News » Falcons 101: A hateful series with the Saints

The most underrated rivalry in professional sports will be renewed this weekend in Atlanta. The Falcons and the Saints hate each other more than the city of New Orleans hates the phrase “10 seconds left.” In a series dating all the way back to Nov. 26 Atlanta Falcons Hoodie , 1967, the NFL’s version of “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate” (well, not too clean since that whole “Bounty-gate” thing happened) is set to hold its 99th game on Sunday. Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, Steve Gleason, Steve Bartkowski, and Archie Manning. In 98 regular season games, all of them of made significant impacts that stand out amongst all the others. While I have only been alive for 23 years of this rivalry, the amount of history and hatred that exists between these two franchises has always surprised me. It is the closest thing the NFL has to a college football rivalry, and it genuinely feels like the game is always a good one no matter how good or bad either team is. The series between these two has been going on for 51 seasons. Out of the 102 seasons between either team, there have only been 28 winning seasons for the two franchises: 15 for the Falcons, 13 for the Saints. This series is about a whole lot more than numbers but we’ll Digg into some stats just in Case they come up later on. 51-46*The Falcons lead the series 51-46 in 98 games—52-46 if we include postseason games, though. Atlanta owns the lone victory in a postseason game between the two franchises: a 27-20 victory in New Orleans on Dec. 28, 1991. While Atlanta leads the overall series, the picture favors New Orleans when it comes to recent games. Since 2008, the Saints have beaten the Falcons 12 times, while Atlanta only holds eight wins in that time. Atlanta’s recent outlookIn the last decade, the Saints and Falcons have played 20 games, 10 at home and 10 in New Orleans. Of those 10 home games, the Falcons are 5-5 and have struggled to consistently beat the Saints in Atlanta. One of the key factors in the overall 8-12 record against New Orleans since Matt Ryan entered the league is the amount of pressure the Saints are able to get on the Atlanta quarterback. Since, 2008 the Falcons are 2-6 when they allow two sacks or more. New Orleans has had three (!!!) five-sack games against Ryan and the Falcons—all of them losses for Atlanta. Despite this, Matt Ryan typically plays pretty well against the Saints: 64 percent completion rate, 32 touchdowns Youth Customized Atlanta Falcons Jerseys , and 12 interceptions. All of that while being sacked just under two times per game. Series quick-hittersAtlanta’s biggest win in the series came on Sept. 16, 1973 when they beat the Saints 62-7 in New Orleans. The Falcons’ biggest loss was on Nov. 1, 1987 when the Saints shut them out while scoring 38 points. A whopping 38-0 loss at home. Dan Quinn lost his first two matchups against the Saints, but has since gone 3-1, bringing his overall record agains New Orleans to 3-3. It’s been an ugly week of football in the NFL. From Thursday through the end of the early games on Sunday, only one contest finished within a double-digit margin of victory. But there was one team that went above and beyond, the same team that first made Rex Ryan a head coach, chased away a grown man in a fireman’s hat and gave us the Butt Fumble. In a week of terrible football, the New York Jets plumbed the depths of sports humiliation with a 41-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Let’s delve into this great moment in competitive degradation from the New York Football Jets. They made a QB off the street look like Peyton ManningMatt Barkley wasn’t in the NFL last week, or all of last season. He hasn’t played since Jan. 1, 2017. It took him one — one game! — to claim the top spot on the Bills’ leaderboard with three passing touchdowns. It was the first time in a month since a Bills quarterback threw a touchdown pass, Nathan Peterman in a Week 6 loss to the Texans. The best and worst from Week 10Monday Morning Pleighbook: The Titans destroyed the Patriots and trolled them along the wayPlayoff picture: How Week 10’s results shaped the postseason raceEmbarrassment of the week: The Jets have reached a new level of humiliation The 10 dumbest mistakes from Week 10, rankedLET AARON DONALD RUN THE DAMN BALL! The Cowboys’ formula for winning starts with Ezekiel Elliott How the hell did the Bucs have 501 yards and only score 3 points? Jared Goff’s “Halle Berry” audible is confusing Halle BerryLe’Veon Bell isn’t coming back this seasonRams tackle Andrew Whitworth donated his entire game check to victims of the Thousand Oaks shootingDerek Carr and the Raiders’ season summed up in one playAll he needed was a trip to New Jack City. Where is that, you ask? It was supposed to be a shining city on a hill, a place where quarterbacks were every quarterback would magically be transformed into Peterman. Instead, New Jack City — the fantasy land nickname the Jets secondary gave themselves back in August — looks more like New York City, 1977, a flaming garbage pile marked by disco beats and apathy. “Each and every game we got to go make a statement,” is how Morris Claiborne described itthen, when the Jets secondary looked like it might actually be the team’s strength. They made a statement this week, alright — “we quit.” Before this week, Jets quarterbacks had a grand total of three touchdowns, 16 picks, a 55 percent completion rate www.falconsauthorizedshops.com , a 51.5 passer rating and 1,593 yards. Today, against the Jets, Barkley finished with 232 yards, two touchdowns and a 117.4 passer rating. But Barkley wasn’t the only one looking like the ‘07 Patriots in this game. Everyone was an offensive superstar against the JetsZay Jones had 93 yards and a touchdown, the best game of his career. Someone named Robert Foster had two catches for 30 yards this season. He had three catches for 105 yards this week. LeSean McCoy hadn’t rushed for more than 85 yards since Week 13 last year. He had 113 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Even the big men got in the on the action, with offensive tackle Dion Dawkins catching a touchdown pass to give the Bills their first passing TD since Week 6. Those Jets turnoversAfter Sam Darnold’s four-interception loss to the Dolphins last week, it seemed like the Jets might actually be a little less turnover prone this week with career mentor Josh McCown filling in for the injured rookie. Nope. But at least he only had two picks. That’s really kind of a win for the Jets. Keep building, Gang Green! Comedy hijinks, play after play! What’s worse than getting one holding penalty on a play? Getting two holding penalties on the same play. What’s worse than two holding penalties on the same play? How about THREE? Three holding penalties on the same play. That happened. At 4:33 in the second quarter. NYJ-1-10-BUF 37: E.McGuire right end pushed ob at BUF 19 for 18 yards (L.Wallace). PENALTY on NYJ-J.Leggett, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at BUF 37 - No Play. Penalty on NYJ-K.Beachum, Offensive Holding, declined. Penalty on NYJ-J.Kearse, Offensive Holding, declined. And just to put the chef kiss on the whole thing, the Jets threw an interception the play after that. The Bills scored on the ensuing drive to take a 31-0 lead. Thirty-one points. In the first half. The Bills scored a total of 33 points in their last four games. But wait, it gets better. Gutsy decisionsThere’s just no quit in these Jets. No, siree. I’m not sure what head coach Todd Bowles said to his team at half time, but I think it probably went something like this: “Please clap.” They scored a touchdown halfway through the third quarter to pull within (counting) ... 21 points! Then, after another Bills touchdown, the Jets had the ball on their own 40 on a fourth-and-9 when they punted. You hate to see a team punt on fourth down trailing like that, but it was either that or another easy score for the Bills. Sometimes knowing when to just slap a tourniquet on there instead of reattaching the missing limb is really the best decision. A new low for a team with lots of lows That was the Jets’ worst loss under head coach Todd Bowles Womens Jake Matthews Jersey , who’s now 23-25 since taking the job in 2015. But it wasn’t just the worst loss of Bowles’ tenure, it was the worst loss in the team’s history. And this is a team with a real knack for humiliation. Is Todd Bowles going to get fired now? Maybe! The team’s owner, Chris Johnson, wouldn’t talk to reporters after the game, and they were eager to ask if this was it for the embattled head coach. That’s probably not a great sign. The players weren’t blaming their coach. And fans have PLENTY to say, none of it good. They are done with Bowles over at Gang Green Nation, SB Nation’s Jets site. The Jets have a bye next week, so if they’re going to do it during the season, this is probably the time. Damn, what a tough week for Todd Bowles. It wasn’t even his only loss this week: You can’t just blame it all on Bowles either. After all, the Jets spent $90 million on contracts for new players this season, and, well, you’ve seen the results. More from GGN: Oh, he ought to get das boot too, the general manager, once the season ends. The downside is that it puts everything back to square one for the team, and leaves the Jets winless at rebuilding too. Even with a new coach next week or next season, this chapter in the long-running story of Jets humiliation will have passed, but I have a sneaky feeling we’re not that far away from another one.