didnt we go in victory formation with less than two minutes left?

Yes, the defense did great to step up and make plays when the offense couldn’t.

And yes, that is what good teams do – find ways to win no matter what happens.

But if we keep playing like this, then the 5-0 start with “big wins” (where we lead early and cruise) becomes the aberration and the close games we barely win become the norm and when will the magic run out?

Good win – whenever we play the Falcons, it has potential to be a MEMORABLE one. Nice work, Saints!

Did anyone else think on Brees’ sack/fumble/TD return that maybe the sacker’s helmet hit Drew’s facemask. And isn’t that supposed to be a penalty (like when Vilma conked Eli and it nullified a Sharper pick 6?)?

That 68-yard TD pass from Ryan to White was a joke – White bumped Porter then pushed him off to get clearance to make the catch – a textbook case of offensive pass interference that I cannot comprehend how the ref 5 yards away did not call. And I am sick of the media calling that an awesome catch that showcases White’s amazing ability as a receiver – he effin’ cheated on that play to get open, so, no, it is not an awesome throw and catch.

Those refs were sooo tentative and late in blowing the whistle to end plays in the second half. It was maddening. Did you see when Colston made a catch and then was surrounded by Falcons, wrapped up, and forward progress completely stopped, and they held one of his legs up in the air as they swiped at the ball? The refs were late in blowing the whistle, and then after they finally did, that one guy did not let go of his leg and then rode him to the ground? That was cheap and should have been flagged. But it was nice seeing Reggie run in that scrum and flex up for Colston.

7-0, baby. That is sweet. Go Saints!!!

We bounced off Turner like… like… (can anyone help me out here?…I got nothin’)

But it’s good that we broke Atlanta’s “we’re unbeaten when Turner goes over 100 yards” streak.

and I expected no less from our teams on MNF. However, as a Falcon fan, can I nominate whoever tipped Ryans pass to Greer (Villama I think) as player of the game. Without that Gonzo is probley in the endzone with a TD.

When ESPN zoomed in on the &%^$ guy holding the 7-0 sign with 2 minutes left, I nearly came out of my 88 jersey. Did this guy’s space ship just land. As soon as I saw that I told my son that we were in trouble. And sure enough the last 1:51 or 1:56 or whatever the refs decided on unfolded. All long term Saints fans know that you don’t temp the “Bite You In The Butt” Gods like that.

That pass he tipped that was intercepted in the red zone by Porter was the play of the game in my mind. If not for that, the Birds were about to score and take back the lead. My heart couldn’t have handled that in the 4th quarter.

The penalties have to be cleaned up. The Falcons played a near perfect game in that regard. That holding penalty they had on Reggie to keep the drive going for us was a stroke of good luck. That was an iffy looking call. That scoring drive would have ended right there without it.

Overall, the Saints looked a little sloppy in some areas. The absence of Ellis and Evans seemed to have more effect than I anticipated. Our run game didn’t look as good as before and Turner gashed us on too many runs. We’re fortunate to get this W. Still, I’m optimistic that Eckel will be better and more effective with another week of practice under his belt. The same goes for the run defense without Big Sed.

Beware the Panthers. They showed some life in Arizona and will probably give us another physical game.

What’s funny is that I completely recognize the point in the game where the screenshot of you was taken. Not because of you. But because I’m pretty sure that the woman holding that Krewe of Drew sign in the picture is particularly hot. You never mentioned that particular benefit about your season seats.

1. Jon Gruden is a joke, not a joker. Is it really necessary to have a third person in the booth? If someone says something that is not funny, but everyone in the booth laughs at it because they have to, and keeps bringing it up and talking about how funny it is, does it then somehow beome funny at some point in time?

2. Stuart Scott needs to do his homework. Is he the only one in the Dome (or in America) who cannot recognize the fans chanting “Who Dat?”, not its oft-bastardized cousin of the Bengals, “Who Dey?” And if I had to listen to him talk about Jabari Green one more time, I was going to have to slit the wrists.

3. You lose some cred when you put on Matt Millen for his football expertise. Though he may have had a valid point when he said Saints should have simply taken a knee late, but it wasn’t as clear-cut as he made it seem. ATL had a timeout, and Saints were trying to get a first down. No reason to think the Saints couldn’t get it.

4. The no-interference call on Roddy White was a joke (again not a joker), but especially when you compare it to the flag on Devery Henderson in the first half just before Brees INT.

5. Waiting to hear news on the Goodwin injury. That one scares me. It did not look good. Good heads up by Drew to get to the sideline and take some snaps from Nesbit as Goodwin was helped off.

6. Lighten up everyone. We turned the ball over, couldn’t stop the run, and still beat the consensus preseason division champ by 8 points.

7. That said, the 0 on the end of the record is wholly unimportant. It’s not like college. You get nothing for it in the NFL. Ask the Patriots. It looks like this “undefeated” thing is starting to wear on this team a bit already. A nice 13-3, and most importantly, home-field throughout the playoffs, I will gladly take at this point.

i think we need to point out that hes not the only one putting the ball on the ground.

The refs were out of their mind last night, but I was curious why we weren’t able to keep that fumble.

The replay showed the fumble and then Thomas grabbing it at the bottom of the pile up. He should have been down there, with the recovery. Instead they let it continue into a clusterF and they pull the ball away. Why can’t they look at that in the replay? The same camera that shows the fumble shows us recovering it.

The offense(and Drew Brees in particular) is waay overrated right now, in my opinion. The O-line gets softer every game, Drew is taking too long and not seeing blitzes like normal, and a ton of his passes looked bad. He got away with a pretty good statistical game by way of a series of acrobatic catches by the receivers. The running game is still working, though, but now we’ll have to see how Goodwin is doing after that retarded decision to run three with a minute and a half left. And they have to learn to wrap the ball up, especially in the fourth quarter, when you’re really just bleeding the clock.

I miss Billy Miller and Heath Evans so much. The founder of Wendys is terrible, and he’s just getting worse. It was great(sarc.) to watch him line up like a receiver in the backfield as fullback, then dart through the line and block a safety before the back has even gotten past the guards. And his “Hands Team” play was just magical.

Vilma’s tipped pass was his saving move to me. He wasn’t particularly effective otherwise. Harper on Gonzalez was painful to watch. And somehow, the DB leg tackle was the only thing we had to stop Turner. And while no one seems like an adequate replacement for Fujita right now, Dunbar was the best of the bunch. At least he had some positive plays out there. But overall, the OLB’s were immensely weak.

I think my player of the game would be either the Fresh Prince or Hargrove. They were both on fire last night. Don’t know what happened to Grant, but at least Smith woke up when it mattered.

I’ve been thinking the Saints have been uncharacteristically lucky with the refs a lot this year, but the refs definitely turned on them last night. Won’t bother complaining too much about the refs, but I will say they stink, worst officiating crew in pro sports, and that it felt like a bad sign last night to have the usual 11-on-17 sense that I always had in the previous 25 years of watching. And also, it looks like both Brady rules worked to the Falcon’s advantage last night. Ryan kept the ball on that “forward pass” that was definitely not a fumble or grounding, and Brees doesn’t get to be in the club of qb’s that can’t be hit helmet-to-helmet, incidental or no.

Ugly. Made my dinner come up watching that game at times. But they made plays when they needed them, and ended all the statistical streaks the 1.5 year-old Hotlanta regime had amassed. Kudos, and thanks. And THANK GOD FOR THE SAINTS’ SECONDARY!! What?

We lacked the ability to stop Turner from bouncing it to the outside. In my opinion Charles Grant had a horrible game. Every time Turner cut to his side it seemed he was turned the wrong way and let the lineman redirect him so that his back was to the ball. We were actually filling the middle fairly effectively,but on 3 huge running plays (2 on Grant, 1 on Smith) it looked like our DEs failed to seal the edges and let Turner run right by them. That has to get better.

was one that actually worked. Anyone else catch Tracy Porter’s shoulder lean cleanup along the sidelines late in the game? Absolutely HORRENDOUS form. He didn’t even attempt to wrap up. Had the receiver — may have been Stecker, I can’t recall — not been off-balance, he would have likely run 70-some-odd yards for the game-tying TD.

I know Jamar Nesbit can fill in perfectly fine, but Goodwin is much better.. Same goes for Lance Moore, but my dude Meachem had a good game last night, making a huge catch before the two minute warning in the 2nd quarter.. Big win, Carolina up next, let’s do this thaaangg

WHOOOOO DAAAAAAAAAT!

Marvin Mitchell, Darnell Dinkins and John Carney should all be running extra laps this week. I honestly haven’t seen enough out of any one of these guys this entire season, to merit their spots on the roster and I liked Dinkins a lot with the Browns. All three were liabilities last night.

1.) Need to stop the running game (see last 2 games)
2.) O-Line has to protect Drew better…from the beginning on!
3.) Stop fumbling!
4.) Calling for Carneys head because of 1 missed FG is overreacting
5.) If we continue to play like this someone is bound to beat us…my tip Pats, ATL at home or the Cowgirls
6.) I stated before the game if ATL looses then the fans will say it was because of their long list of injured players…..I forgot about the refs as a scapegoat. :-)

How does this referee keep his job? Completely botched calls by the crew, complete indecision throughout the game, and numerous missed holding calls against Charles Grant that helped Michael Turner break containment and get to the outside.

With that, we still won and played at about a C+ level. Fack the Fulcons!

That Vilma tip that set up the interception was the play of the game, in my opinion. Without that, maybe Gonzo grabs that one and it’s suddenly a very different situation.

I came away most impressed with your defense, which has improved by leaps and bounds over last year. I had hoped we’d draft Tracy Porter last year and I’m not thrilled to see him making plays for you guys, but he’s clearly a quality corner in this league already. Ditto your pressure on Matt Ryan, which forced him into some very bad decisions.

Looking forward to catching you at the Georgia Dome. Good game.

1) I agree about the officiating; it was pretty awful. Amazingly, I’ve seen soooo many Falcons fans blaming the loss on the calls that went against them. While I think there were some calls that went our way, it seemed overwhelmingly obvious that the head ref had his money on the visiting team. From the BS call on “excessive celebration” to the no-call on Roddy White’s TD (which was as bad as if not worse than Devery’s penalty), I was really amazed at the ineptitude of the officials.

2) Lack of depth at a few positions is really concerning—specifically TE and OLB. Marvin Mitchell and Mr. Wendys both were baaaaad. The blame for the sack-fumble-TD is at least partially on Mr. Wendys, as I see it (although Brees probably would take full responsibility for it). Our secondary is so pimp though…. it’s amazing.

3) Brees is pretty spectacular. What’s more amazing is his rapport with the receiving corps. That INT may have been a bit underthrown, but it was a ridiculous play by Grimes more than anything. Seriously, do you really expect an almost-midget to be able to jump 9 feet in the air? But what’s incredible is how Brees adjusted after that, throwing to Colston and Shockey so high that it was just barely within their reach. And some of those catches…. ridiculous.

I saw that I was like that looks like homie from the Chronic. Nailbiter huh…

by now there are some real ‘under rated’ teams looking to bite into the saints, and call themselves the david vs goliath

there is no doubt after this game we are in the spotlight… with our less than stellar performance I think some teams will be chomping at OUR bits… just for a taste

on another note, the colts didn’t look so hot, and really should have lost the game @ 49ers, now espn people are thinking both teams are doomed…

doomed would be a bit of an overstatement in my opinion… i don’t mind a loss but we better have fought for every inch..

which btw is what we had to do this last game which is why im happy we won… yes we didnt play so well, yes refs suck ballsa** and yes the falcons kept up… but there will be those games…

but ill tell you what. we havent played great football these last 2 games but we STILL win… ugly it may be, we still win. if this had been last year, we would be licking our wounds

Saw the girl w/Krewe of Brees Sign a couple times,but those signs were all over,but the girl next to you would have picked up by the moblie side-line cam, are those door giveaways or kiosk purchases? Oh yeah, quit biting those nails, by some gum..Ha

that was big fun

didn’t know that was you next to it.

I didn’t see every play because NHK over here chops the game to bits and only shows drives featuring scoring or turnovers. But, although Roddy White did get away with O.P.I. on Greer, I think the Saints have generally been the beneficiaries of the bad calls this season. None was bigger than the Sharper fumble on the pick return last week.

I don’t know if I’m atypical, but it bothers me even when we get the benefit of bad calls.

our HISTORY as a FRANCHISE is we never got the breaks at least the critical ones, or when we got one here or there sometime later in the game our own blunder would undue us i.e. Penalties,Fumbles, INT’s,No Calls. Good teams are good for a reason,not only do they score when they have to but they get the breaks, If its our time its our time, Go ask a Cowboy,Patriot,Steeler, or 49ers fans,if it was just talent or just luck they won all those SB’s.

Yes, he is.

The MNF photo of Saintsational needs to be the subject of a “Caption That Photo” contest.

Look, im as diehard a Saint’s fan as any, but 2 hear all of these excuses about ref’s not call’n or call’n this & that, needs 2 STOP… Both team’s played hard & YES there were quit a bit of official issues, but 2 complain & say this or that would have happened, is childish!
I have all the respect in the world 4 ATL & they have a young & great team, that will flourish in the year’s 2 come. They played one hell of a game & i tip my hat 2 them. We probably played our worst game of the year & are fortunate 2 have gotten the “W”, bottom line. There are NO excuses, we need 2 clean up our act & STOP the stupid penalties & turn overs. We wont always be able 2 pull these games off if we continue.
It was a good win & im look’n forward 2 next Sunday with CAR.
Oh & as far as all this mumble jumble about go’n undiffeated (needs 2 STOP)… Play one team at a time. Forget about all the other B/S.
Im very proud of our team & look’n forward 2 a special season. Keep it boy’z!!!
GEAX SAINT’S