New Orleans Saints: Final score prediction vs. Atlanta Falcons
By Jason Reed
The New Orleans Saints take on the Atlanta Falcons at home in Week 10 after their bye week in Drew Brees’ second game since returning from injury.
The New Orleans Saints had their bye week right in the middle of the season in Week 9 and headed into the bye week with a very surprising 7-1 record.
After Drew Brees went down in Week 2 against the Los Angeles Rams and the Saints were thoroughly beaten, there was not that high of expectations for the team, who just needed to survive for the six weeks without Brees.
It ended up only being five weeks but it really did not matter as the Saints were great in this stretch. Teddy Bridgewater was better and better every single game and the defense really stepped up and showed its worth with Brees out.
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Now, despite having the second-best record behind the San Francisco 49ers, the Saints appear to be the best, most well-rounded team in the NFC, perhaps in the NFL.
With that in mind, the team’s Week 10 home game against the Atlanta Falcons does not appear to be a challenge. The Falcons are one of the worst teams in the league this season at 1-7 and have been disastrous both defensively and in the coaching staff.
However, this game still presents a danger as it is a division game against the Saints’ biggest rival. This is going to be the Atlanta Falcons’ Super Bowl this year, and as long as they can spoil the Saints’ playoff seeding then they will be happy, regardless of the record.
Plus, Matt Ryan is better than the quarterbacks the Saints have been facing lately, so it will be interesting to see how the defense performs against an actual above-average quarterback that does have weapons in the passing game.
At the end of the day, though, the Falcons have given us no reason to believe that they can beat a team like the New Orleans Saints. Time and time again they either stab themselves in the foot in these games or just outright don’t show up to play.
I think this game is going to be a lot closer than people give the Falcons credit for because of their big-game dynamic, but the Saints’ talent and the Falcons’ ability to lose winnable games with ultimately allow the Saints to prevail.
I think this will be the worst defensive showing for the Saints in some time as the defense will start slow coming off the bye week. Against the terrible Falcons’ defense, though, the offense will get plenty of points on the board.
I predict four touchdowns and two field goals for the Saints to give them the winning score of 34, while the Falcons will have three touchdowns and two field goals of their own to lose 34-27