The New Orleans Saints are set to face the Atlanta Falcons Sunday at noon after the two teams played just a couple weeks ago.
Both teams are coming off of lop sided victories with Atlanta scoring a 43-6 win against the Las Vegas Raiders and the Saints beating the Denver Broncos who were without a true quarterback, 31-3.
Saints coach Sean Payton said Wednesday, he didn’t “know how much the film of our game last week is going to help them” add that because of Atlanta’s big win, there wasn’t much to discern for that game's tape as well.
“And so, you are studying the overall scheme,” Payton said. “You do feel it is a division opponent. So obviously, you know the personnel and just like they know us. It is still about mentally and physically getting ready to play. You know, a difficult game getting ready to play with emotion and all the things that are necessary to win."
Falcons interim coach Raheem Morris did say there was one thing Atlanta was able to take away from watching the Saints win at Denver — New Orleans’ toughness.
“They absolutely went out there and they had the ability, the last two weekends that they have gone out and played, to dictate terms,” Morris said. “They came out versus us and they were able to run the football, establish their toughness and (do) what they wanted to do on defense.
“They established their toughness on defense and they played really competitive and they did the same thing versus the Broncos. They're not going to change who they are based on what's going on with another team. They (know what they) want to be and do what they do. So when (they) go out there and dictate terms like that, that lets us know, we need to figure out how to change the narrative.”
In the teams’ first meeting, the Saints held a 10-9 lead at halftime but took over in the second half on both side of the ball with quarterback Taysom Hill scoring two touchdowns for New Orleans. Morris said his team will need to be more consistent and have a better offensive showing this time around.
“We played a pretty good first half when you talk about defense, but we’ve got to get our offense going,” he said. “We’ve got to get our offense off the bus. We’ve got to get them up and running early. And we’ve got to get (the Saints), got to get a little bit more pressure on (the Saints) and force (the Saints) out of what you want to do.
“So if we can do some of those things, we'll have a chance to make this more competitive at the end. Those guys really controlled the second half and made it go the way they wanted it to go. Kudos to those guys, the coaching staff and the players.”
