Falcons holy terrors against lifeless Saints
Upset of the year in the NFL? Without question. And one of the most emphatic I’ve ever seen, frankly.
The Atlanta Falcons had lost six in a row. Most other league owners would have fired head coach Dan Quinn’s underperforming butt weeks earlier into his team’s 1-7 start.
The New Orleans Saints had won six in a row after a 1-1 start, five of them with their backup quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater.
The Saints offence had been as reliably good with Drew Brees at the helm as almost any in the league, and the Falcons defence as reliably bad as any. Plus, the game was in New Orleans.
And yet ... Atlanta smoked the Saints 26- 9 and it was every bit as decisive as the score indicates. New Orleans was a 13- point favourite.
The victory might have saved Quinn’s job, even if only temporarily.
“Give Atlanta credit,” said Saints head coach Sean Payton, who proposed to his longtime girlfriend on Saturday. “They beat us well in all three areas. They played better than us. Pick a situation and there’s a good chance they won that situation.”
Many NFL fans outside the American Southeast are unaware that the Saints- Falcons rivalry not only is a rivalry, but one that is particularly intense and bitter. These are two of the oldest NFL franchises in the Deep South that have long been in the same division. The fan bases absolutely despise one another.
“You knew it was going to be a fight,” Quinn said. “In fact, as the 100th game in this rivalry, we wanted to be aggressive right from the start.”
It was an across- the- board failure by Brees and the Saints offence. Credit changes Quinn and his defensive coaches made during Atlanta’s bye week for a lot of that. The Falcons played with passion throughout the game, on both sides of the ball. Certainly far more than the Saints brought to the Superdome.
Brees denied that his side lacked energy. Just results.
“We definitely didn’t execute as well as we normally do, or expect to do,” he said.
Payton had a different take: “Collectively, we’ve got to do a better job and that starts with me. It’s not a lesson, but this league is too good week to week where you can go in and not be focused and ready.”
It’s a lesson that the Green Bay Packers learned last week in Los Angeles, after too many players apparently spent too much time out on the town too deep into Saturday night, then got destroyed the next afternoon by the Chargers. The Packers rebounded to hold off the Carolina Panthers 24-16 at snowy Lambeau Field on Sunday.
Whatever might have been the source of the Saints’ distraction on Sunday, their offence never advanced the ball past the Atlanta 10- yard line; converted only 3- of12 third downs, and 0- of- 3 fourth downs; gained 310 total yards; allowed six sacks of Brees; and were outrushed 143-52.
“We didn’t play well enough to win ( on Sunday), really against anybody,” Payton said.
STILL NO DEFENCE
Not to jinx the young man, honest. But Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes might one game soon break a leg, or collarbone, or hand, or arm, then miraculously come back a couple weeks later and blow our minds again by performing outstandingly — as he did Sunday at Tennessee, just 24 days after dislocating his right knee cap.
But what does it matter if the Chiefs defence continues to be an absolute disaster?
Mahomes completed 36- of- 50 for 446 yards ( the second most of his career) plus three touchdowns without interception, and seven times drove the Chiefs inside the Tennessee 35- yard line for 32 points. And it wasn’t enough.
The Chiefs defence allowed two long touchdown drives by the Titans in the final six minutes and lost 35-32. The Titans blocked Kansas City’s last- play 52- yard fieldgoal attempt that, if good, would have forced overtime.
It’s the fourth loss in nine games for the Chiefs.
Defence continues to be the Achilles heel of Andy Reid’s tenure in Kansas City. This, even after changing his defensive coaching staff and base defensive scheme.
LAMAR THE STAR
The Lamar Jackson Show, otherwise known as the 2019 Baltimore Ravens season, had its finest performance of the year in a 49-13 demolition of the Bengals in Cincinnati.
The NFL player who most confounds defences this NFL season, even more so than Mahomes, continues to be Jackson.
He had the run of the year in the third quarter, weaving between helpless Bengals defenders en route to a 47-yard score.
“I said to the coaches … ‘ They’ll be watching that run for decades and decades,’” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said.
Jackson touched the ball just 24 times on passes and runs and the Ravens gained 298 yards and scored four touchdowns off them. The second- year pro ran seven times for 65 yards and that electrifying TD, and completed 15- of17 for 223 yards, three TDS and no interceptions — for a perfect 158.3 passer rating, his second of the year.
Baltimore improved to 7-2, now alone in second place in the AFC after 8-1 New England.
HOW ABOUT THE STEELERS?
After Pittsburgh dropped to 0-2, and a day later we learned veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was done for 2019 with a serious elbow injury, we all wrote off their season.
Funny thing, the Steelers didn’t write off their season.
Since then, behind inexperienced backup quarterbacks Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges but mostly thanks to a bust- out defence that seems to get better by the quarter, the Steelers have won five of their last seven, to improve to 5- 4 — very much in the thick of the AFC playoff hunt.
The Steelers seem unlikely to catch 7-2 Baltimore but with this defence, an AFC wild- card berth seems a good possibility at this rate.
Pittsburgh totally shut down the Los Angeles Rams offence Sunday and hung on to win 17-12. Rudolph threw for 242 yards, just one yard shy of Rams QB Jared Goff ’s output, but was far more careful with the football.
Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick again was a star, less than two months after his acquisition via trade with the Miami Dolphins. His 43- yard fumble return just before halftime gave Pittsburgh its first lead 14-7, and his interception off a tipped pass with 20 seconds left — his fifth since changing uniforms — sealed the Steelers’ fourth straight win.
BROWNS BAD, BILLS
WORSE
With a win at awful Cleveland, the Buffalo Bills could have improved to 7-2 and pulled to within one game of idle 8-1 New England in the AFC East.
It really would have put some late-season pressure on the Pats — in their due course of winning the division — for the first time, well, in almost a decade.
And the host Browns gave the Bills every opportunity to do so at Firstenergy Stadium on Sunday afternoon, as the Browns lost the game about 20 times.
Too bad the Bills lost it 21 times. Buffalo’s Stephen Hauschka pulled a potential game- tying 53- yard field goal wide left with 17 seconds left, as the Browns hung on to win their first home game of 2019 in four tries 19-16.
In the second quarter Hauschka pulled a 34- yarder wide left, and Bills head coach Sean Mcdermott on one other occasion eschewed a 50-plus yard attempt by his kicker, who has missed his last five 50-plus attempts going back to last season.
Yes, placekicker officially is a problem with the Bills.
IRONMAN STREAK ENDS FOR STAFFORD
For the first time since 2011 the Detroit Lions played without quarterback Matthew Stafford. And for the fifth time this season the Lions lost, 20-13 at Chicago.
The battle to avoid the basement of the NFC North wasn’t so much dominated by the defences as poisoned by offences incapable of moving the ball much.
At least the Lions had the excuse of not having Stafford, whom the club surprisingly ruled out Sunday morning, which leaked four hours before kickoff. The 11th- year pro reportedly has broken bones in his back. Ouch. The QB and the club all last week had given no indication Stafford would not play.
Stafford hadn’t missed a start in 136 games, dating back to 2011.
His replacement, Jeff Driskel, performed admirably. At the getgo, Driskel helped stake the Lions to a 6- 0 second-quarter lead before publicly slaughtered QB Mitchell Trubisky started making a few plays for the Bears. But just a few.