New Orleans Saints come to town<\/a>.<\/p>\nInstead of \u201cSaints,\u201d that side of the scoreboard will simply say \u201cVisitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
That level of pettiness is how things are supposed to be in a rivalry.<\/p>\n
So despite their losing records \u2014 the Saints are 6-10 and the Falcons are 7-9 \u2014 this isn\u2019t just some meaningless game between two teams looking to get to the finish line of the season and start their vacations.<\/p>\n
It’s Saints vs. Falcons.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all the motivation needed, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d said Saints tight end Juwan Johnson. \u201cWe don\u2019t like those guys, and we know they don\u2019t like us. They beat us in our house a couple weeks ago, and now we have to try to return the favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither team is going to the playoffs. The Saints haven\u2019t been since the 2020 season, Drew Brees\u2019 final year. The Falcons\u2019 drought is even longer. They haven\u2019t been since the 2017 season, when Matt Ryan was playing quarterback. The Falcons underachieved this season. The Saints, at least down the stretch, have overachieved. But both teams have played well lately. The Saints have won four straight and are 5-3 since rookie Tyler Shough took over for Spencer Rattler. The Falcons are 4-2 since Kirk Cousins replaced the injured Michael Penix. That includes Monday’s eye-opening win against the Los Angeles Rams.<\/p>\n
Saints head coach Kellen Moore would like nothing more than for his team to finish the season with a fifth consecutive win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s real important (to finish strong),\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s our last opportunity to finish. A division game. Atlanta. A lot of variables here. We are excited to finish this thing off the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s been Moore\u2019s message all week. Finish the right way. A team that started 1-8 has a shot at getting to seven wins, which is about three more wins than the oddsmakers in Vegas predicted when the season started.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows the character of these guys in the locker room and shows the character of the coaching staff,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the fight in the guys that are here. Just staying with it. I know it\u2019s not always easy, especially losing the way we were losing games. We can now go into next season with a lot of high morale. A lot of optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of that optimism is because of the emergence of Shough. The Saints have found their future at quarterback and can now look for other pieces to put around him during the offseason.<\/p>\n
Shough may just be a rookie, but he already understands how much the rivalry means to the Saints\u2019 fan base. He got a sense of it after the Saints lost to the Falcons 24-10 in his first start in the Superdome.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said after the first game that it stinks, because you know how much it means,\u201d Shough said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to mean even more because it\u2019s the last game of the season. Both teams have been playing really well. They\u2019ve been playing really hot. We have to do our job and get it done because it means so much. We\u2019re not in the playoffs right now, but what an opportunity to go to their place and get a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Saints are looking to avoid being swept by the Falcons. The last time the Saints lost twice in the same season to the Falcons was in the 2016 season.<\/p>\n
For Shough, this game also is one last closing argument for him in the Offensive Rookie of the Year race. Currently, he and Carolina Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan are neck and neck as the favorites. Being without Chris Olave (blood clot in his lungs<\/a>) will make things more challenging. Shough will be throwing to Johnson and a receiving corp made up of guys you probably didn\u2019t even know were on the roster. Shough\u2019s receivers Sunday will be Kevin Austin, Dante Pettis, Ronnie Bell and Samori Toure. If he can win with those weapons, it would only strengthen his case for Rookie of the Year honors.<\/p>\nBut he\u2019s more focused on the big picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care about anything else but finishing strong this week,\u201d Shough said.<\/p>\n
That simply means making sure he puts more points on his team\u2019s side of the scoreboard: the side that will simply say \u201cVisitors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scoreboard at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta won\u2019t even acknowledge who the Falcons\u2019 opponent is Sunday. It never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,4095,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-649827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-hardwall","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115829342592357397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}