Falcons can spoil Saints’ bid for playoffs
ATLANTA — New Orleans Saints quarterback Taysom Hill knows his team must win its regular-season finale to preserve a chance to earn the NFC’s final wild-card berth for the playoffs.
Hill also knows beating the Atlanta Falcons at their Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday is only half the battle for New Orleans — and that the other half is out of the Saints’ hands.
They also need the Los Angeles Rams (12-4) to defeat the San Francisco 49ers (9-7), who have won five straight against their NFC West Division rivals. Both games are set for 4:25 p.m. Eastern, providing opportunity for distraction on the New Orleans sideline.
“Now I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be peeking at the scoreboards when they come across on Sunday to see what that score is,” Hill said of the 49ers’ visit to the Rams. “So everyone will be aware of it. We’re aware of the situation and what needs to happen.”
New Orleans (8-8) shook off a five-game losing streak and remained in the playoff race by winning three of its past four, including last weekend’s 18-10 home victory over the Carolina Panthers. During the hot stretch, the Saints have relied on their defense, which delivered seven sacks — including 3.5 by Cameron Jordan — against the Panthers.
The injury-plagued Saints have used four starting quarterbacks this season, including Hill, who has a 6-2 career record as a starter.
“Our defense has been so good this season, that I think the other side of that is, offensively, we try not to put them in bad situations,” Hill said. “We try to take care of the ball. We talk early in the week and say punting is not necessarily a bad thing. You can play the field position game.”
The Falcons (7-9) lost their slim playoff hopes in last Sunday’s 29-15 defeat at the hands of the host Buffalo Bills.
It’s the fourth consecutive season Atlanta has missed the playoffs, and they also will finish with a losing record for the fourth year in a row. There have been signs of improvement under first-year coach Arthur Smith — Atlanta was 4-12 last season — but also much evidence of work to be done.
One of the Falcons’ highlights was a 27-25 win at New Orleans on Nov. 7, when Matt Ryan passed for 343 yards and two touchdowns. Another positive is Atlanta’s 7-2 record in one-possession games this season.
The Falcons are left in the role of playoff spoilers as they look to complete a season sweep against their NFC South rivals for the first time since the 2016 campaign. Atlanta leads the alltime series 54-51.
“We still have one more opportunity to go out there and try to play as well as we can against a division opponent, good rival, who’s playing for a lot, too,” Ryan said.
Smith, when asked about taking a longer look at backups in certain spots with playoff hopes erased, said he’ll be playing to win as always. He doesn’t expect motivation to be a problem for the Falcons.
“We would think we had the wrong guys if we had to sit there and trick them and motivate them,” Smith said. “That’s absurd.”