“We do have more on the line when you talk about a game in the division that if you win you’re up three, if you lose you’re only up one. That’s a big swing. It’s a big swing,” says Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
The Saints suffered two big losses this week on the injury front, one permanent. Fullback Heath Evans is lost for the season after tearing an ACL in his right knee against the Dolphins. Evans had surgery on Thursday and was placed on injured reserve.
“Heath was not only a really productive player but, an awesome guy. Awesome locker room guy, great for that running back room which really some pretty young players. I think Heath was just such a good influence on everybody, just a solid guy. You miss him for a lot of reasons.”
Defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis suffered a sprained right knee and will not play this week. His athleticism will be missed as the Saints defense will try and stop a balanced Falcons attack. The addition of tight end Tony Gonzales in the offseason has added another weapon to sophomore quarterback Matt Ryan, who in two games last season threw for 563 yards against the Saints combined. Add the emergence of receiver Roddy White and his 5tds this season, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams says they have their work cut out for them
“They do everything. They’ll run the zone scheme, they’ll do the gap scheme stuff and still run the power running game. They’ve got an occasional Wildcat or two. They’re able to play-action you and max you up and throw the ball down the field and then they’ve done a very good job of having playmakers on third down to keep the chains moving,” Williams says. “We’re going to have to stop everything. It’s like that old NFL films, look at this, look at this, be ready for this, stop that, stop everything. We’re going to have to be prepared to do that and it’s going to be our guys matching up with their guys and being able to make those plays.”
There’s been increased chatter of the Saints going undefeated this week both by the national and local media, fans always think the Black and Gold will go 16-0 to the Super Bowl. Saints players however focusing on the game at hand. It’s a big one says linebacker Jonathan Vilma.
“Huge. Huge. Besides the fact that it’s our only game coming up, but it’s a division opponent at home and you win a division game it’s like winning two games,” says linebacker Jonathan Vilma. “Especially against Atlanta. They got a good team and a very good offense.”
It seems that collectively the locker room feels that worrying about the future is pointless. Season records, playoff seedings all of that will sort itself out if they simply concentrate on winning every week.
“Obviously we know what our record is, but listen we’re thinking about just winning against the Atlanta Falcons. At the end of the day let’s count the chips up and lets cash out and get out of the casino,” says tight end Jeremy Shockey. “That’s how we’re thinking. We’re not thinking about if we win the game we’re up this much, we lose it it’s this much, that’s not the mentality. It’s about coming in here every day, take it one day at a time
Running back Reggie Bush warns the Saints must be ready come kickoff and that he sees a little bit of the black in gold in the red in black.
“They can easily put up a lot of points too just like we can. They got the guys that can stretch the field in Roddy White and Jenkins, and obviously the quarterback is a great player, the running backs are doing a great job also, they got Tony Gonzales so they got a lot of weapon just like us. I think they are very similar to us in their makeup of their offense with their skill positions. It’s going to be a tough test again, and you just got to stand up. We got to man up,” says Bush.
Finally the fans are again being called upon to help in the winning cause, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams believes, film study showed that at Dallas last week, Ryan had protection issues due to the home noise.
” I think anytime you play on the road offensively, it’s somewhat more difficult to be ahead of the defense in some things. Hopefully we’ll play them well enough so our fans are excited enough that they can give us that advantage. I know that when we played New York, they were big,” says Williams. “The fans were giving us a third down advantage, giving us the red zone advantage, giving us the goal line advantage, that type of stuff and it makes communication difficult. I think in the Dallas game they got caught up in a couple of those kind of things.
As for how I see it, it should another classic Saints-Falcons game. Againt I believe the Saints have th talent to outlast the Falcons. Look for this game to be won in the 4th quarter with the Saints perhaps getting a big play on defense, that leads to a go ahead score., Saints 31 – Falcons 26
BUMPS AND BRUISES
DT Sedrick Ellis is out for Monday’s game against Atlanta. Ellis suffered a sprained right knee last week and did not practice at all this week.
LB Scott Fujita is questionable for the game as he continues to recover from a strained calf suffered two weeks ago in the Giants game.
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