NFL Thursday Night Football Preview - Week 12 - New Orleans vs Atlanta

These two teams are on completely different paths at this point of the season.

The New Orleans Saints are working on winning the NFC South, as well as home field advantage during the playoffs while the Atlanta Falcons are just trying to work on breaking even this year, although that seems unlikely because in order for that to happen they would have to win out the rest of the year (Their remaining schedule includes SF, GB, CAR, and NO).

The Saints(8-2) are currently 2nd in the NFC, behind the Seahawks(10-1) who they will be playing following this week, and are riding a 3 game winning streak. The Atlanta Falcons(2-8) on the other hand, are having a tremendous amount of problems this season after losing some key players from injuries throughout the season. The Falcons are coming off a first class beating at the hands of division rival Tampa Bay who put up 41 points on them last Sunday with a first year QB and 3rd string RB. Matt Ryan is doing his best Drew Brees impression, throwing for a TD in his last 16 games (Drew Brees holds the record with 54 straight games with a passing TD) which is the only bright spot the Falcons have working for them at this point of the season.

Atlanta, who had an NFC best 13-3 record last season, has been marred by injuries as well as a terrible performance thus far by their defense who have been outscored by opponents 135-61 while on a 4 game losing streak. Their defense gives up about 132 yards per game on the ground which is ranked 30th in the league. Their rushing offense hasn't fared any better, averaging just over 73 yards per game, which may be because of the injury plagued season RB Steven Jackson has had since being acquired by Atlanta in the offseason.

The Saints are a different team than last year as well, when they went 7-9 in their BountyGate season without head coach Sean Payton. This year they have already eclipsed that winning mark and are tuning themselves up for a long playoff run. Drew Brees is second in the league in passing yards with 3,369, trailing only Peyton Manning who has 3,572 and should be able to shred the Atlanta secondary apart who are giving up about 249 yards per game thru the air. The real X-Factor for the Saints will be RB's Pierre Thomas who has rushed on 28 attempts in the last 2 games, going against an Atlanta defense that have allowed over 100 yards rushing during their 4 game losing streak as well as at least 5 rushing TD's during that span.

With this game being a division rival I believe the score will be a lot closer than some would assume with the way each team has played as of late. The Saints are the better team but when a team plays someone twice a year, every year, then you kind of learn the habits of your rivals. I still am picking New Orleans for the win but I don't think the score will resemble the beating the Falcons received in their last 4 games.

Prediction:

NO over ATL 30-20

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