The Saints had no answer for the Falcons offense early as Matt Ryan led them to 5 touchdowns in the first half, on 5 series, putting them up 35-13 at halftime. The Saints defense would only give up 3 in the second half, but that was in large part due to the Falcons going conservative to milk the clock and avoid injury before the playoffs with the game well in hand. Give the Saints credit for at least not quitting and rallying in the second half to make it look respectable. It really wasn’t though, as the Falcons are clearly deserving NFC South champs and headed to the playoffs because they are unquestionably the better team. We’ll just have to hope enough can be done in the offseason to close the gap.
A few notes:
- The Saints were so banged up in the secondary they just couldn’t slow down the Falcons passing attack. You really need to be 4 cover guys deep, or have a killer pass rush, to slow down this offense. The Saints kind of have neither.
- Devonta Freeman had a 75 yard touchdown run and generally owned the Saints. The Saints never seem able to stop him at all.
- The Saints rallied in the second half, mostly on the backs of Mark Ingram and Michael Thomas. Both had good games and Thomas in particular is going to have a fantastic career. Ingram went over 100 and is the first Saints back since 2006 (Deuce McAllister) to have 1,000 yards in a season.
- Special teams wasn’t a dumpster fire, they downed the ball at the one and recovered and onside kick. Unfortunately, it was the defense’s turn to implode.
- Snead and Cooks both left the game late concussed, hope those guys are ok.
- The refs completely screwed Coby Fleener out of a touchdown catch. The catch rule is so unbelievably stupid.
- I would say the defense, top to bottom, was awful. Fairley and Kruger are the only two players that sort of showed up. Stupar too in limited action.
- The Saints will pick 11th in the draft and get a 3rd place schedule. Not bad.
Now we wait and see what happens with Sean Payton.
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