Saints vs Falcons Recap and Insight

In a game where the Saints had an opportunity to take first place of the division, they fell to their rivals the Falcons. Their first game without quarterback Jameis Winston was a disappointing one, and definitely a game that was winnable. A game where the Saints needed to rely heavily on the run game and the defense, Trevor Siemian ended up throwing 41 passes. Lots to take away from this game.

Initial thoughts 

  • This team just forgot the basics of football today for 3/4 quarters of the game 
  • Too many drops, flags, and missed tackles along with blown coverages to win a game
  • The defense had their first “bad game” even though they did their job for a good portion of the game. They can only do so much with the offense not scoring until the fourth, however they did allow too much yardage and points 
  • All the mistakes and the bad are all things that can be fixed

The good 

  • Trevor Siemian played good, just had no help 
  • Brian Johnson had a solid game, made a 52 yard kick 
  • The run game was pretty solid 
  • Taysom Hill had some momentum at quarterback, wouldn’t be surprising if he starts next week
  • The offense was able to come together in the fourth quarter 

The bad

  • The receivers 
  • Too many penalties 
  • Tackling and coverage wasn’t consistent enough to win the game 
  • Coverage couldn’t hold up
  • Front four couldn’t get enough pressure and get sacks 
  • It took three quarters for the offense to finally get momentum. They have to find a way to start off faster 

Room for improvement 

  • receiver room
  • starting off faster 
  • basic fundamentals 

Areas that improved 

  • Finishing strong 
  • Finding ways to get points on the board and downfield fast 

What happened on the last play

The Saints rookie corner Paulson Adebo was lined up against Cordarrelle Patterson on a cover three drop, I don’t  why there was a rookie corner on their best offensive player. Adebo turns his back and tries to keep Patterson inside, and he just gets dusted and keeps his eyes in the backfield for too long. 

Written By Kadin Janisch

Images used under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 allowance are made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.

If you own the rights to an image being used and would like it taken down, please email me (whodattnation@gmail.com) and I will kindly do so.

Related articles here

The two have gone up against each other once, two seasons ago. Now they're arguably the best at their position.
The Saints are coming off another lack luster offensive performance. Who's to blame for it? Jameis, Pete or is it