Saints 17
Falcons 20
A weak second-half effort by the Saint offense brought about a loss to
the struggling Falcons.
The Falcons started the game with a patient drive- ten plays (each of which
gained less than 10 yds), with a defensive offside thrown in, put them at
the NO 22. From there, Mathis beat Tyronne Drakeford on a TD reception
somewhat similar to the one at the end of the Bears game. The 6:43-long
drive put Atlanta up 7-0.
The Saints responded with a long drive of their own. Billy Joe Hobert
completed five passes to tight ends (4 to Cam Cleeland, 1 to Scott Slutzker)
while guiding the O to the Atlanta 1 (four Falcon penalties also helped).
Things went wrong from there, however- Ricky Williams lost 4 yds on a run,
Hobert threw incomplete, Lamar Smith lost 5 yds on a catch, Doug Brien
missed a chip shot FG.
The D supplied a second chance right away- on the next play, Mark Fields
literally took the ball away from Oxendine during a rushing attempt. After
the O failed to gain a 1st, Brien was true from 42 yds out.
The Falcons soon punted back to the Saints, and right away the Saints
struck- on 1st down from the NO 10, Hobert went deep for Eddie Kennison
on a post. After fighting off Buchanan's attempt to swipe the ball, the WR
caught the pigskin and ran in for the score, the longest TD reception
in Saints history.
Just a few plays later the D came up big again- Brady Smith forced Graziani
to fumble; Ashley Ambrose recovered at the Falcon 44. On 3rd & 8 from the
31, Hobert suffered another right-side stinger after being hit while throwing
incomplete. Brien pushed a 49 yd FG attempt rather wide right.
The Falcons failed to gain a 1st; Billy Joe Tolliver came in for the Saints
and moved the team a smidgen before Tommy Barnhardt came on to punt.
Following yet another Atlanta 3 & punt series, Tolliver launched a successful
2-minute drill- throws to Keith Poole and Kennison were each good for 1sts;
on 4th & 5 from the Atlanta 37 he hit Brett Bech for 14. On 3rd & 10 from
the 23, he threw into the endzone for Bech; the local favorite made an
outstanding one-hand snag and notched a TD. The play sent the team into
halftime with a 17-7 lead.
The Saints began the second half with a Ricky Williams fumble (recovered
by Tolliver) and a 3 & punt series. The Falcons got back in the game on
a 3rd & 6 play from their own 32- it appeared that Graziani would be sacked,
but he managed to squeeze off a short throw to German, who rambled 62 yds
downfield. A play later, Christian punched in a 1 yd TD run. The PAT
reduced the lead to 3 with 10:59 left in the third quarter.
After a pair of 3 & punts, Tolliver moved the team into Falcon territory
with a 31 yd completion to Cleeland. On 3rd & 3 from the Atlanta 39, though,
a pass was deflected and intercepted. The Falcons went 3 & punt, but got
the ball back via interception again, this time at the NO 32. Early in
the fourth quarter, Andersen converted the turnover into a tie game with
a 36 yarder.
Hobert came in for a couple of plays, but the result was still a 3 & punt
series, and Barnhardt's effort resulted in a 32 yd kick that was fair-caught
at the NO 49. Six consecutive Hanspard runs netted 17 yds; following a
3rd down incompletion, Morten put the Falcons ahead with a 44 yarder.
Williams moved the team to midfield with a 2 yd run, a 7 yd catch, and a
24 yd run (during which he shoved a would-be Falcon tackler out of his way).
A QB sneak moved the chains on 4th & 1 from the 42, but on the following play
Tolliver fumbled the snap (he was quite lucky to recover for a 10 yd loss).
On 4th & 7, BJT tried to hit Kennison with a home-run ball, but Buchanan was
right there to slap it away.
The Saints got one final chance when Atlanta came up an inch short on a
3rd & 1 run by Hanspard, but the game ended in an anticlimax when the clock
ticked to zero following a sack of Tolliver.
stats (view with a fixed-width font, like Courier)
^^^^^
runnin'........../..........passin' & catchin'
B.J. Hobert
3- 9 B.J. Tolliver
19- 53 Ricky Williams 3- 16
2- 9 Lamar Smith 1- (5) 1- 14
Keith Poole 3- 50
Eddie Kennison 3-111-1 1- 27
Andre Hastings 1- 5
Brett Bech 2- 37-1
Cameron Cleeland 4- 38 1- 31
Scott Slutzker 1- 9 1- 5
24- 71 TOTAL 9-153-1 13-185-1
inc 5 11
INT 0 2
runnin'........../..........passin' & catchin'
2- 14 T. Graziani
20- 57 Ken Oxendine 2- 4
10- 32 Byron Hanspard
1- 1-1 Bob Christian 1- 4
Terance Mathis 5- 67-1
Chris Calloway 1- 9
Jammi German 1- 62
Reggie Kelly 1- 16
33-104-1 TOTAL 11-162-1
inc 9
INT 0
notes
^^^^^
* of the Falcons' 13 possessions, only 3 lasted more than 5 plays,
only 2 netted more than 24 yds
* the Saints haven't scored any 4th quarter points in 1999
*******************************************************************************
Frank Serpas III serpas@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu