This one is big.
The Falcons spent all of last season looking up in the NFC South standings at the Saints, who captured the division title at 13-3 and went on to win the Super Bowl. Heading into a Week 3 showdown this season, New Orleans has already put Atlanta in another hole.
Of course, it could just as easily be the other way around heading into Sunday’s tilt at the Superdome. The Falcons sit at 1-1, but they are much closer to being 2-0 than 0-2. After a 15-9 overtime road loss to Pittsburgh, Atlanta returned home for Week 2 and hammered the Arizona Cardinals 41-7.
The Saints are an unblemished 2-0, but they are not far from sporting a mirror image of that record. New Orleans edged Minnesota 14-9 at home in an ugly defensive affair to kick off its season, and on Monday night the visitors needed a last-second field goal to subdue San Francisco 25-22.
While 13 regular-season games will remain following the most recent installment of this budding NFC South rivalry, the Falcons do not want to fall two games behind the Saints. A loss would also put Atlanta in danger of dropping two games back of Tampa Bay, as the Bucs are 2-0 and hosting a Pittsburgh team that is without quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Dennis Dixon.
“It’s a divisional game, so that puts a little bit more on it,” rookie linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It’s a real big game. It’s probably the biggest game of my life, so I’m really excited about it.”
Tight end Tony Gonzalez is especially pumped up for what is sure to be an electric atmosphere in New Orleans. “It’s great,” he told the AJC. “I love it. It kind of reminds me of the Oakland Raiders when they were really humming down there. It’s just a great environment. It’s loud. The fans talk trash to you. It’s a great place to play football and a great place to win if we can come out on top.”
Head coach Mike Smith agreed that this is the biggest game of the year…but only because it’s the next game. “As I tell our guys, the game that we’re getting ready to play is the most important game of the season,” Smith said in an interview with AtlantaFalcons.com. “Not only for the players, but for the fans; for everybody in the organization. The next game is the most important game.”
This time, that’s the truth.
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