Saints Remain Perfect And Defeat Atlanta 35-27

NFL News - November 3rd, 2009 - Written by Scott

The New Orleans Saints were able to overcome four turnovers on Monday night and remained undefeated as they held off a late rally by Atlanta to get a 35-27 victory. Quarterback Drew Brees turned the ball over twice, but passed for 308 yards and 2 touchdowns to bring the Saints to 7-0 on the year. The Saints are off to their best start since 1991 and are now one of only two teams who are without a loss. Despite not covering the NFL Betting Odds 9 point spread, the Saints picked up another key division win. The loss drops the Falcons (4-3) to three games behind New Orleans in the NFC South.

"We did a lot of things well and yet we did a lot of things that made it close at the end," coach Sean Payton said. "I'm excited to win though. I'm excited to win this game and get to 7-0. It was an important game against a division team and I'm proud of our players. They fought."

Atlanta took their opening drive of the game and capped it off on a 13 yard touchdown run by Michael Turner, who finished with 151 yards, to give the Falcons a 7-0 lead. The Saints would respond and tied the game on a 22 yard by running back Pierre Thomas. After punting on their next drive, Atlanta's Kroy Biermann would recover a fumble by Brees on the Saints 4 yard line and take it in for a touchdown to give the Falcons back the lead 14-7.

The second quarter belonged to the Saints. Marques Colston, who finished with 85 yards and a touchdown, would haul in a 18 yard pass by Brees to even the score. Reggie Bush would then add a 1 yard touchdown run to give the Saints the lead, one which they would never relinquish. With 42 seconds remaining in the first half, Jabari Greer would intercept a Matt Ryan pass and take it back for a touchdown to put the Saints ahead 28-14 heading into intermission.

Ryan would bring the Falcons within a touchdown early in the second half on a 68 yard touchdown pass to Roddy White. The Falcons would only manage two field goals by Jason Elam in the fourth quarter and Brees would find Thomas on a 1 yard touchdown pass as the Saints held on for the win.

Elam's second field goal would come with just 28 seconds in the game with the Falcons down by 7. An onside kick by Atlanta was converted, but they only had time for a desperation pass by Ryan that was unsuccessful.

Ryan finished with 289 yards and a touchdown, but threw 3 interceptions. Falcons head coach Mike Smith was not worried about his quarterbacks performance and realizes there is a lot of football left to be played.

"I'm not concerned at all," Smith said. "We're going to be judged on 16 games. Not one game and not three games."

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