New Orleans Saints vs Atlanta Falcons 2025 Week 12 Preview
Caleb Yaccarino • November 23, 2025
Once again, the Saints have a divisional matchup, and like before the bye week, it's a winnable game.
Saints vs Falcons History
If I called the Saints and Panthers' overall historical record close, this is another level. As of now, including on postseason games, the Saints and Falcons have a tied record of 56-56. The last win came from the Saints when interim HC Darren Rizzi took over and led New Orleans to a three-point victory. In the past 10 games, the Saints have won 7, and most have been close, single-score games. To say this rivalry is intense is an understatement; it is full of hate.
The 2025 Season
This season has not gone well for both teams, but at least for the Saints, everyone knew this team would not be winning now. For the Falcons, there were playoff expectations with the rebuilding of the defense, the weapons on offense, and confidence with second-year QB Michael Penix. Atlanta knew this and traded a future first in 2026 to fix the defensive line so they could compete for the division title. Instead, they have three wins on the season, Penix is out for the year with a knee injury and did not look great when he did play, and they do not have a first-round pick to fix some of their issue. At the beginning of the season, the Saints' chances of winning this game were very low, but not anymore.
Injury Report
OT Taliese Fuaga - Questionable
OT Barry Wesley - Questionable
Final Thoughts
For the second straight game, this is winnable for the Saints, but it really comes down to dealing with the Falcons' run game and their pass rush. If New Orleans can deal with that, this could be a good day for the Saints.
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LSU needed a bounce back game to kick this weekend off and, boy, did they get it. Following a fairly pedestrian 6 game stretch where they went 3-3 with losses to McNeese, Northeastern, and then ULL on Wednesday, the Tigers had been looking nothing like the team we watched start the year 8-0. Even the three wins over Dartmouth and Northeastern over last weekend did not look pretty on the offensive side. Well, everything went right tonight. Casan Evans was marvelous from first pitch. He started his outing with five perfect innings and looked flat out dominant along the way. It was easily his best start of the season and arguably the best start of his career. Only his start against Tennessee in 2025, which was his first career start, can possibly compare. It wasn't just Evans that went to work, though. Not only did LSU's bats show up for the first time in two weeks, they showed up for their best night of the season. The 15 runs scored on Friday night equal half of what they scored in the previous six games. Speaking of the number six, that's how many homeruns the Tigers hit. Six of them in only 6 innings at the plate. It was a monumental return for Jay Johnson's offense. Pitching Casan Evans got off to a hot start with a two strikout 1st inning. His final pitch was a 99 mph heater that he blew past Sacramento State's 3-hole hitter. His 2nd and 3rd innings were just as good, as he struck out 2 more in each inning. After "only" striking out one in the 4th, Evans returned in the 5th and struck out another two to bring his total to 9 through his first 5 innings. It was the leadoff hitter in the 6th that finally broke up the perfect game, as his ground ball through the right side just barely missed Jack Ruckert's glove. Sacramento St would get to Evans for another single and then a 2 run double and that would be where Jay Johnson would call it a night for his sophomore ace. Despite only 72 pitches, Evans had a lot of long waits inbetween the first four innings with his offense going crazy. Simply put, he was phenomenal. Jay Johnson could not have asked for a better final tune up prior to traveling to Nashville next weekend for the start of SEC play. Final line: 5.2 IP / 3 hits / 2 runs / 9 Ks / 0 BBs / 72 pitches (52 strikes, 72%) Zion Theophilus came in to finish off the 6th once Evans exited the game and did exactly what he needed to. He only needed 4 pitches to get a strikeout and leave a Hornet stranded on 2nd base. Final line: .1 IP / 0 hits / 0 runs / 1 K / 0 BB Marcos Paz entered for the 7th to finish off the game and was up and down. After starting off with a strikeout, he issued back to back walks. He'd record the second out of the inning on a flyout, but then gave up 2 run double to the right center gap. Despite the trouble, Paz was able to lock in and strikeout the final hitter to close out the game. Final line: 1.0 IP / 1 hit / 2 runs / 2 Ks / 2 BBs Hitting Jake Brown continued his torrid start to the season, blasting THREE home runs to bring his season total to 8. All were beautiful, but the first was an opposite field shot to the Left Field Landing at 104 mph off of the bat. Somehow, his second was even more impressive. At 108 mph off of the bat, Brown hit the ball off of the batter's eye in center field at 425 feet. Just when you thought it was going to be his third two homer game of the season, he stepped to the plate for his third at bat in the first three innings and deposited yet another ball over the fence in right center. Brown added a single to his final stat line, which read 4-5 with 6 RBI and 4 runs scored. Derek Curiel followed up his 3-3 night in Lafayette with another stellar performance. In his first three at bats, he went: double, 2 run homerun, double. In his fourth at bat of the night, he was finally recorded out for the first time since Monday night against Northeastern. His homerun went 421 feet and came off of the bat at 108 mph. Curiel finished 3-4 with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. Cade Arrambide also joined the homerun fun, blasting his fourth homerun of the season in the 4th inning. It was the longest of the night, flying out at 432 feet to dead center field. That was his first since hitting one in back to back games in Jacksonville two weeks ago. Arrambide was also hit by a pitch and finished 1-3 with the RBI on his solo bomb and scoring 2 runs. Speaking of joining the homerun fun, Steven Milam finally got his first of the year. The junior launched a towering 404 foot blast in to the Diamond Deck and took his time leaving the batter's box, soaking up that "finally" moment. Monster finished 2-3 with the 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. Zach Yorke did not leave the yard like multiple other guys, but he did put the barrel on the ball a few times. The big 1st baseman finished 2-4 with a couple of frozen ropes that surely have him mixed in to the top exit velocities on the night. Like Yorke, Seth Dardar can hit the ball out of the park on any night, but tonight would settle for a 2 run double in the 1st inning that helped push LSU's lead to 4-0 and show that the offense was here to get back on track. He also smacked a ball in to the left center gap that was chased down, but was another very hard hit ball. He finished 1-3 with 2 RBI. Up Next LSU and Sacramento St will return to action tomorrow night. First pitch has been moved up to 2 pm central due to possible rain later in the evening. It was originally scheduled to start for 6 pm. Cooper Moore will make his fourth start of the season, coming in with a 3-0 record and three dominant performances. He went 7.2 innings and struck out 10 just a week ago.
By this time in very early March, all Sun Belt Conference teams, including Louisiana and ULM, are usually made aware of their upcoming season's full football schedule. The Sun Belt typically has its football schedule out by March 1st, allowing teams and supporters alike to find out who, where, and when they will play come football season. This year, however, things are looking a little different, as we may not see a definite 2026 Sun Belt football schedule for a few more weeks, if not months. How much sooner we will get it all falls in the hands of the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit. As you might recall, Texas State officially announced that they would leave the Sun Belt for the Pac-12 on June 30, 2025, a move that would take place on July 1, 2026. This meant that the 2025-2026 athletic year was Texas State's final journey in the SBC. When it's all said and done, this means that the conference would need to find a new 14th member to avoid dropping to 13 members come the 2026-2027 athletic year. A couple of weeks later, the conference officially announced on July 15, 2025, that Louisiana Tech would be filling the void left by Texas State. The problem to be determined, however, was whether LA Tech would be able to join in 2026 or 2027. Joining in 2026 would make this an easy transition for the SBC, keeping them at 14 members with no gaps. But a delay to 2027 would mean the conference gets stuck at 13 teams for the 2026-2027 athletic year, and right now, the there is a potential that this could be the case. Louisiana Tech, of course, wants to get this move done sooner rather than later. So, the school wants to join in 2026, and the Sun Belt doesn't suffer a gap year. A win-win for both, so what's the hold up? Not too long after the announcements went public, Conference USA, the conference in which LA Tech has been a member of since 2013, filed a lawsuit against the University of Louisiana System (which oversees Louisiana Tech). They accused the school and the system of violating Louisiana public records tied to the school leaving for the Sun Belt Conference. CUSA claims that a letter written on May 27, 2025, by Louisiana Tech President Jim Henderson, which referenced the school's move to the Sun Belt, suggested LA Tech made the decision to leave the CUSA earlier than its official notice on July 14th, which came after the conference's June 27 revenue distribution. Under Conference USA bylaws, schools that notify withdrawal after the payout can keep that year's (2025-2026) distribution but must forfeit the next two. However, the actual timeline challenges this claim, suggesting the date of the letter was incorrect by clerical error. As mentioned above, the Sun Belt's void that Louisiana Tech ended up filling did not actually exist until June 30th when Texas State officially announced its departure, and SBC officials didn't vote on the move to bring in Louisiana Tech until mid-July, after which they sent a formal invitation for the school to join. Thus, there is no logical explanation as to why Louisiana Tech would have a letter written in May about the school moving over to the Sun Belt. CUSA also accused the school of improperly withholding documents from an August public records, though the school had already provided major materials including the Sun Belt agreement. Louisiana Tech University has denied any wrongdoing, stating that they have complied with both conference bylaws and state law. With the lawsuit still ongoing and a timeline not established, it has put the Sun Belt Conference and its teams in a bind, and could mean waiting a few more weeks, if not months, until seeing a definite finalized schedule. While the conference could put out a schedule which either does or does not include Louisiana Tech, it does not want to take the risk of having to change it all up if the result of the lawsuit changes those plans. Even if the Sun Belt were to release a schedule now, it would not be definite until the lawsuit is over and an outcome is obtained. It is also important to keep in mind that the Sun Belt Conference is the last remaining Division-I conference with divisions. With the conference currently (including Texas State) at 14 members, it has them separated equally into two geographical East/West divisions. With Texas State's departure bringing the West down to 6 teams, Louisiana Tech is supposed to be the filler to that. But the conference could be forced to ditch the unique divisional setup if Louisiana Tech cannot join in 2026, as the conference would be at an odd number of teams. The Sun Belt currently utilizes the East/West divisional setup to determine who makes the Sun Belt Conference Championship, with the winner of each division taking the honors of doing so. Other conferences like the Mid-American Conference and Mountain West Conference are also facing similar delayed schedule releasing situations due to conference realignments, but the Sun Belt Conference (and Conference USA) are the two where uncertainty still boils. For now, our three Louisiana schools (Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, ULM Warhawks, and Louisiana Tech Bulldogs) will have to wait a little longer to find out their 12-game schedule for the 2026 football season.