The Atlanta Falcons are winners of three straight, but will look to extend that win streak on Sunday when the New Orleans Saints come to town. On the surface, this might look like a meaningless game between two non-playoff games, but the outcome will likely help decide the NFC South champion.
Entering this weekend, the Saints have also been playing their best football, as they've won four straight since their Week 12 loss to the Falcons. The Dirty Birds are vying for their first season sweep of the Saints since 2016, and nobody wants them to pull it off more than Raheem Morris himself.
#Falcons coach Raheem Morris on the #Saints: “We don’t like the Saints. That’s clear and obvious.” pic.twitter.com/s7sAESb8lI
— D. Orlando Ledbetter (@DOrlandoAJC) December 31, 2025
While addressing the media on Wednesday afternoon, Morris took a shot at the Falcons' archrivals, confirming what most fans already knew. It's no secret that the bad blood between them and the Saints run deep, but addressing it publicly is what this team must live up to on Sunday afternoon.
Raheem Morris just turned a meaningless game into a must-win game with one sentence
The Falcons and Saints both have nothing to play for, but as far as Morris is concerned, the stakes have never been higher. It doesn't matter whether these teams are playing for bragging rights or a trip to the Super Bowl, as this is a game they've evidently had circled on the schedule for months now.
The rivalries in the NFC South aren't necessarily on par with some of the other NFL's top rivalries, but this showdown always brings the drama. The Falcons lead the overall series by just one game, but they managed to prevail against their rivals in three of their last five meetings, which isn't too shabby.
Even though this particular matchup might not come with the same juice it did when Drew Brees and Matt Ryan were playing, it's still must-see TV. The bad blood between the Falcons and Saints will never go away, even if the only thing on the line this weekend is a draft position that isn't set in stone.
The 49-year-old holds some clear animosity for the Aints, and given he's coached a considerable amount of time in both Atlanta and Tampa Bay (in Brees' prime), he certainly must not be a very big fan of the team down in the Big Easy, which is just like the majority of the rest of Atlanta's population.
Tyler Shough has also been playing his best football as of late for a surging Saints' squad, but Morris and company still want to embarrass the rookie signal-caller for the second time this season.