The truth is Saints outplayed the Falcons

The Falcons moved the ball but kept finding ways to stall their drives. Offensive penalties were probably their biggest issue, plus a few missed throws by Cousins. They still averaged 35 yards/drive on net against us, and that was with six penalties for 51 yards. This is a week after we gave up 48 yards/drive to the Eagles (who could only net 24 yards/drive against the Bucs).

I think we are seeing some positive luck on our end that those drives aren't turning into scores, our defense hasn't looked too great these last two weeks. We are 18th in yards allowed per drive versus 6th in points allowed per drive, the scoring performance will likely regress. For comparison, we were 8th in yards allowed per drive and 5th in points allowed per drive in 2023.

The positive would be that our offense found a way to generate some points despite the injuries we've had, and they tend to give our opponents worse field position that helps to offset the excessive bending that we've seen on defense.