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New Orleans Saints to emphasize balanced offense vs. Atlanta Falcons

By The Sports Xchange
New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees is sacked by New York Giants' London Collins in the first quarter in week 2 of the NFL at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on September 18, 2016. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees is sacked by New York Giants' London Collins in the first quarter in week 2 of the NFL at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on September 18, 2016. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

NEW ORLEANS -- For months, going as far back as the end of the 2015 season, all the talk about the New Orleans Saints centered on a defense that's been historically bad the past two seasons.

As a result, the Saints spent most of the offseason identifying the problems and trying to fix them: they signed veteran free agents and stocked up on that side of the ball in the draft with the goal of improving in any way they could to complement their productive offense.

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But after Sunday's 16-13 loss to the New York Giants, the Saints (0-2) are casting a wary eye at an offense that didn't produce while the defense played one of its better games in recent years against Eli Manning and wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz.

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The Giants failed to score an offensive touchdown and committed three turnovers, which normally would have been good news for the Saints. But when their offense uncharacteristically struggled, the Giants eked out a win.

So when the Saints go against the arch-rival Atlanta Falcons (1-1) on Monday night in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the emphasis will no doubt be on trying to balance the offense in order to avoid an unsightly 0-3 start.

One of the problems against the Giants was the Saints ran the ball just 13 times with only three attempts coming in the second half when they were never more than one score away from the lead and were tied twice in the fourth quarter.

The Saints threw the ball 46 times against the Giants, which isn't always bad when you have Drew Brees. But after two games they rank 31st with just 35 rushing attempts (only the Washington Redskins have fewer with 29).

While the Saints haven't run the ball a lot, Mark Ingram has had some success in averaging 4.2 yards per carry even though the team is netting just 3.7 yards per attempt. They picked up 3.2 yards per try Sunday with a long of 9.

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"I feel the offensive line has been doing a great job in the run game," Ingram said after the loss to the Giants. "We just have to call them and execute them ... give the coaches confidence where we can go out there and be effective in the run game."

That could come Monday night against a Falcons defense that is tied for 26th in giving up 122.5 yards per game. Opponents are getting a healthy 4.6 yards per attempt.

One of the problems Sunday that the Saints looked hard at this week was third-down conversions.

They were only 3-of-13, which is well below their average under Sean Payton and Brees, and converting three or four more would have given them extra opportunities to get the run game going.

Payton said he had no problem with the play-calling of offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. and it might not have made a difference if they had been more efficient on third down.

"Collectively, as a group and coaching staff, we're putting together a plan and there's times where, s hoot, I'm recommending a call to Pete," Payton said. "So, we're not going to grade Pete each week ... I know we're not going to do that. We need to be better on third down; that wasn't very good.

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"From a rushing standpoint, I think we had some early positive runs, and all of a sudden we end up with the game over and only 13 rushing attempts. I don't like the balance there."

SERIES HISTORY: 94th regular-season meeting. Falcons lead series, 48-45. The Saints have been a nemesis for the Falcons since the arrival of Sean Payton and Drew Brees in 2006, going 15-5 against their archrivals during that 10-year period. The Saints had their sixth season sweep of the Falcons in 2015, winning 31-21 in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome before closing the season with a 20-17 victory in Atlanta. The series has been defined by tight games since 1991 with more than half of their contests -- 28 of them -- decided by seven points or less. They also met up in an NFC wild-card game in 1991 with the Falcons winning 27-20 in the Superdome.

BY THE NUMBERS: 61,589 -- Career passing yards for Saints quarterback Drew Brees after moving past Dan Marino into third place on the NFL's all-time list in a Week 2 loss to the New York Giants. Now in his 16th season, Brees trails only Peyton Manning (71,940) and Brett Favre (71,838).

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QUOTE TO NOTE: "Obviously, you want to get after it in the run game. But when you have a dynamic quarterback like Drew (Brees), you've got to play to your strengths. ... He's a strength." -- RG Jahri Evans, on the Saints running the ball just 35 times in their first two games.

GAME PLAN: The Saints offense, which struggled from start to finish in its 16-13 loss to the Giants on Sunday, will have to get on track early against the Falcons. While the performance was uncharacteristic of a Sean Payton/Drew Brees offense, the Saints know that they can't afford to be sluggish against a Falcons defense that has given up 412.5 yards a game, including 290.0 passing yards, and has been hit for seven TDs in just two outings. Brees will be eager to put the ball in the air, of course, but a running game that has averaged a meager 64.5 yards per game so far after having just 13 attempts last week will have to do its part against the Falcons' 26th-ranked run defense.

Defensively, the Saints will have to be wary of a Falcons offense that ranks second in the league in total yards with 451.0 per game and leads the NFL in passing with 355.5 yards per outing. While All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones came out of last week's game with a calf injury, the Saints are battling injuries of their own in the back end -- especially at cornerback. Cornerback Delvin Breaux is out with a fractured fibula and fellow starter P.J. Alexander is on injured reserve. But the Saints secondary held up as well as could be expected in a loss to the Giants last week and will need to have another stout effort against Matt Ryan and a solid cast of receivers. A run defense that allowed the Giants just 2.0 yards per carry on 32 attempts last week will be a key as well.

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