Matchup: Falcons’ Dline vs. Saints’ Oline
Nov. 13, 2011 - Atlanta: ---WINNING KICK --- Dejected Atlanta Falcons Jonathan Babineaux, left, and John Abraham, right, walk of the field after the winning field goal kick by New Orleans Saints John Kasay for a 26-23 Saints victory in overtime at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011. Curtis Compton ccompton@ajc.com
FLOWERY BRANCH – With the NFC South title on the line, the Falcons (9-5) face the New Orleans Saints (11-3). on Monday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Here is a look at how the Falcons’ defensive line matches up against the Saints’ offensive line:
Matchup Advantage: New Orleans Saints
What happened last time: The Falcons stopped the run, holding the Saints to 41 yards rushing on 16 carries. The Falcons went sackless and had just two quarterbacks hurries against Brees, who passed for 322 yards and two touchdowns. Kansas City was able to get Aaron Rodgers to stop the Packers. The Falcons have to get sacks to beat the Saints. They seem to settle for moving him off of his spot, but in the last game they didn’t even do that.
Falcons’ starters: Right end John Abraham, right tackle Jonathan Babineaux, left tackle Corey Peters and left end Ray Edwards.
Falcons’ key reserves: Ends Kroy Biermann and Lawrence Sidbury, and tackles Peria Jerry and Vance Walker.
Saints’ starters: Left tackle Jermon Bushrod, left guard Carl Nicks, center Brian de la Puente, right guard Jahri Evans and right tackle Zach Strief.
Saints’ key reserves: Center/guard Matt Tennant and tackles Pat McQuistan and William Robinson.
Matchups to watch: Abraham vs. Bushrod and Peters vs. Evans.
Abraham is coming off a monster 3 1/2-sack game and has played stronger over the past three games. Bushrod is a critical part of a unit that protects quarterback Drew Brees like he’s a Brink’s truck.
The Falcons have 30 sacks which ranks 19th in the league. The Saints’ line has given up only 23 sacks which is the fourth-lowest total in the league.
Evans and Nicks both went to the Pro Bowl last year and are widely considered the best guard tandem in the league. But the development of Bushrod and steady play of Strief have been impressive this season.
“Bushrod was a starter last year,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “Strief was their extra offensive lineman in their ‘big’ package. He’s a guy that has stepped into a starting role this year. Again, they’ve done a very good job with protecting the quarterback and also running the football with their run blocking.”
The Saints have a major weight advantage over the smaller and quicker Falcons. Bushrod (315) is 42 pounds heavier than Abraham, Nicks (343) is 43 pounds heavier than Babineaux, Evans (318) is 13 pounds heavier than Peters and Strief (320) is 42 pounds heavier than Edwards.
“It’s a big offensive line,” Smith said. “The two guards and the two tackles are really big men and they’ve done a very good job. I think you can see by the statistics that they’ve put up, not only scoring but passing and rushing yards.”
The unit has been sturdy over the last six games after giving up six sacks in the Saints’ upset 31-21 loss to St. Louis on Oct. 30.
Behind the line, the Saints are averaging 456.7 yards per game (first in the league), 331.4 yards passing (first) and 125.4 rushing (eighth).
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
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178 comments Add your comment
Greg Mendel
December 21st, 2011
10:59 pm
“Anyone that picks Ryan over Brees is an idiot..”
You may want to wait ’til the end of the 4th quarter, idiot.
#1SaintsFan
December 21st, 2011
11:09 pm
@Greg
Yeah we’ll see who’s da idiot,,I will be back Monday night,,will u???
Your probably like the typical falcon (fairweather) fan,,talk a bunch a crap and then cant eat your words later!
Ichabod
December 21st, 2011
11:18 pm
Abraham and Edwards will squeeze the back part of the pocket, but will the rest of the DL be able to collapse the pocket as Brees steps forward? That’s why the Falcons got picked apart before.
DR. FALCON
December 21st, 2011
11:41 pm
BillyBob, WITH A NAME LIKE THAT, GO BACK TO MILKING COWS, AN SHOOTING POSSUM, FOR DINNER! YOU PROBABLY CAN’T READ ANYWAY! I WILL KEEP USING ALL CAPS!!!
Eric C.
December 21st, 2011
11:45 pm
whodat70816, Falcons played Texans and Bears on the road and Saints played them at home…not a fair comparison
Greg Mendel
December 22nd, 2011
12:18 am
@#1SaintsFan
You wrote:
“Yeah we’ll see who’s da idiot,,I will be back Monday night,,will u???
Your probably like the typical falcon (fairweather) fan,,talk a bunch a crap and then cant eat your words later!”
Which words? I said the Saints were a good team, that I wasn’t making predictions, and that Saints fans should wait until the end of the fourth quarter to brag about Brees over Ryan.
(sigh!)
And you call yourself an idiot.
PS: Invest in an English as a Second Language course.
FalconJim
December 22nd, 2011
12:43 am
PLEASE, don’t feed the trolls!!! Maybe if we quit acknowledging them, they’ll just go away and eat their stinking gumbeaux, and crawfish…
jlperry
December 22nd, 2011
6:42 am
a falcons fan all the falcons player should say to themself are we tuff enough to beat the saints and the coaches to can or staff out coach there stuff. Think of the overtime lose both team are a even match they just one coaching mistake from losing the game the falcons player and staff must get smarter to beat the saints
whodat70816
December 22nd, 2011
6:52 am
Eric C…..not a fair comparison…LOL…that’s lame. The Panthers beat the Texans in Houston 28 to 13…..I guess since they played the Texans in Houston and Falcons played the Texans in Houston that’s a fair comparison and that must mean Newton is just better than Ryan….O wait he is…so I guess you’re on to something.
monday morning QB
December 22nd, 2011
8:31 am
hello saint trolls – I was the composer of the wonderful poem prior to the last game and I did return to the board the day after to take my medicine but there was very little chatter. I have been a little busy the last few weeks so I haven’t had much time to spend posting. ninobrown, I don’t remember seeing you out here before but that is a cool name. I may find time this weekend to write a new little poem but magic cannot be rushed or forced. I actually respect your team and understand why you all are such jerks. If I still lived in The Big Sleazy I would probably behave the same way.
Joe Tess Fish House
December 22nd, 2011
10:03 am
I have a bad felling about this game.
D man
December 22nd, 2011
10:13 am
Go Falcons…
Saints R.E.A.M.
December 22nd, 2011
10:15 am
Mike Mularkey is the only chance the Falcons have at winning this game. If he is calling the plays then the Atlanta offense runs like a gem. If he allows M. Smith or Matt Ryan to influence his genius too much, the whole thing will fall apart. Should be a good game.
loserville usa
December 22nd, 2011
10:29 am
Isn’t atlanta sports teams called loserville usa. Let’s see, the falcants can’t win a playoff game, so they will never win a super bowl. The hawks are just down right pathetic. Braves, only one championship. The dream, well, they are still dreaming. The thrashers, oh I forgot, had to abandoned the city, due to lack of fan support, despite being a metro arear of over 5million. Falcants fans were voted the least likely to support their team, that’s why the hardly ever sell out the big tent.
Ben
December 22nd, 2011
10:34 am
WhoDat70816, if Cam Newton is better than Ryan, why is he 0-2 against him?
poor falcons fans
December 22nd, 2011
10:35 am
All I want for chrsitmas is to be just like the new orleans saints, a super bowl winner.
one of these days
December 22nd, 2011
10:40 am
As a proud falcons fan, one of these days, we will win a super bowl and then and only then will we be on the same level as the saints. Right now, we are tyring to get there. So we falcons fans just have to envy the saints and what they have accomplished. We should stop feeding the trolls, because they do have what we are trying to win, a lombardi.
jrrybllck
December 22nd, 2011
11:03 am
just spent an hour on the NOLA.com blog. there are no trolls here that are posting on their own blog. Their blog is not as nice as ours. Maybe, if we troll their blog we are blocked, don’t know but no Atlant trolls are visible. Please stop the NO trolls if they don’t post on their own site why should we listen. Best way to stop them is to beat them Monday Night. Won’t hear a word from them – just like they do not post on their site.
BobDawg
December 22nd, 2011
11:11 am
Van Gorder needs to dial up some neat blitzes to get to the “Brinks Truck”…Brees… We need to knock him into tomorrow….
D. Orlando Ledbetter
December 22nd, 2011
12:28 pm
jrrybllck — I’ll delete our trolls, but won’t likely get to them all the time. Just ignore them if you can.
Blove
December 22nd, 2011
12:35 pm
U Garbage ATL fans needs stop fool’iin yall selves ,and I’m not saying this to be mean !!! Just try’in. To stop yall from beating ur wives chok’in ur kids, getting lock up !!! And for what !! ALL Because of the A@#
Whopp’in the Saints put on the falcants this M.,N
Just face reality !! Even if u make the playoff, it’s one and done.
This is truly a public services announcement !!!!
MaxxFalcon
December 22nd, 2011
1:39 pm
DOL is deep in the blog comments! The trolls will be back under the bridge Tuesday morning after they get smashed Monday night!
jrrybllck
December 22nd, 2011
2:35 pm
thanks DOL i am a big fan, just think fair is fair. NOLA. com could learn from you. Love your videos
Franklyspeaking
December 22nd, 2011
3:45 pm
D’Man some of what you say is correct. Brees will have a hard time duplicating a record shattering season but not due to aging. Ryan will get better because it’s hard to get much worse.
Monday Morning QB
December 22nd, 2011
4:22 pm
@ Franklyspeaking
You should change your name to idiotspeaking. Matt Ryan’s first four years in the league are better in every possible way to that of Drew Brees.
WHODAT7556
December 22nd, 2011
5:38 pm
@MondayMorning
…..and yet Drew Brees has a ring and MattyMelt doesn’t…hmmmmmm
Tom
December 25th, 2011
10:26 pm
“However, if you visit the stats from that game the Falcons won in every catagory.”
It’s easy to tell someone who is hopeful, but thoughtless. This poster was talking about the last Saints/Falcants game and said that Atl won in EVERY category. Yet the Saints won the game. Think about it … that is, if you can.
Kali Boda
December 26th, 2011
2:38 pm
you can by no means succeed on-line if you dont know this http://imn4.infothank me later