find That Balance Again: After losing Alvin Kamara on that opening drive two weeks ago, the Saints offense has lost the thing that helped make the offense more versatile. The balance between run and pass was a little bit better last Sunday against the Jets, but they were a little gun shy when it came to using the run game with 28 rushing attempts versus 36 passing attempts.
A win can definitely be within reach if the Saints can find that balance again and really pound the ball with both Ingram and Kamara.
New Orleans Will Win If:
The Saints can get one step closer to an NFC South title if they can keep the ball rolling. One of the turning points in the matchup against the Jets was the fact that their offense seemingly took a nap in the third quarter. You do this against a team like Atlanta, it’ll be a loss.
Atlanta Will Win If:
The Falcons can get the win if their defense can duplicate their performance from Thursday night defensively. The Saints have been one of the most consistent performers offensively, but the Falcons kept the Saints run game in check and force Drew Brees to put the team on his back once again.
-Clint Domingue