I wasn’t overly impressed with the Atlanta Falcons or the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints last night as they battled on Monday night football in what turned out to be a 17-14 Saints victory. These are two teams the Eagles might have to face on their way to the Super Bowl.
We found out that Atlanta isn’t as unbeatable in the Georgia Dome as has been reported.
I thought the Falcons defense played well. They scored one touchdown on an interception by defensive end Chauncey Davis and forced Drew Brees into another mistake which resulted in another interception by defensive end John Abraham. I’ve never seen two defensive ends get interceptions on consecutive series.
The Falcons were blitzing the entire game and this is a tape which is going to be observed closely by future Saints opponents. The New Orleans blitz pickup was unsure and the Falcons had plenty of shots at Brees. They could have had at least four additional sacks of him if they had taken him down when they got their hands on him.
On the offensive side, Matt Ryan and the Atlanta offense were steady but not explosive. He was only able to throw for 148 yards as he completed 15 of 29 passes with one touchdown. He didn’t have a great deal of pass rush pressure on him but the Falcons offense still could only score once against the Saints.
Ryan was able to stay away from any interceptions but he couldn’t connect on big throws downfield.
Running back Michael Turner never got going as he ran for only 48 yards on 17 carries. Quick penetrating defenses seem to give him problems. New Orleans got into the backfield, forced him to run toward the sidelines and he wasn’t able to utilize his size and power.
I saw the same struggling Falcons offense, which the Eagles shut down earlier in the season. Wide receiver Roddy White and tight end Tony Gonzalez will be trouble for the Birds, but absence of the running game, Ryan can’t keep up with the Birds explosive offense.
As for New Orleans, Brees and the Saints offense don’t seem to be clicking like they were a year ago. One of the reasons is injuries. Reggie Bush has missed most of the season with a broken fibula and nearly all of Brees’ top receivers have been banged up or missed a game or two.
New Orleans is still potent offensively but surprisingly Brees has been mistake-prone. He was 35-49 on the night for 302 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Despite his mistakes, Brees completed 71 percent of his throws which is impressive.
He has thrown 20 interceptions this year. His decision-making hasn’t been at the level that it was in their Super Bowl year. In fact at times, he has been erratic and made costly mistakes for his football team, as we saw last night.
The New Orleans running game has struggled for most of the year. Pierre Thomas the top rusher on the Super Bowl team is just getting back on the field after an ankle injury. Thomas made some strong runs last night as he ran for 63 yards on 19 carries. He also caught seven passes for 39 yards.
If New Orleans is able to run the football, then it will be more difficult to deal with Brees. Were Thomas and Bush able to get into a groove before the playoffs start, then the Saints will be a challenge for opposing defenses.
The New Orleans defense is steady but not dominant. They were intent last night on not giving up the big play and they were able to control the Ryan and White connection. I thought the Saints got a major break last night when the Falcons turned the ball over.
Atlanta cost themselves a score when they fumbled on the goalline and they handed the Saints a short drive when they fumbled on their own twenty-yard line.
The goalline play was a good one by the Saints defense but the fumble which set up a New Orleans touchdown was a gift by the Falcons. Their center dribbled the ball back to Ryan and New Orleans was able to recover it.
I think the Birds match up well against Atlanta. There’s a good reason the Birds torched them earlier in the season.
If the Eagles shut down the Falcons running game the Atlanta offense will sputter. Ryan can’t carry that offense without Turner having a big day. The Eagles defense has shown they can stop Atlanta’s big back.
If the Birds offense scores the way they’re capable of doing, I don’t see the Falcons offense being able to keep up.
I would be more concerned for the Birds against the Saints because the Eagles secondary could be torched by Brees. Hopefully the Eagles would be able to employ the same blitzing strategy which was used by the Falcons, but I suspect that the Saints will have corrected the holes in their blitz pickup by then.
The Birds would have no trouble scoring versus the New Orleans defense but I suspect the Saints would also put some points on the board. I could see it being a shoot out.
Bottomline, the Eagles can beat either of these football teams if they face them in the playoffs, but I feel more confident in the Birds over the Falcons as compared to them versus the Saints.
The good thing about it is that we will get them outdoors at the Linc. Come January I believe that cold weather will play a part.
*clap* *clap* A journalist that cares about what he writes. I applaud GCobb.
I knew you’d be here Birdo. Looks like G listened to you and KTDawk. And that’s a good thing that shows he does care about the quality of the site. Good look G.
I was not overly impressed with either team, though both Teams Defenses tackled and covered better
than I thought… Drew Brees didn’t have that great of a game either, He underthrew a wide open
Lance Moore by 5 yeards whcih cost them a TD, the Falcons put a lot of pressure on him and should have sacked him 2-3 times in which the Defensers flat out missed him on…
If the Eagles Offense plays to it’s abilities and doesn’t turn over the ball, They should be able to beat
anyone in the NFC, the biggest cahllenged I believe will be from the the Packers who probably have the best Secondary in the NFC right now, with the Bears a close 2nd…
It’s the Eagles to lose in my opinion and they should be able to march on if they play their game..
If the Eagles don’t blow this Viking team off the field and beat them by 30 points, then Coach AR
should be fired and replaced immediately by Gov Ed Rendell to straighten out these “wussies”
hahaha pman. this is off topic but do you guys remember when someone (pretty sure it was GCobb) made the Vick to Steve Young comparison. I thought it was ridiculous but how about now. Remarkable the foresight, nice work G. At the least this can drive some convo/debate. Lets kill it tonight and stay healthy for the playoff run, go birds enjoy the game guys.
To KT Dawk,
I remember that Article well and most of us (myself included) were bustin’ on the G-man…
But he was spot on.. I think President Obama should bring G-Man to Washington DC and help get this Economy moving and growing again… He can be nick-named the “Czar of the Economy”
I’m not as worried about the Saints as a lot of people, largely because if we see them, it will be in our house. A lot of their advantage is raw speed, and we match up very well with them – in fact, we’re the faster team. There are always factors in that, of course, but we’re much better built to adjust to weather elements than the Saints are. Also, our D is doing better in the turnover/sack battle than the Saints have been doing this year.
The Falcons will be challenging, but their conservative/balance defense has already fallen apart once when we took away one of their facets, and I don’t see how those stripes would change at this point in the season.
As I’ve previously posted, I’d rather we not have to play – in order – the Giants, Packers, and Bears. I’m of the opinion that we can handle the Bears and Packers, but I’m a little supersitious about facing the Giants again after we took one from them two weeks ago. It’s just that – superstion – not really grounded in matchup fears or anything football wise.
The Giants, quite frankly, have not played a full game like a playoff team in two weeks, and are playing the Redskins at the wrong time (yup, I just said that). Of course, that’s like playing the Verona All Girls Choir at the wrong time, so I don’t read much into it.
If the Packers were the same roster that they were at the start of the year, then I’d be a little more scared of them. I’m hoping that they win next week, because the Pack and the Bears would beat the crap out of each other the following week. Think of how Dallas played a rested Minny after their two weeks of beating the tar out of us last year: it had obviously taken a toll.