The Atlanta Falcons continued their 2024-2025 regular season at home on Sunday afternoon against Derek Carr and the New Orleans Saints.
Heading into this game, the Falcons suffered a loss in primetime against the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday evening. Wide receiver Drake London was able to pick up right where he left off the week prior, as he caught the first touchdown on Atlanta’s opening drive. Darnell Mooney led the way in terms of receptions for the Falcons, by catching eight passes for 66 yards. For the Saints, they had a little bit of a fall back down to earth in their matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles the week prior – Carr finished with 142 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
In the fourth edition of this regular season series, we will recap Atlanta’s third home matchup and focus on a few of their players who had standout performances (studs) and players who may have struggled (duds).
So, without further ado:
Game Recap
Falcons def. Saints 26-24
What. An. Ending.
The Falcons mounted yet another miracle victory in the closing moments of the contest. Younghoe Koo trotted onto the field and lined up 58 yards out for a game-winning field goal attempt. With tons of pressure on Koo, the veteran kept his cool, locked in and sent the kick up and away…and IT. IS. GOOD! Koo saves the Falcons from what would’ve been a disappointing 1-3 start to their season.
Both Kirk Cousins and Carr were unable to toss any touchdown passes in this outing. Kamara and Taysom Hill got in the endzone for New Orleans, while Troy Andersen and KhaDarel Hodge wound up in the endzone for Atlanta. Yes, you read that right. I will discuss more on Atlanta’s scores later on.
Atlanta has two more divisional matchups on their schedule. The Falcons will stay in Flowery Branch in Week 5 before traveling to take on the Carolina Panthers in Week 6.
Studs
Falcons Special Teams
Koo, we love you!
Koo was perfect in the kicking department – 4/4 on all field goal attempts (including the game-winner from 58 yards) and 2/2 on extra points.
That was not all though, as another portion of special teams also played well.
Early into the game, Atlanta punted the ball away after their first possession. Saints receiver and return specialist Rashid Shaheed muffed the punt inside the five-yard line and the ball was recovered in the endzone by Falcons receiver Hodge for an Atlanta touchdown on special teams.
Special teams played a massive role in this contest, considering the offense was able to do little to nothing whenever they were sent out on the field. 20 of the 26 points for Atlanta came from the special teams.
RB Tyler Allgeier
The human bowling ball proved why he deserves more carries.
Tyler Allgeier was unable to score a touchdown, but he certainly made his presence felt whenever he had the football in his hands. The former BYU running back notched 60 yards on eight carries and averaged 7.5 yards per carry.
This was the first time Allgeier had more carries than his running mate Bijan Robinson, beating out the latter by just one more carry.
Allgeier has seemingly been overshadowed thus far by Robinson and his ‘star-power’, but the third-year running back didn’t hesitate to remind everyone why he is an absolute force to be reckoned with and should be in line to get more and more touches as the season rolls along.
ILB Troy Andersen
A massive and much-needed game for Troy Andersen.
Andersen recorded 17 total tackles, including making a key tackle on Kamara on Saints 3rd-and-3, resulting in a 4th down for New Orleans.
Besides the solid number of tackles, Andersen was able to make another huge play on defense by intercepting Carr and returning it for a 47-yard pick-six.
Atlanta’s inside linebacker room is viewed as one of the more solidified groups on the team. Nate Landman was sent to injured reserve and since then, Andersen has stepped up in a major way – 38 total tackles since the former’s absence.
Duds
Falcons Run Defense
Special PSA for the Falcons: When Taysom Hill has the ball, he is going to run.
Heading into this game, Atlanta’s defensive front was expected to capitalize, as the Saints were missing two of their key starters on the offensive line – C Erik McCoy (IR) and RG Cesar Ruiz. They were not able to do that for the most part, however. Throughout a good chunk of the contest, mostly in the first half, the defensive front looked abysmal as they couldn’t make many stops, couldn’t get as much push up front and generated only one sack from cornerback Dee Alford.
Then there’s Hill…*sigh*. Anytime that these two division rivals face-off, it feels like Hill absolutely dominates. Just before halftime, however, Hill exited the game with an apparent chest injury, but not before he made his mark out on the field – 24 yards, two touchdowns. Through the years, Hill has been a thorn in the Falcons’ side and Atlanta can’t seem to find an answer for the ‘do-it-all’ caliber player.
It’s worth noting that defensive line rookies Ruke Orhorhoro – a second-round pick – and Brandon Dorlus – a fourth-round pick – have yet to see the field this season, being listed as ‘healthy scratches’ for all four contests thus far. Why aren’t they playing? Not too sure. That’s a story for a different day.
TE Kyle Pitts
This is a recurring situation, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.
Kyle Pitts was essentially a ghost in this game. The tight end was targeted just three times and he hauled in, well, zero of them. Pitts ended the day with zero receiving yards.
I don’t know what else to say. Will Atlanta ever get Pitts involved at this point? Is he going to ultimately be traded? I don’t have any answers right now.
Falcons Offense
Oh man, this wasn’t good.
We had said it time and time again in the offseason: expect great things from the offensive side of the ball. Have great things happened? Not particularly.
The offense put up a whopping zero points in this matchup. While Atlanta did score 26 points, none of it came from Cousins, London or anyone on the offense. All of the Falcons’ points came from Koo, Hodge on special teams and Andersen on defense.
We are four games into the season and the offense still has yet to fully click. It’s disappointing, especially considering how much money was put into that side of the ball in the offseason.
Cousins and Co. have to get things rolling sooner or later, they can’t keep relying on the defense or Koo’s legs to win them games every time.
There are, of course, things to be proud of and things to be fixed coming out of this game.
Nonetheless, the Falcons will hope to ride this momentum into a short week when they’re back in action this Thursday evening to take on another division rival in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers LIVE exclusively on Prime Video.
