The New Orleans Saints won't be playing for the postseason when they visit the Falcons in Week 18, but there's still a lot on the line.
Both teams are playing their best football of the season and arrive with extended winning streaks. The Saints have won their last four and the Falcons their last three, including a Monday Night Football upset of the Rams. The Falcons won the first matchup 24-10 in a game that saw the Saints miss multiple field goals and fail to score touchdowns after twice reaching the 1-yard line.
"I think this is just a big-time opportunity for us just to finish the right way, division games, Atlanta, we know all the aspects of that," head coach Kellen Moore told Mike Hoss and Bobby Hebert on WWL this week. "These guys played better than us the first time around so we’ve got one more opportunity."
Hear the full, exclusive interview with Saints head coach Kellen Moore in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
The Falcons win on Monday also sets up a fascinating potential scenario to decide the NFC South winner indirectly. The Bucs (7-9) host the Panthers (8-8) on Saturday, but it's not quite winner-take-all. Should Carolina win they'll take down their first NFC South title since 2015.
But if the Bucs win? That's where things could get weird. Both teams would be 8-9, with Tampa coming out ahead in the tiebreaker ... unless the Falcons also finish 8-9. That result would introduce a third team into the tiebreaker, with the Panthers coming out on top.
Put more simply, in Week 18:
- if Panthers beat Bucs ... Panthers win NFC South
- if Bucs beat Panthers AND Saints beat Falcons ... Bucs win NFC South
- if Bucs beat Panthers AND Falcons beat Saints ... Panthers win NFC South
What would also make the Saints-Falcons matchup intriguing under those circumstances is that neither team is interested in thinking about draft picks. The Falcons traded away their 2026 first-rounder, so if anything they're invested in making sure it's as low as possible. The Saints, meanwhile, would have some draft positioning at stake, but team leaders have already made it clear they consider developing winning habits to be more valuable.
"We want to finish the right way. I love the way our guys are competing all the way to the end," Moore continued. "There’s a lot of momentum that can be carried from the way we finish the season into the offseason and into next season, and so we hope to do that.”
The Saints (6-10) and Falcons (7-9) kick off at noon, Sunday inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
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MORE FROM MOORE
On winning four straight games
“Our guys have continued to compete each and every week and really, really proud of those guys. Obviously I felt like this game was a game of resiliency. It was not the start that we need throughout the first half, outside of Chase obviously made a big-time play to create the touchdown, but obviously it didn’t start the right way and just responded really, really well in the second half and it really took all three phases, you know, playing really good football.”
On depth players stepping up
“Really proud of those guys. I think that’s a great thing that we’ve been able to discover through this season is some guys stepping up, taking advantage of some opportunities. Dante [Pettis]made some big-time plays. The catch on the second and long on the sideline, Tyler [Shough] trusts him, Kevin [Austin Jr.], to respond the way he did, he had an early penalty and then just responded, had that big-time catch down the field and ... [Audric] Estime, I think in the second half he was really a spark player, his ability to run the football in a physical manner, get some first downs and obviously the touchdown, just simply an incredible play.”
On Juwan Johnson's big season
“He’s just continued to grow each and every game this year. I thought, you know, where he was at the beginning of the year versus where he is now. I think he’s taken a lot of really positive steps, and I think the cool thing of that was the … yards after catch. He’s catching it. He’s securing the football and then he’s making these extra yards and all those don’t go unnoticed.”