The Falcoholic
This is the big week. The Falcons and Saints are squaring off, and that always brings out the burning bile from both fanbases. It’s just that both teams haven’t been quite this sorry in a long time.
But there’s still plenty of invective to go around, and if the Falcons are dead in the water, they can at least ensure the Saints are toast too. Two wins over New Orleans would be one of the few celebrations left to us from this season, so we’d love to make it happen.
Can this banged-up, dispirited Falcons team get that done? Let’s look at the matchup ahead.
The Saints are worse than the Falcons and certainly less talented overall, but they’re not significantly worse. The record would indicate that, but it’s a little unsettling how far the Falcons have fallen from their reasonably-effective-but-slightly-concerning early season rankings to where they are now.
New Orleans turns the ball over too often but also forces plenty, hold the line well against the pass, and offer up a solid defense overall. Their putrid rushing attack and very average passing attack are the two best reasons to think the Falcons will win this one, particularly the first, but obviously little is guaranteed with the way the Falcons have played of late.
Substantially, but in ways that have not made them substantially better.
They fired Dennis Allen and brought aboard Kellen Moore, a reasonably well-regarded offensive mind who has been trying with limited success to make chicken salad out of a big bag of chicken poop. Moore’s hand-picked second round pick, Tyler Shough, is an ancient rookie (even older than Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix, for those who loved to make fun of both) who is skittish under pressure, which we’ll talk about more later. He replaced Spencer Rattler, who beat him out for the starting job before struggling about halfway through the season. Very few people believe Shough is actually the quarterback of the future, but he’s been better than anticipated thus far.
They re-added Brandin Cooks, who barely did anything before they released him this week. They brought aboard Dillon Radunz to take over at left guard after letting Lucas Patrick walk, added safety Justin Reid and cornerback Isaac Yiadom (the latter has been overtaken by rookie Quincy Riley), and added Davon Godchaux up front to help a depleted defensive line. They also did, especially for the Saints, an unusually good job in the draft, adding Riley, Shough, safety Jonas Sanker, and a very good young tackle in Kelvin Banks. Banks and Sanker, at least, should be big pieces of the next successful Saints team, assuming that comes before 2040.
This is still an old, profoundly damaged roster, but they’ll have early picks and a little bit of cap space to work with for once while they try to climb out of the hole.
It’s probably going to be...
