NFL: New Orleans Saints 14 Atlanta Falcons 30 recap and analysis

The Saints started with the boom due to a 99 yards kick off return by Saunders who open up the Ingram's rushing TD. Ryan lead his team with a only passes to the Saints territory but they have been forced to kick a FG by a reacting NO's secondary. After a pair of drives by each team that has been dominated by the defenses the Falcons estabilished the running game with some Jackson s runs and along with an effective passing game they arrived on Saints territory where they parti ally wasted the drive with penalties that forced them to kick another FG. The Saints tried to react with a balanced drive alternating multiple targets to Ingram's powerful runs but the Falcons front 7 put a very good pressure on Brees who saw his pocket collapsed and he has been forced to fumble the ball that has been recovered by RT Strief out of FG range on a 4th down. Atlanta got the last chance of the 1st half to put points on the board and to do that they used once more their Great passing game who took them inside Saints 5 yards where a Great designed showel pass for WR Weems gave them their 1st lead of the game. The 2nd half started with nearly 10 minutes of defenses domination until the Falcons got the ball and started their drive with short effective passes to end it with 2 runs, the 2nd one decisive with Freeman who let miss 2 tackles and took the ball right in the endzone. Despite the lack in the running game Brees drove his team an inch shy to score a TD but TE Graham fumble the ball due to an awesome play by Ishmael, the ball recovered by Atlanta who didn t produce anything on the following drive and gave the ball to Brees who relied on Colston on some key catches to arrive close to the Falcons endzone and once there he went again on Graham this time with success on a back shoulder TD catch. The Saints defense stopped the Falcons offense but Brees wasted the possession due to an interception by Robert McClain that gave the possession to Atlanta on NO's 13. Bryant's following FG closed the game out an the 84 yards Umenyora's fumble return put the esclamation point to a huge win for the Falcons.

The Saints got eliminated from playoffs contention by a very good Falcons team but they made such a disappointing season, in this game their offense has been unconsistent due to a bad o-line who caused lot of problems because they never opened up any holes to run the ball effectively and this made Brees job to pass the ball hard even if the Falcons' pass defense is not good. Brees still the same great QB we all know but this season he missed the reliable targets liike they were Moore, the olds Meachem and Colston but most of all HB Darren Sproles who gave his team an enormous contribution for all the time in played in NO. Their defense played bad overall especially on a department that they usually play good infact their passrusher haven't been able to put pressure consistentely on Ryan, even the secondary didn't play well.
The Falcons recently are in my opinion 1 of the hottest team in the NFL due to their explosive offense lead by a brilliant Ryan along with the best WR in the NFL right now Julio Jones who despite his injury played another awesome game over 100 yards received, they have even a great variety of RBs who can hit the opponents defense in a multiple way. On defense they are solid against the runs and they improved so much against passing game but they still miss a couple of good pass rushers who can make pressure to the opponents QB. BY the way i think that they will go playoffs by winning next game against the Panthers at home and a key for their future success will be continue what we saw on recent week especially on the o-line.