monday night football SAINTS/FALCONS discussion

[theBOSS]

figured it only be appropriate if i got this going. still waiting for my fleur de lis avatar!

this is one of the best rivalries that no one knows about. both entered the league at the same time, cities are only 7 hours apart, every game seems to come down to a FG, cultures, and the falcons constantly raiding our roster lol (anderson, hebert, horn,etc). should be a good game. a lot of fans travel to the other teams away games. before vick came along and the falcants started selling out their stadium most of the upper deck used to be black and gold. fun times.

joe horn ran his mouth earlier with this gem:


"But to see what's happened and unfolded, man ... When you get power in this league — I own a business and I don't talk to people who work for me any kind of way. I don't treat them like dirt under my feet.

"Sooner or later, I don't care what profession you in, when you get power and you know you have power and you act like you're The Man, it will come back and bite you in the [behind]. So basically, it's the chicken coming home to roost. That's what it is.

"I'm talking about that genius that they hired in New Orleans."

think sean payton didn't take notice????

big words from a man who should have been out of the league two years ago and has ZERO td passes.


any way from a saints perspective this is a playoff game. after giving away the tampa game (i was there, it was miserable) we have no margin for error. i would have been more worried about them coming out flat if this were a sunday noon game but its monday night on prime time so they should be good to go.

atlanta comes into the game on the day of vicks sentencing on a 3 game skid. i've watched a couple of games and it looks like they play pretty hard until adversity hits and boom they fold like a cheap tent. itll be important for the saints to jump on them early. however, the falcons will be ready for prime time.

reggie bush and deuce mcallister are out and the saints offense is a shell of its former self, especially without mcallister. aaron stecker will carry the load. he's not oging to break anything but he's dependable. pierre thomas, rookie from illinois who showed flashes in pre season, will back him up. knowing sean payton i expect him to put the keys in brees' hand and tell him to drive. i expect plenty of 4 WR sets and to try to match up players on atlantas garbage safeties. look for devery henderson to test them deep. seems like he always makes big plays when we play them.

speaking of garbage DBs, the saints hgave some of the worst in the league except for mike mckenzie who has played like a pro bowler and it over shadowed by the ineptitude around him. jason david has been a complete bust as he's switching from a zone scheme with the colts to a man scheme with the saints. at safety josh bullocks has no ball skills and roman harper (although promising) still makes mistakes.

throwing the ball against him will be chris redman - louisville guy who's played under petrino before. if i were petrino i'd go deep all game long. we can't defend it and i dont know why teams dont do this more often. however, i expect petrino to ease him int othe game with the short stuff, taking his shots occasionally.

the key matchup will be the saints front 4 v. the falcants front 5. the falcants are really banged up along the line so will smith - and former UGA/georgia born charles grant must play on the other side of the line. saints are pretty adequate at stopping the run so i dont think that will be a factor. bottom line if we get pressure it will be a 31-6 game like the panthers a few weeks ago where we harassed carr all afternoon. if not...it could be like last week where mccown carved us up. we do have a tendancy to make bums into stars though .


in the end i just dont think atlanta has enough pride or gas to play 60 minutes anymore, especially if things dont go well early. there are severe internal problems there and its going to take an off season to weed them out.

i'll take a very angry SAINTS team coming off of last weeks debacle in a 28-17 type game.

[matt71211]

I just got completely shelled today. The Jets topped the cake though. It was so bad for me today, I had to come back to the forum.

With that out of the way I love your breakdown, and I too can't see the saints running the ball at all tommorrow. The Falcons for me are one of those teams I try to stay away from. As you said they like to play hard, but they just really suck which makes it hard to find good spots for them. I will probably make a play on the over here, not because this will be an entertaining shootout, but because I believe New orleans will jump out and probably force this over in the sloppy sort of way. Atlanta will probably be playing catchup all night, but I can't trust the '07 version of the Saints laying points to anyone(especially with Bush out).

GL

[daft_picks]

Great analysis, currently have the Falcons +10.5 in a teaser so I don't think I'm going to even play a side but the over seems enticing. Needs more thought though, as the game could very well be a grind for points with all the injuries here and there.

Need more opinions on this

[yomonte]

Atl will win this one and lose next week to TB. No line on next week yet, but I will play TB when it comes out. Atl and the over IMO

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

Doesn't it seem like most prime-time games this year has been shitty matchups?

I got no idea on this one....I don't wanna lay points on the road with the Aints, and I am not really itching to back Redman and the crappy Falcons either. Guess I'm going the tail route...maybe a totals tail...who's been the totals man this year? lol.

[shorts]

IMHO....if it were possible both teams would lose! LMAO!! I'm coming up with a slight edge in passing of NO and should be able to cover the spread. What I'm really looking at is taking the over and hammering beers just to make it exciting!

BOL to all!

[SuperSkins]

I like the Falcons secondary in this matchup, who have 14 interceptions and have allowed only 17 TD passes. Brees will have to play the bigger role here without the primary RB's available, so it may be a harder fought battle than most think. Plus add in J. Norwood for Atlanta who is getting the nod for starting RB, and you have a pretty decent game methinks.

[FearTheRaven]

Norwood goes nuts tonight on National TV.

falcons money-line for me.

Leaning towards the Over.

Redman can score some and may have a few turnovers sprinkled in.

[homedawg]

Originally Posted by matt71211

The Jets topped the cake though.

almost had an ats cover, but f'd up at the end of the game.... cle with the ball, less than a minute to play, get the 1st down and down the ball, game over... nyj with the ball: 1st down around the 15 and kick a fg? dont kick a fg there, throw to the endzone, try for the td there.. then if you can recover an onside kick, you only need 20 or so yards to kick a fg! not 50yrds for the td!

as of now, tonights game is a pass for me...

however the squares are kickin' ass this week:

favs are: 12-3.... overs are: 10-5.. Are the linesmakers on strike?????

jp is poundin' nos and over again tonight, at 3-1 clip.....

[matt71211]

And what the hell is Mangini doing kicking a field goal with two minutes left, three timeouts and then on the next play, kicking an onside kick??? Isn't the whole idea of kicking the field goal to stop them and get field position?

And as for Jamaal Lewis, that was either the most unnecessary play i've ever seen or it's another case of him padding his stats while the other team is down.

[homedawg]

I usually dont get too upset 'bout a bet gone bad, but that game ended my, 7 game survivor streak ... dammit it is tough to get to 21

[Katidy]

Haven't been posting anything lately, but I've a real interest in this game...

Any PRO-LINE fans out there, I've got all 14 teams right in the Football Pools card #14, & need New Orleans to just win....

Didn't like reading that Reggie & Duece are out...That hurts...

Even if I win this Pool card , it's not likely to pay too much because only 2 non faves won...

But hey I'll take anything....

How about some support ..ROOT ROOT ROOT...???

GL on your plays tonight guys.....

[homedawg]

Originally Posted by Katidy

Even if I win this Pool card , it's not likely to pay too much because only 2 non faves won...

Straight-Up Quick Picks for NFL Week 14, 2007 Matchup Quick Pick Value


Pittsburgh at New England New England 16
Indianapolis at Baltimore Indianapolis 15
Dallas at Detroit Dallas 14
Carolina at Jacksonville Jacksonville 13
Arizona at Seattle Seattle 12
Kansas City at Denver Denver 11
Oakland at Green Bay Green Bay 10
St. Louis at Cincinnati Cincinnati 9
Minnesota at San Francisco Minnesota 8
New Orleans at Atlanta New Orleans 7
Cleveland at NY Jets Cleveland 6
Chicago at Washington Washington 5
Miami at Buffalo Buffalo 4
Tampa Bay at Houston Tampa Bay 3
San Diego at Tennessee Tennessee 2
NY Giants at Philadelphia NY Giants 1

[Stifler's Mom]

Aints laying points on the road? That to me doesn't sound like a good idea.

They're not a physical team at all, and while they have some bright spots, they're not really a very good team right now.

I see alot of people talking about how bad ATL sucks, and this is true, but the Aints suck too....so isn't it a wash?

Think about this. I saw a bunch here last night take the horrible Ravens as a +8.5 to +9.5 home dog to what IMO amounts to the best team in football (I say that because they have a better defense than NE, and that's what usually wins out come playoff time)....yet no one wants to take the points with Atlanta (about as bad as Baltimore), when they're playing a 5-7 Saints team who has done exactly jack shit all season except for that one stretch where they won 4 straight?

Otherwise the Aints lost every other game they've played except beating a brutal Panthers team, and they even lost at home to the freakin RAMS!! How they managed to beat up on Jacksonville I have no idea, but that game and Seattle are their only 2 worthwhile wins all season. I just don't see how that earns them a road fave status, and especially of between -3.5 and -4.5.

Their 3-3 road record is extremely deceiving as well, as they beat SF, Seattle and Carolina on the road, and 2 of those 3 teams are complete shit. In their other road contests, they got thrashed by the likes of Indy (41-10), TB (31-14), and even Houston beat them 23-10.

Take away the 4 game stretch where they were apparently "hot", and the Aints are averaging just 18ppg, with many of their efforts barely breaking double digits in scoring. They are merely a shell of the offense they were last year.

Now IMO they don't have the defense to hold Atlanta to the low teens tonight, and without any type of playmaking threat at RB, I don't see them busting out for 30+....

Adding in homefield, divisional rivalry, and revenge, and for all of these reasons, I don't see how it can be anything but Atlanta or no play.....but what the hell do I know? I think I've won like 2 MNF games all season, LOL

GL whatever you all decide

[bookiekilla]

falcons ml