The Recap- Saints Vs Falcons

Well, wasn’t that fun? By far the most fun I’ve had watching the Saints this season. Anytime you drop nearly 50 points on the Falcons there’s no way not to find that enjoyable, regardless of how the rest of the season has gone.

Possibly for the last time in the 2023/2024 let's break down this epic Saints win.

Team Stats 

(Saints/Falcons)

Final Score: 48-17

First downs: 27-14

3rd down efficiency: 3/10- 4/11

Total yards: 400-389

RedZone Efficiency:4 of 6 - 1 of 3

Penalties:  3 for 15 yards- 8 for 75 yards

Turnovers- 0-3

Time of possession- 26:10 - 33:50

Takeaways 

Offense

Feels like I’ve typed this a lot over the past 5 weeks but here we go again, this was Carr’s best game as the Saints QB. He finished 22/28 (79%) 264 yards 4 Touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He spread the ball out well with 4 players finishing with over 40 receiving yards receiving. His ball placement was excellent, especially on 2 contested throws to A.T. Perry both back shoulder types of throws, one for a TD. 

The biggest change that has led the way in Carr’s late-season resurgence? His improved play in the RedZone. He threw 2 TD passes in the RedZone today with the team finishing 4/6 in the red area ( granted 1 of those was the fake kneel at the end, more on that later). 

Perry continued his late-season progression, finishing with 3 catches for 56 yards and 2 touchdowns. With it seeming unlikely that Mike Thomas will be back with the Saints for next season, Perry developing into a legit WR with a highly contested catch upside is crucial. With his first regular season now over he finished with 12 catches for 246 yards and 4 TDs in only 10 games.

Perry was a 6th-round pick in the 2023 draft, and the 3rd-round pick from that draft Kendre Miller showed a lot of promise today too. Finishing with 73 rushing yards from 13 carries (5.6 YPC) and 1 catch for 6 yards. Miller had noticeable juice and elusiveness which we haven't seen much from the Saints RBs this season, the difference in burst between him and Jamaal Williams today was huge. On his touchdown run Per Nick Underhill, he was touched by 6 different Falcons defenders and he still managed to punch it from 3 yards out. It was a very encouraging end to the season for the rookie runner.

Other offensive notes

• Jamaal Williams, unfortunately, continued his struggles averaging 1.9 YPC on 14 carries, he did end his season on a small high thought scoring his first TD of the year on the fake kneel down.

• Chris Olave’s TD catch almost seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of this game but it was an incredible play, great concentration to catch it after it bounced off the defender, and after some early struggles, he ended up having a great year.

• Rashid Shaheed caught another TD bomb, yes we’ve all heard that before, however, something we don’t talk about enough is how many tough catches he makes. The catch today wasn't easy the throw was a touch late and he had to adjust and make a strongly contested catch and that's exactly what he did.

Defense

A tale of two halves for the defense,  226 yards and 17 points given up in the first half, 163 yards and no points in the second. They held the Falcons to only 3.1 YPC which is a big change from the first meeting and rookie sensation Bijan Robinson was held to only 2.5 YPC.  That's certainly encouraging for the Saints run defense which has struggled. 

The Saints struggled early, mainly due to 2 busted coverages, the first resulted in a 56-yard pass to Scotty Miller setting up the first Falcons TD, and the other resulted in a 71-yard catch and run TB by Bijan Robinson.  This resulted in Alontae Taylor being benched for the 2nd time in 3 weeks (as the slot CB). 

From here the Saints flipped a switch, in the second half, the Saints forced 3 turnovers, 2 INTs and fumble recovery off a botched snap. Taylor, who as mentioned was benched was back in the game with Ike Yiadom out with a concussion, Had the first INT whilst playing outside CB, a role I think he will move back to next season when/if the Marshon trade happens. 

Unfortunately, the Saints pass rush still looks inept, if the Saints do trade star CB Marshon Lattimore this off-season (which sadly looks likely) the coverage will regress, especially against a harder schedule. For this defense to not regress mightily they have to improve the pass rush, if they can’t I expect the defense to struggle much more than they did this year.

Saints Stock Exchange (Sponsored By… Nobody)

Just a quick hit section each week to highlight which Saints players/staff have their stock value increasing and decreasing after each game, 3 up and 3 down:

Stock Up

• Derek Carr
• Kendre Miller
• Jameis Winston

Great way for Carr to finish the season, with his best game as a Saint and a great game by anyone's standards. His final season stat line: 68.4% completion % 3878 yards passing, 25 TDs and 8 Ints, It's a pretty good year, considering the o-line play and the injuries he’s sustained, if not for the early season conduct issues I think Saints fans would be talking about Carr very differently. 

Miller finally got on the field and was finally given some opportunities and he showed why the Saints drafted him, really excited to watch him next season. I think he could be the future at RB health permitting.

Finally, Jameis Winston, for 2 reasons for changing the play at the line to give Jamaal his first and only TD of the season and 2 for owning that decision postgame. For being a great teammate and for being accountable for his decisions. DA could learn a lot from his players and their comments following today's game.

Stock Down



• Dennis James Allen 

I was going to ride into the sunset on a wave of positivity and have nobody in the down but frankly, Dennis Allen ruined it. All he had to do was back his players publicly that's it, even if he couldn't do that just don't mention anything at all about the last play and handle the fact that the players chose to directly go against him and run the ball instead of kneeling in private.

He didn't and because of that, he’s driven yet another wedge between him, the team and the fans. He could have said the players felt strongly about it, so I agreed and then handled it behind closed doors. Sadly, again he called his players out in public when there was no need to, which again shows what a poor communicator and leader he is and why he will never be a successful HC.

My final conclusion from this whole debacle is the most damming of all. I'm sure we will hear this off-season how the Saints credit DA for how the team stayed together to win 4 of their last 5 games, as one of the reasons why the Saints chose to keep DA, the issue with that idea is it's pretty clear that's not true. 

The players kept this team together, they chose not to quit and banded together to make sure everyone in the locker room stayed the course, not DA. The players chose today to do something for one of their own, despite their coaches' orders to not do it. That shows they don’t respect DA and that they decide how this season ends not the HC and theirs no way to spin that positively for DA.

The Saints will be making a mistake by keeping DA, not because he’s a bad defensive coach but because the players don’t respect him, he has no idea how to hold his players accountable and no idea how to be the coach his team and its fans need him to be.

Conclusion 

Another Saints season comes to an end, in only the way a DA coached can in a mess. They waxed the Falcons by scoring the most points a Saints team had against the Falcons and won by the 2nd largest margin of victory in the history and yet we still have to end on the same conclusion #fireDennisAllen. They won’t but they should, for the good of the players and for the good of the fans.

Thank you to all those who have read even one of these recaps this season and if there are any of you reading this that have read that have enjoyed my content this year please let me know. Another interesting off-season ahead and honestly I can't wait.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram @SaintsReportUK, for much more Saints content and discussion throughout the 2023 season and beyond.