Hot Read: The Saints, Missed Opportunities and The Return of the Incomparable Brent Grimes

The upcoming Monday Night game against the New Orleans Saints is quite possibly the biggest game of the year for the Falcons.  If the Falcons can play up to the level that they have been playing of late and pull off the victory, not only will the Falcons clinch a playoff spot but they will also move closer to a possible division title. Which if Falcons fans know, would be the first time an NFC South team would repeat as division winner.  One major development that can only help the Falcons in their pursuit of back-to-back playoff appearances and division titles is the return of Brent Grimes.

The Falcons are going to need Grimes and the rest of the defense to be as stellar as they have been the last couple of games because the Saints, led by MVP candidate Drew Brees, are not going to go easy on them.  The Falcons defense did a good job in the first meeting this year.  They held the explosive Saints offense to 41 yards rushing and Drew Brees to his fourth lowest yardage amount of the season.  They also did a great job at containing Darren Sproles, one of the most versatile players in the game, to a grand total of 3 yards of offense on 6 touches.  In this game, the Falcons actually out did the Saints offensively in just about every major category  there is.  What hurt the Falcons in this game was missed opportunities.

In the first game, the Falcons had several missed opportunities that had they converted the Falcons would have had a great chance at winning that game.  The two biggest opportunities that were missed were the red zone opportunities that were converted into field goals instead of touchdowns.  Another missed opportunity was the missed field goal by Matt Bryant.  This was big because up until that point Matt Bryant had not missed a single field goal all season.  If the Falcons could have managed to convert any one of these opportunities then they could have pulled off the victory and would have been one step closer to winning back-to-back division titles.

In the upcoming meeting, the entire defense is going to have to pick it up and play much higher than they have all year.  With the return of Grimes, there is a very good possibility that the Falcons can win.  If they do win, it would be a huge momentum push for them going into the playoffs.

In this game, the entire Atlanta Falcons team and fan base need to RISE UP.