Sports - New Orleans Saints

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Saints, Falcons have plenty of history

They’re the only other NFC South team with a winning record. They’ve got a franchise quarterback for the future, and plenty of offensive weapons. And they’re the New Orleans Saints’ traditional rival.

The Atlanta Falcons are venturing to New Orleans to play the unbeaten Saints on “Monday Night Football” in the Louisiana Superdome. The Saints have played the Falcons more often than any other NFL opponent and trail the all-time series 44-35.

Over the last three seasons, however, the Saints have won five of their last six games against the Falcons.

“Last year we had two hard-fought games with them,” Saints coach Sean Payton. “We lost one on the road (a 34-20 defeat at the Georgia Dome) and then were able to win one at home (29-25). They’re a team that we think is very talented. They have really in a short period of time turned the program around with a real good running game and a very talented quarterback (Matt Ryan).

“They’re a well coached team. I think Mike (Smith, the Falcons’ second-year coach) and his staff have done a great job there. Defensively, they’re playing exceptionally well this season.”

The Saints (6-0) will play NFC South opponents in three of their next four games, but only the Falcons (4-2) have a winning record. A victory over Atlanta would match the best start in Saints history; the 1991 team opened the season 7-0 and won the NFC West for the first time in club history.

(The NFL realigned in 2002 and put the Saints in the NFC South with the Falcons, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Bucs.)

Last year, the Falcons bounced back from a disastrous 2007 season, which included the imprisonment of former quarterback Michael Vick on federal dogfighting charges. The team drafted Ryan with the third overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft, and Michael Turner and former Mississippi State star Jerious Norwood gave the Falcons a solid running game. The Falcons went 11-5 before losing in the playoffs to the Arizona Cardinals.

“We have a great deal of respect for where they have come from in a short period of time,” Payton said. “Maybe like ourselves a few years ago in ‘06, with the acquisition of a few key pieces, and all of a sudden you become a serious contender.

“I think Atlanta has done that. That being said, it’s a divisional game and I think our players understand the significance of that.”

The Saints’ Reggie Bush is pictured on this week’s editions of “Sports Illustrated,” making a spectacular scoring run in the team’s 46-34 victory over the Miami Dolphins. The Saints tied a club record for the biggest comeback in team history, erasing a 21-point lead.

Payton was asked Tuesday if Bush’s role with the team had diminished with the emergence of Mike Bell and Pierre Thomas as the Saints’ primary tailbacks. Bush was the second player chosen in the ‘06 NFL draft, a Heisman Trophy-winning running back from Southern California, but he’s been used primarily as a receiver with the Saints.

“(Bush) is a big threat for us, a guy that we want to get the ball to,” Payton said. “When you look at the (offensive) packages we’re using, you have to look at the passes attempted. In the first half (at Miami), they’re weren’t a lot of touches for anybody. I want to get the punt return game going (with Bush). We’ve talked about that.

“It’s about trying to get the players in the right position to make plays.”,