Week Eight Review-Falcons Find It Tough In The Big Easy

Anyone that watched this game Monday night must admit it was exciting until the end. Both teams came in and played a physical, hard fought game.

The Falcons struck first on the opening possession culminating with a Michael Turner 13 yard touchdown scamper. Turner showed surprising speed to get to the edge for the score.

The Falcons kicked off to the Saints and five and a half minutes later, running back Pierre Thomas scampered in the end zone from 22 yards out. Game tied, the shootout began.

The next Falcons possession they stalled and ended up punting. They downed the ball inside the Saints ten yard line. Two plays later, Falcons safety Thomas DeCoud came in on a delayed blitz rocking Brees and forcing a fumble. The ball was recovered in the end zone by defensive end Kroy Biermann. For the second time in the first quarter, the Falcons took the lead.

The Saints got the ball back and methodically drove downfield, ending their series with an 18 yard touchdown to Marques Colston. The game was tied at 14 with eleven minutes still remaining in the second quarter.

This was the rivalry I expected and wrote about in my pre-game column. These games typically turn into physical battles and this was no disappointment.

On the next possession Turner broke loose a 37 run yard run and put the Falcons into field goal position to take a 17-14 lead. Kicker Jason Elam came out and hit the upright, no good. This is where it became obvious the Falcons were in trouble. They hadn't really stopped Drew Brees and the Saints offense so far so the only way to stay in this game was to produce another big play from the defense.

Ask and ye shall receive.

After Saints running back Pierre Thomas did his best Turner impression and broke loose for 30 yards, Drew Brees took a shot down-field to Devery Henderson. Corner back Brent Grimes, who is 5'8" in stacked shoes, had to vertically leap three feet off the ground to bring in the pass and the big play the Falcons required to stay in control.

With four minutes left in the half, the Falcons went three and out and that was the last time they threatened the Saints in the half. The Saints got the ball back and abused the weak secondary of the Falcons. Drew Brees needed only four passes to go 76 yards down-field and setup a one yard Reggie Bush run.

Up 21-14 with one minute remaining in the half, the Saints were looking forward to going into the half with a touchdown lead. That's when Matt Ryan made one of his mistakes.

Ryan dropped back and tried to force a pass into receiver Roddy White that corner Jabari Greer read perfectly. He stepped in front of White and returned the pass 48 yards putting the Saints up by two scores.

After being tied with four minutes remaining to being down by 14 points going into halftime, it appeared the game was all but won. Wrong...

In the third quarter, the Saints received the kickoff and the Falcons defense forced a three and out. Once the Falcons got the ball, they wasted no time getting back into the game. Ryan aired the ball out to White down-field and Roddy turned it into a 68 yard touchdown.

Suddenly as that, the Falcons were back in the game.

The rest of the third quarter was pretty uneventful. Neither team really gaining any further ground on the other. It was more defensive than the previous two quarters.

The fourth quarter started off with the Falcons marching down field and scoring the game tieing touchdown to Roddy White with 11:36 left in the game. Or did they?

Coach Sean Payton challenged the play and replay showed White allowed the ball the hit the turf. The Falcons had to settle for a field goal and a four point hole. It appeared on the replay White was hit well before the pass reached him but officials didn't throw any flags so it must have been clean. Officials don't make mistakes.

On the ensuing possession, Saints running back Pierre Thomas fumbled after being hit by safety Eric Coleman and the Falcons had the ball right back. Down by four, ten minutes left in the game. This was the momentum the Falcons needed to take the game away from the Saints.

That's why they play the game.

On the third play of the drive, Ryan tossed a ball at Tony Gonzalez from the Saints 11 yard line that was tipped by linebacker Jonathan Vilma resulting in a second interception for Jabari Greer.

With ball in hand, the Saints marched downfield and milked the clock down to three minutes before scoring on a one yard touchdown by Pierre Thomas. That effectively put the Saints up by two scores and the game too far out of reach for the Falcons.

Once again, that's why they play the game.

The Falcons couldn't manage anything on the next series. They turned the ball over on downs with less than two minutes to play. But the Saints realized the Falcons had a time out left so they couldn't just kneel the ball to kill the clock. They rushed Thomas to drain as much of the clock as possible.

On third and ten back-up running back Mike Bell met a wall at the line of scrimmage and reserve linebacker Coy Wire stripped him and gave the Falcons life again. Down by eleven, the Falcons needed two scores with no time outs remaining.

The Falcons drove the ball quickly down-field to the Saints 22 yard line and kicked a field goal leaving 31 seconds on the clock. Out came the on-sides kick unit and the Falcons rolled the dice. After a possession saving time out by Sean Payton the Falcons lined up a second time and recovered the kick.

With 28 seconds remaining, Matt Ryan tossed a quick out to receiver Michael Jenkins for 14 yards putting the Falcons back into Saints territory.

This is where it got strange. Ryan clocked the ball with 11 seconds remaining giving him two sure attempts in the end zone. He dropped back to pass and feeling the three man pressure brought by the Saints, tossed a lame duck to the Saints 12 yard line that was promptly brought in by safety Darren Sharper to end the game.

What makes this play strange is Ryan looked as though he couldn't throw the ball 50 yards. Some say he was pressured and rushed the throw. Even still, that was a terrible throw. The other factor is there were five Saint jerseys to one Falcons (White) standing at the ten yard line. Ryan effectively cut the field in half by rolling to the right, although it appeared his receivers went left with the exception of White. Very strange play call for a simple hail mary pass.

The Saints won the game but they should be thrilled to escape that one. It was definately a great game to watch if you weren't a Falcons fan.

INTERESTING STATS

The Saints only managed seven points in the second half of the game. They had previously out-scored opponents 75-9 which all accounted for victories.

Linebacker Curtis Lofton now leads the NFL in tackles. He has 76 on the season, five ahead of second place. Of those 76 tackles, 58 of them are solo which also leads the league.

Matt Ryan has thrown two or more interceptions in three straight games.

Darren Sharper picked off his league leading seventh interception. Granted, it was a garbage pick on a Hail Mary but it just pads the stats of an amazing season put in by the safety.

Michael Turner scored his eighth touchdown of the season placing him third in the NFL behind Jones-Drew and Adrian Peterson.

This was also the first loss for the Falcons where Turner rushed for over 150 yards.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Why is stud linebacker Curtis Lofton running down field on kickoffs? Someone get back with me on that one because I honestly do not understand the logic there. That's like having Matt Ryan returning kickoffs. You don't have your defensive leader risking injury and fatigue before opponents offensive series.

FALCONS GAME BALL

There were several candidates for this honor. Even in a loss, the Falcons didn't play terrible. It would be easy to give Brent Grimes credit due to that beautiful interception. But, he was abused on several plays leading to scores.

Also Coy Wire had a great game with the forced fumble at the end to give the Falcons hope. Without that play there likely wouldn't have been enough time for the Falcons to beat the Vegas odds with a last second field goal.

The game ball goes to difference makers and I can think of none that deserve it more than Michael Turner. He showed Falcons fans he's still a force to be reckoned with on Sundays.

GOAT OF THE WEEK

This honor goes to someone I have tried to praise for weeks now. I felt he was never given enough credit and the past few weeks he's been a complete non-factor. This weeks award goes to receiver Michael Jenkins.

Jenkins missed catches cost us a couple of drives and forced punts in situations where the offense could have taken the lead. He was an unsung hero last season but at some points your number two receiver needs to score. It's been 14 games since he last entered the oppositions end zone.

FINAL TAKE

There were several positives the Falcons can take from this game. The running game was resurrected, the secondary played fairly well for being so depleted and no one left the game with a concerning injury.

The Saints escaped this game to remain undefeated. But they face the Falcons again at the Georgia Dome on December 13th, 2009. That home dome advantage should be enough to sway the odds back into the Falcons favor.

That said, the Panthers have started to come back to life and sit one game behind the Falcons in the division. The Falcons need the Saints to remain undefeated after this Sunday to keep the Panthers out of the wild card chase.

I also predicted the score pretty closely for this match-up. I'm surprised I finally got one right! That puts me at 5-2 on the season and my expectations are high that I will be sitting at 6-2 after the game Sunday against the Redskins.

That preview coming soon!