Falcons fly in and stun Saints
Hosting the Atlanta Falcons was never going to be an easy game for the New Orleans Saints and on Sunday they slipped to their first defeat of the season 27-24.
The Saints will be reflecting on what should have been a perfect start to the season had Garret Hartley not shanked a 29-yard field goal in overtime. That miss gave the Falcons an opportunity to drive downfield, get within field goal range and hand the ball over to kicker Matt Bryant.
From 46-yards out Bryant did what Hartley should have, sending the ball sailing through the middle of the posts.
"I missed basically an extra point. It was clearly my mistake. ... It's the highs and lows of being a kicker. I missed a big kick last year and was able to learn from it, I plan on doing the same thing,” Hartley said.
Despite Drew Brees throwing three touchdown passes, the Saints had to rely on Hartley’s boot to get them into overtime. With just four seconds left in the normal time, the 24-year-old kicked a 32-yard field goal to tie the game at 24-24.
The Falcons used a combination of aerial assault and rushing to fluster the Saints. Matt Ryan threw two touchdown passes, completing 19 of 30 passes with 228 yards. Running backs Michael Turner and Jason Snelling helped keep the running game ticking over with efforts of 114 yards and 62 yards respectively.
“This is a huge victory for us. We have a lot of high expectations of ourselves and we fought the entire game to get us in position to win. I am so proud of how we converted [nine] third downs that was a huge factor throughout the game,” Ryan said.
The Saints will try to bounce back with a win against the winless Carolina Panthers next week, while Atlanta host the San Francisco 49ners also winless this season after being blown out by the Kansas City Chiefs.
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