Atlanta Falcons: A Sexy Pick To Knock New Orleans Saints Off Their Perch

(NFC South-third in a series)

New Orleans Saints fans cover your little "Who Dat" ears whenever a radio is nearby.

Especially, any radio playing those ESPN guys.

Seems an overwhelming majority of the nation's sports talking heads are picking those nasty dirty birds- the Atlanta Falcons- to dethrone your beloved Saints as NFC South champions in 2010.

Yeah, just up and knock those halos right off their heads right there in the middle of Bourbon Street.

This in the spite the fact that the Saints beat the Falcons twice last year.

This in spite the fact that the Falcons defensive line managed a meager 21 sacks one year ago- hardly a statistic of champions.

This in spite of the fact that the over-hyped John Abraham managed only 5.5 sacks in 2009. By the way, the 32 year-old Abraham wasn't getting any younger at press time.

Yet, the pundits tell us Abraham's steep drop in production had nothing to do with age and everything to do with double-teams resulting from the loss of defensive tackle Peria Jerry in Week 2 with a severe knee injury. 

Jerry is back at DT and the pundits say as a result, Abraham will return to the All-Pro form of two years ago when he had 16.5 sacks and scared the beejesus out of opposing QB's.

One Falcons NFC rival told Sporting News, "John Abraham wasn't the same player in 2009 as he was in 2008. Injuries have robbed him of some of his explosiveness off the edge."

Well, who the hell knows.

Guess time will tell on that one.

The good news for the Falcons defense is the addition of three current or former first round picks in Sean Weatherspoon, Dunta Robinson, and Peria Jerry.

Says Pro Football Weekly of first round pick Weatherspoon, "He's a fast-flowing, explosive linebacker with impressive short-area burst. Weatherspoon doesn't have ideal size and could have a hard time disengaging if a blocker gets a hand on him."

Yet, some Falcons observers doubt the ability of Atlanta's defensive line to generate the necessary heat up the middle that would allow Abraham and Kroy Biermann time to fire off the edge and sack opposing QB's.

ESPN, especially that little, sniffly-nosed Mike Greenberg, says not to worry. Abraham and Jerry and Kroy are plenty good enough to blow by the Saints offensive line. 

It's early August and quarterback Matt Ryan lofts a gorgeous deep ball down the left sideline, hitting Roddy White in stride. White dashes into the end zone and Ryan does his best Brett Favre impression, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, running down the field to congratulate his best receiver.

And this is precisely why these Falcons are the sexy pick to win the NFC South in a division where the reigning champions rarely succeed the following year.

Those ESPN talking heads all have a man crush on Ryan, the third-year QB out of Boston College, who didn't exactly suffer a sophomore slump in 2009 but something very close to it. The "experts" attribute this to a turf toe. If Ryan played for the New Orleans Saints, these same "experts" would say he just isn't any good.

Ryan tells the media that he is a meticulous note-taker and that "I'm a bit O.C.D. about people touching my notebook."  Sports talking heads all laugh and love him because he's everything Drew Brees is not- young, tall and rocket-armed.

Brees won the Super Bowl.

Ryan failed to get Atlanta to the playoffs.

Yet, when has ESPN ever let facts get in the way of a great story?

Yet the talking heads tell us Atlanta's offense, which ranked No. 16 in the league last year, is "stacked" because of players like Ryan and Michael Turner and Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez, and... well... you get the picture.

These talking heads say Atlanta has too much "firepower" for the Saints.

And, in spite of the fact, that all of these "experts" picked the Colts to win the Super Bowl in February, who are we to disbelieve them?

(Savoir-Faire's Pick: Atlanta 10-6: Second in the NFC South)

Oh, ESPN, please forgive thou!

Saturday: The New Orleans Saints.