Well, that\u2019s it, folks.<\/p>\n
Seventeen games. Eighteen weeks. And somehow, a season that still leaves more questions than answers.<\/p>\n
How were the Falcons able to go toe-to-toe with teams like the New England Patriots, beat the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills, yet stumble against squads like the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets?<\/p>\n
Why do we have the leaders in interceptions by a rookie, sacks by a rookie, the leader in scrimmage yards, and are sitting at home for the playoffs?<\/p>\n
There will be months to sort out what this all means for 2026 and beyond. Plenty of time for reflection, evaluation, and tough decisions.<\/p>\n
But for now? We\u2019ll enjoy this one. We\u2019ll enjoy beating up on the New Orleans Saints again. We\u2019ll enjoy putting little brother back in his place, as the Falcons take a two-game lead in the all-time series (including playoffs) and a one-game edge in the regular season.<\/p>\n
So with that, here it is.<\/p>\n
The final highlight reel of the 2025 Atlanta Falcons:<\/p>\n
Terrell pokes, Watts picks it up, Saints offense sits down<\/p>\n
After a three-and-out, capped off by a sack on third down, it was looking like Saints tight end Juwan Johnson was going to get a chunk game to jumpstart the Saints offense. Instead, former Second-Team All-Pro A.J. Terrell pokes the ball out on the Saints\u2019 first play and Xavier Watts was on the spot ready to pick it up.<\/p>\n
Jammie Robinson makes Atlanta\u2019s special teams special<\/p>\n
For the entire season, the Atlanta Falcons\u2019 special teams has been anything other than special. As a matter of fact, they\u2019ve been abysmal, awful, deplorable, whatever word you want to use.<\/p>\n
But this game, with someone needing to make a play, recent signee Jammie Robinson, showed that, among even the worst of times, special players on special teams can make special plays.<\/p>\n
Kirk Cousins finds Drake London after offensive line builds fortress around him<\/p>\n
The offensive line for the Falcons had not been the most stout, including a brutal holding call to back the Falcons up to the 15-yard line on a would-be Bijan Robinson touchdown run. However, when the Saints rushed four on 2nd and goal, the Falcons built a wall around Cousins, giving him time to find Drake London all alone in the back of the end zone.<\/p>\n
This gives Kirk Cousins 10 passing touchdowns on the season, his 12th consecutive season with double-digit touchdown passes. Cousins is tied with names like Carson Palmer, Joe Montana, Bob Griese, and Drew Bledsoe for 21st-most in NFL history.<\/p>\n
James Pearce, Jr. wrecks shop to give 2025 Falcons the sack record<\/p>\n
With his first sack, James Pearce, Jr. broke the 1997 Falcons record of 55 sacks in a season.<\/p>\n
And, just for giggles, since he already has the rookie sack record for the franchise, Pearce brought Saints quarterback Tyler Shough down again to make it 10.5 sacks for the season, and became the first Falcons rookie with double-digit sacks. He is also the first Falcon with double-digit sacks since 2nd-year pass-rusher, Vic Beasley, led the league in 2016 with 15.5.<\/p>\n
Drake London goes above the rim to haul in big-time grab<\/p>\n
Drake London has been upset all day, and who could blame him? This team has not lived anywhere close to its potential this season. And he is deciding to take all of his anger out on the Saints DBs when he gets a chance.<\/p>\n
Dee Alford reads Shough like a book to put Falcons in scoring range<\/p>\n
The broadcast noted the use of the double slant concept. Twitter\/X had noted the double slant concept. Now, Dee Alford made Kellen Moore and the Saints offense pay for their transparency with a beautiful interception to put the Falcons in field goal range with under four minutes to go.<\/p>\n
Dee Alford was everywhere. Led the team in total tackles with 9 (5 solo) and, of course, the all-important interception.Drake London ended the season only 81 yards away from a second 1,000-yard season.Despite only amassing 43 scrimmage yards, Robinson is still the league leader in yards from scrimmage with 2298. He finishes the season just 2 yards away from 2,300. He is only the 11th player in NFL history to finish with 2290 yards from scrimmage, joining names like Ladanian Tomlinson (2003, 2006), Edgerrin James (2000), Adrian Peterson (2012), Barry Sanders (1997), Marcus Allen (1985), Marshall Faulk (1999), Tiki Barber (2005), Steven Jackson (2006), Christian McCaffrey (2019), and, of course, Chris Johnson (2009).Zane Gonzalez went 4-for-4 today, playing a key part in the Falcons pulling this one out. Gonzalez finishes the season 19-for-22 (86.4%) with a long of 56, and goes 7-for-9 (77.77%) from 50+.Just in case there was any confusion, with Atlanta\u2019s first sweep of the Saints since 2016, the Falcons take a two-game series lead (58-56) and a one-game regular season lead into 2026 (57-56).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, that\u2019s it, folks. Seventeen games. Eighteen weeks. And somehow, a season that still leaves more questions than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,61298,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-656469","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-atlanta-falcons-game-information","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115843773580908410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656469","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=656469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}