Game over
Pierre Thomas gave New Orleans the lead with a 5-yard touchdown with less than 6 minutes to play.

In a tough call, one that some would call stupid, Sean Payton went for it on fourth-and-1 from the 7. Mike Karney plunged ahead for 2 yards.

A play later, Thomas went in.

New Orleans held up on defense, and then the offense ran out the clock using six consecutive Thomas run plays to chew up the clock.

Saints 29, Falcons 25 (5:47)
5 plays, 16 yards, 2:04 ToP

7:51 4th Quarter
Defense has completely left the building.

The Falcons scored their second third-down touchdown of the day when Matt Ryan looked to his left, saw no open and decided to run in from 12 yards out instead.

He then hit Michael Jenkins for the 2-point conversion and now the Falcons lead by a field goal 25-22.

The Saints now need to find some offense. More importantly, they need to get at least a stop on defense.

Falcons 25, Saints 22 (7:51)
11 plays, 73, 5:04 ToP

12:55 4th Quarter
I'm sure by now, if you're watching on TV, you've seen the stat that the Saints are 0-17 under Sean Payton when trailing after the third quarter.

The team will put that to the test today. And they got started by scoring a go-ahead touchdown by Pierre Thomas, who took a screen pass from Drew Brees seven yards into the end zone.

The big play, though, came when Devery Henderson took a third-and-nine pass 36 yards.

Saints 22, Falcons 17
10 plays, 87 yards, 5:11

12:00 4th Quarter
New Orleans trails at the end of three and are threatening to become the first NFC South team to lose a home game to a division opponent this season.

Here's the stat that stands out for me: New Orleans has 144 yards rushing (Reggie has 70 and Pierre has 74) while Drew Bree is at 177 yards passing.

3:06 3rd Quarter
Third down. It's a big one. Atlanta knows it. New Orleans knows it. And now the fans know it.

The Falcons converted third-and-21, third-and-5 and third-6 to get inside the Saints' 10. But finally New Orleans buckled down, coming up with a stop on third-and-goal and Jason Elam was forced to kick a 23-yard field goal.

Still, the long drive ate most of the third quarter up and put Atlanta back on top.

Falcons 17, Saints 16 (3:06)
15 plays, 69 yards, 9:15 ToP

Halftime
Garrett Hartley drilled a 25-yard field goal as time expired in the first half, giving New Orleans a 16-14 lead at the break.

Several questionable things happened at the end of the half.
1) Sean Payton wasted a timeout challenging Atlanta's second touchdown. We saw it clearly up in the press box that it was a touchdown. No challenge was needed. The timeout was.
2) Devery Henderson needs to learn to get out of bounds when there's less than two minutes to play. On 2nd-and-4, Henderson caught the ball near the boundary. Instead of getting out of bounds and saving clock, he turned towards the center of the field. Wasted seconds.
3) On 2nd-and-10 with less than a minute to go, Payton called for a draw play. With no timeouts. With Reggie Bush. Well, Bush fell down.

Regardless, the Saints are in the lead at home with 30 minutes to play.

Saints 16, Falcons 14 (halftime)
Scoring drive: 11 plays, 73 yards, 2:13 ToP

2:13 2nd Quarter
For as much as New Orleans has owned this first half, the Falcons just took the lead for one reason and one reason only: The Saints defense can't get off the field on third down.

Twice the Saints had the Falcons in third down and twice the Falcons converted. The touchdown - a Matt Ryan to Brian Finneran 2-yard score - came on third down.

And the Sean Payton unwisely challenged the touchdown, losing his final timeout of the half and also using up his final challenge of the game.

And now New Orleans trails and you can thank Jammal "I like to hold" Brown for that. The Saints had a first-and-goal at the 7 if not for a Brown hold. Instead of a touchdown, Garrett Hartley was forced to kick a field goal.

Atlanta 14, Saints 13 (2:13)
Scoring drive: 10 plays, 77 yards, 3:57 ToP

6:10 2nd Quarter
Garrett Hartley hit his second field goal of the day, knocking home a 46-yard this time.

The key play on this drive: Jammal Brown's holding penalty that nixed a 20-yard gain by Marques Colston.

Saints 13, Falcons 7 (6:10)
Scoring drive: 9 plays, 49 yards, 3:45 ToP

9:55 2nd Quarter
A 59-yard catch by Roddy White keyed a quick scoring drive by Atlanta. With Saints safety Roman Harper in coverage, Matt Ryan connected with White on the first play after New Orleans' field goal.

Three plays later, Michael Turner went off right tackle and waltzed into the end zoen for a 5-yard touchdown.

Saints 10, Falcons 7
Scoring drive: 4 plays, 74 yards, 2:10 ToP

12:05 2nd Quarter
Garrett Hartley certainly made that interesting. And now he's probably worried about his job.

The rookie kicker's 26-yard field goal went off the left upright and through. Sean Payton doesn't like kickers, so we're pretty sure the fact that Hartley's kick went off the upright is not a good thing for the kicker.

The key play of the drive: An interception that was overturned after Payton challenged the call on the field. The ball hit the ground and instant replay - which wasn't so instantaneous - confirmed that.

Saints 10, Falcons 0
Scoring Drive: 10 plays, 63 yards,4:32 ToP

14:12 2nd Quarter
Drew Brees just was intercepted, but it looked fairly evident the ball hit the turf before it was a clean catch.

So what does Sean Payton do? He pleads his case to the official, who doesn't hear it. Sean then leans down at the referee's feet and drops the challenge flag.

Classy.

End 1st Quarter
You hear enough of my thoughts on most Sundays. Let's welcome in guest Juan Kincaid and see what he has to say about the first 12 minutes.

"They ran the ball a lot. They're committed to the run finally. It's giving the offense more balance. they're able to throw the ball and hit guys in the flat like Colston and Shockey.

That's encouraging because it's something they didn't do in ATlanta in the Georgia Dome.

It's a good start so far."

And that's why Juan Kincaid is a New Orleans favorite.

8:29 1st Quarter
Whose the hero now? Jason David. That's who.

His interception has led to a Saints lead.

And guess what? New Orleans got to the end zone via the run. So far, the playcalling is 5 runs, 1 pass. Reggie Bush ran off right guard for 43 yards after David's interception. Two plays later, Drew Brees connected with Bush for a 5-yard touchdown pass on a slant.

Saints 7-0
Drive summary: 3 plays, 52 yards, ToP 1:27

9:56 1st Quarter
Well, you can't stay in the dog house forever.

Jason David now has three interceptions in the past two home games for the Saints. This time, he baited Falcons rookie quarterback Matt Ryan in to throwing to his side.

David looked at the ball the entire time.

Now NOLA has the ball at its own 48 to begin the second possession.

(Pregame)
Welcome back to the Dome. The last time we were here, New Orleans put on a pretty impressive performance. You may remember. It beat Green Bay 51-29, putting the Saints back in the playoff hunt.

But a loss last week at Tampa Bay has put the Saints behind the 8-ball.

So, what are we expecting today?

There's some good, um, voodoo working for the Saints, namely that no NFC South team has won on the road this season. Overall, the NFC South teams are 22-2 at home.

That bodes well.

We've got some pregame roster notes. Here you go:
Saints inactives:QB Joey Harrington, S Terrence Holt, CB David Pittman, RB Mike Bell, G Jamar Nesbit, T Jermon Bushrod, WR David Patten, DE Josh Savage.

Additions to the NOLA roster: RB Deuce McAllister, DE Will Smith. Both take the place of DE Rob Ninkovich and DE Tearrius George.

Falcon inactives: QB D.J. Shockley, WR Laurent Robinson, CB Brent Grimes, S Antoine Harris, LB Tony Gilbert, C Ben Wilkerson, T Sam Baker and DE Simon Fraser

Series notes:
-Atlanta leads all-time series 44-34, though the Saints lead 6-4 in the past 10 games.
-Saints QB Drew Brees has thrown a touchdown to 11 different players, one off the NFL record shared by Tom Brady (2005) and Brad Johnson (2003).
-A touchdown by Lance Moore ties him with Dalton Hilliard as the only two Saints to score in six consecutive games.

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