Saints 12 Falcons 35 The Saints lost to the Falcons again. Early on, the Saints won the battle for field position- on the second play from scrimmage, a Chandler pass was bobbled into the hands of Mark Fields at the Atlanta 44. Billy Joe Hobert and the Ricky Williams-less offense failed to gain a yard; Tommy Barnhardt's punt was fair-caught at the 9. The D held the Falcons without a 1st, allowing the Saints to return a punt into enemy territory. Pass interference helped set up a successful 24 yd Doug Brien FG. A Falcon punt was fair-caught at the 11; Barnhardt ended up punting from his endzone when Hobert was sacked on 3rd down (the QB's ribs were bruised on the play). Atlanta returned the punt to the NO 36 and drove to an 8 yd Mathis TD catch. Danny Wuerffel took over at QB for the Saints; the chains moved once (via a 20 yd Wilmont Perry run) before a punt was required. The home team drove 67 yds for a score- Chandler bootlegged it in from 1 yd out. The Saints moved from their 24 to the Atlanta 9 via five Perry runs and a pass interference penalty. On 3rd & goal from the 16, a pass to Andre Hastings at the goal line was ruled incomplete- he was judged not to have gotten both feet down inbounds. Though the play looked like a prime candidate for replay, Ditka declined to challenge. Brien kicked a 34 yarder. Following the kickoff, Dwight was called for a false start. He atoned for his mistake by catching a 32 yd pass on the next snap, then taking in a 48 yd scoring throw on the one after that. The PAT made it 21-6 Atlanta with 3:49 to go in the half. On 4th & 2 from the Falcon 42, Wuerffel was sacked. Willie Clay prevented the deficit from growing by intercepting a pass in the endzone with :22 left. On the second half's third play from scrimmage, a Wuerffel deep ball was intercepted. The subsequent 90-yd drive was capped off by a 1 yd Christian TD run. The Saints went 3 & punt; Ashley Ambrose picked off a Chandler throw; Buchanan grabbed a Wuerffel throw and ran it back 52 yds for a TD. The Saints came back with a most unlikely drive- Atlanta penalties gave the visitors four consecutive 1sts; Wuerffel hit Lawrence Dawsey for 15 on 4th & 6; Wuerffel scrambled for a 29 yd TD run. The try for 2 failed, and neither team scored in the final ten-and-a-half minutes. stats (view with a fixed-width font, like Courier) ^^^^^ runnin'........../..........passin' & catchin' B.J. Hobert 1- 29-1 D. Wuerffel 16- 93 Wilmont Perry 1- 6 7- 7 Troy Davis 4- 20 Lamar Smith 1- 21 2- 20 Dino Philyaw Eddie Kennison 1- 4 3- 19 Keith Poole 1- 8 Andre Hastings 1- 8 4- 38 Lawrence Dawsey 1- 15 26-149-1 TOTAL 2- 12 15-127 inc 5 13 INT 0 2 runnin'........../..........passin' & catchin' 1- 1-1 C. Chandler 19- 85 Ken Oxendine 2- 15 6- 44-1 Bob Christian Winslow Oliver 2- 21 Terance Mathis 3- 46-1 Tim Dwight 2- 80-1 Chris Calloway 1- 22 Bryan Still 2- 14 Brian Kozlowski 1- 26 Reggie Kelly 2- 9 26-130-2 TOTAL 15-233-2 inc 7 INT 3 notes ^^^^^ * in '99, five of the Saints' eighteen offensive TDs have come on QB runs * the Saints' midweek acquisition of CB Robert Williams means that Ricky Williams now gets to have his full name spelled out on his jersey ******************************************************************************* Frank Serpas III serpas@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu