There’s a lot of things that the New Orleans Saints (10-1) are thankful for at this point of the season. You can now add a 31-17 win on Thanksgiving night over the Atlanta Falcons (4-7) to that list of things that they can be thankful for.
Things started off well enough for the Saints with a seven play drive that ended with Tommylee Lewis catching a 28-yard pass from Drew Brees to take the early 7-0 lead. The Falcons looked poised to tie things up with the ball at the Saints three-yard line, but Matt Ryan coughed up the football and was recovered by Marcus Williams.
However, Brees threw only his second INT of the season three plays later, which was caught by Damontae Kazee and that led to Atlanta making it 7-3 late in the first quarter. The Saints responded with a methodical 15-play drive that was capped off by a 22-yard field goal by Wil Lutz to make it 10-7.
After forcing a three-and-out on the next drive, Brees found Austin Carr with a 12-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-3 with 3:25 left until halftime. The second half saw both teams come out of the gates slow, but Brees got his third touchdown pass of the evening to Dan Arnold from 25 yards out to make it a 24-3. Late in the third quarter, Ryan was able to find the endzone for the first time when he connected with Calvin Ridley on 4th and goal from the two-yard line to make it a two-possession game.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Saints defense came up huge with an interception by AJ Klein that he took to the Atlanta 22-yard line. Five plays later, Brees was able to find Keith Kirkwood in the endzone to put the game out of reach with 9:31 left in regulation.
The Saints will have have another Thursday night game next week when they travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys (6-5) with kickoff slated for 7:20 pm.
-Clint Domingue
