Today’s the day. The Falcons are in New Orleans for the first time under Arthur Smith, who can endear himself to the fanbase eternally—okay, for a few weeks—by triumphing over Sean Payton and company in Louisiana. I don’t want to talk about a loss to the Saints because frankly we’ve done enough of that in recent years.
The key today will be Atlanta’s run defense clamping down and a shaky defense overall coming up big against a backup quarterback. Of course, they can be borderline elite against New Orleans and still not win if the offense stalls and sputters the way it did against Carolina, so we’re hopeful that Matt Ryan, Kyle Pitts, Cordarrelle Patterson, Russell Gage and company can put together a much crisper effort.