Drew Brees suffered through a miserable afternoon as the NFL's most prolific quarterback threw three interceptions as the Falcons romped over the Saints 34-20 on Sunday at Atlanta.
The loss put an end to Saints' realistic comeback hopes and their record fell to 4-5.
The Falcons improved to 6-3. The Saints, however, have not been mathematically eliminated. The Saints again failed to string together their first winning streak of the season, a severe blow in the competitive NFC South. The Saints now must concentrate on just winning a game, not a streak.
Falcons rookie quarterback Matt Ryan enjoyed a pressure-free afternoon and threw two touchdown passes as Atlanta remained in the thick of the NFC South playoff race, having defied those who expected a rebuilding season or two after the Michael Vick debacle and coaching change.
Rookie cornerback Chevis Jackson, a third-round draft choice from LSU, intercepted Brees and returned the ball 95 yards for a touchdown. He broke perfectly on a pass for Devery Henderson at the 5 and took off down the sideline with no one around, high-stepping right in front of the Saints' bench.
"I had clear sailing," said Jackson. "The whole defense had a good day."
Brees spent much of the game trying to get away from the Atlanta pass rush, led by defensive end John Abraham, who now has 11 sacks for the season, more than overpaid Saints defensive ends Will Smith and the departed Charles Grant combined. Smith makes $12,950,000 a year and Grant gets $9,350,000. Abraham makes $6,009,920 a season.
Brees recorded his seventh 300-yard passing game this season, but was forced to throw because the Saints couldn't get a running going and they we playing catch-up in the second half. He concluded the day with 420 yards and completed the game with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Lance Moore, but that was little consolation.
The Saints outgained the Falcons 519 yards to 361, but it was the Falcons who controlled the flow of the game. The Saints managed only 113 yards rushing while the Falcons' Michael Turner carried 27 times for 96 yards and one touchdown. Devery Henderson was the Saints leading rusher with a 30-yard end-around. Ryan was sharp, completing 16-of-23 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns."Atlanta played awfully well offensively and we struggled early on and fell behind and put ourselves in a really tough hole to dig out of. The Saints attempted only 17 rushing plays.
"We became one-dimensional and played into hands of the defense and their pass rush. Their defenders made a lot of plays and we didn't take advantage of some opportunities that we had to get back in the game late in the second quarter."
As if things weren't bad enough for the Saints, cornerback Mike McKenzie, the team's best defensive back, was taken off the field in a cart and is likely out for the season with a fractured kneecap. He will fly to Birmingham and have the knee checked by Dr. James Andrews, the surgeon who specializes in corrective surgery on athletes.
"This was extremely frustrating," said Brees. "We're better than this."
As for the interceptions, the quarterback said. "I look at all three and just shake my head.
Defensively we couldn't get off the field in key spots and I would say we got beat in all phases of the game," said Payton. :The most important thing we can focus on right now is next week's game against Kansas City and get back to .500."
Defensively, the Saints were led by linebacker Scott Fujita, who had a team high 12 tackles, including one for a loss. Safety Kevin Kaesviharm, who lacks enough speed to help out cornerbacks on coverage, added 9 tackles.
Abraham was successful in pressuring Brees because left tackle Jammal Brown couldn't block him one on one. Center Matt Lehr also experienced blocking problems.
The Saints have the fourth-highest payroll in the NFL. Maybe owner Tom Benson should troubleshoot problem areas so they can be resolved.
The Who Dat Nation is growing weary of hearing how frustrated the players and coaches are every week. They'd like to see improvement.
The Saints had hoped to begin a wining streak with this game. They haven't won two games in a row this season.
Marques Colston led all receivers with 7 catches for 140 yards but had a couple of drops. Moore had 6 catches for 75 yards. Receiver Robert Meachem was inactive.
The Saints should concentrate on winning any game, not establishing a winning streak.
Defense wins for Hornets
Chris Paul scored 21 points and 13 assists got his sixth straight double-double as the Hornets snapped a two-game losing skid and stung the Miami Heat 100-89 Saturday night in the Arena.
Paul, who added 10 rebounds, set an NBA record for consecutive games at the start of a season with 20 points and 10 assists, breaking the record set by Oscar Robertson in 1968, for six games..
Hornets coach Byron Scott had watched his team give up 50 points on 32 turnover in its previous two games, and he had a legitimate cause for concern entering this game. Miami was better than many other NBA team at capitalizing on opponents' errors, having forced a league-best 204 turnovers per game.
"The Heat's strength had been our weakness," said Scott after the game. "We had to be very careful with them with the ball because they pressure you."
David West had 21 points for the Bees, who held the Heat to 43.1 per cent shooting. Dwayne Wade scored 30 points with 10 assists for Miami (3-3).
The Hornets (4-2) outscored the Heat 23-13 in the second quarter, and that gave the Bees enough of a cushion to hold off Miami late.
Both teams were playing the the second time in as many night. The Hornets wee reeling from a 92-89 setback at Charlotte in a second uncharacteristic performance by the Bees, who committed 17 turnovera that led to 30 points for the Bobcats. Two days earlier, Atlanta scored 20 points off 15 turnovers in a 87-79 victory over the Hornets.
Maybe the Hornets could work with the Saints and LSU football teams on how to eliminate turnovers.
Scott made the Hornets practice on Saturday morning, a rare move for a team preparing to play its second game on back-to-back nights.
"They seemed disappointed, not talkative as they usually are," said he coach. The Hornets in the last two games have not been playing like a team picked to challenge the Lakers in the NBA West.
Torch is passed
A torch was passed when Alabama defeated LSU 27-21 in overtime on Saturday night Tigers before the largest crowd of 93,039 to ever see a game in Tiger Stadium.
The game lived up to he avalanche of pre-game hype and was decided in part by Alabama safety Rashad Johnson's three interceptions, including one in overtime and another that was run back for a touchdown.
LSU (6-3, 3-3 SEC) forced overtime when Tide kicker Leigh Tiffin's 29-yard field goal attempt was blocked by defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois as time expired in regulation.
The Tide improved its record to 10-0 and clinched the SEC West with the victory over the defending national champions. Alabama will play Florida on the first Saturday of December for the SEC championship. Florida, rated by experts, is the best team in the country, will be favored. The experts claim Oklahoma is the second best team in he country with USC third.
LSU's running game and defense helped he Tigers say ahead of or even with Alabama throughout the game,. The Tigers ran for 201 yards and outgained Alabama 382-353.
But it was quarterback Jarrett Lee's four interceptions and inability to capitalize on Tide mistakes that cost the Tigers the chance of a victory. LSU scored just seven points off three first-half Alabama turnovers and a missed field goal. Alabama made the Tigers pay for their mistakes. They scored 21 points following Johnson's interceptions.
Lee finished 13-of-34 passing for 181 yards and one touchdown and four costly interceptions, Brandon LaFell led LSU with 4 caches for 74 yards and Demetruis Byrd added 51 yards and a touchdown.
Charles Scott led LSU with 24 carries for 92 yards and two touchdowns and Keiland Williams added 88 yards on 13 trips.
LSU freshman quarterback Jefferson Jordan warned up briefly, but didn't play. He needs to see playing time this season so he can enter spring training with a little experience so he can challenge Lee for the starting job next season.
Alabama has only nine seniors on scholarship and is one of the top recruiting schools in the country.They will be carrying the SEC West torch for years to come.
Despite Tigers fans welling for Miles' firing, the coach liked the crowd.
Said Miles: "How was Tiger Stadium? It was a great crowd and a place I love playing and competing in. I think that crowd for being there..I asked the team to improve. I asked them to work hard, and they did. They gave us everything we asked them to do. That defense. Wow. That's the defense came to appreciate. Offensively, we moved the ball. We did good things, rushed the ball well, and the story is we didn't manage our mistakes.
"Let me tell you. Jarrett Lee is a young quarterback. We dropped balls here and there. Another ball that should have been caught is a pick, and just about everything that could go wrong does. It's hard to rebound. It's hard him to continue to fight, but he does. He comes back onto the field with the opportunity to win the game. I just need to coach him more, love him., support him and make him better."
Miles on Lee's growing pains: "I think he can play better than he played today. Simply put, I thought he gave us a chance to win. He's a redshirt freshman. He's taking snaps and playing competitively against a team that we need to catch he ball and make some plays through the air. They put extra guys down in the box, and we have to throw it."
Coach Nick Saban's game plan was to make the Tigers pass.
Miles on his decision not to play Jefferson: "We kind of know what we're doing with our quarterbacks. We don't want to put him in a touch situation just yet. He's coming. We like him and we talked about putting him several times during the game. There's a lot to it. There's a lot to that spot to put a guy in there who may not be ready. You can argue he same thing about Lee, but Jefferson is a true freshman with less experience and less-game-time experience.
LSU running back Richard Murphy on the loss: "This game will be hard to forget. It was a very emotional game. It's going to be hard to put this game behind us."
Saban said he enjoyed the game's atmosphere and he outcome.
"It was a great college football game," said the former LSU and Miami Dolphins coach. "The players on both sides played their hearts out. LSU's team played an outstanding game. I congratulated our players after the game, but i asked them if they thought they played their best game. Do you think we played better than we did before? Do you think we made improvements as a team? Those are the kind of things that even though we got a spot with the SEC West, you get with expectations are. If you have a high level of expectations that you expect to achieve and accomplish then you obviously have a better chance of getting there.
"I didn't think we had the same kind of intensity that we had been playing with and we wee a little flat in the first half. This was a huge game for us and sometimes you wonder as a coach that you did or didn't do what your expectation was for them to do to be raedy to play. This was a very good team we played today and they played well."
Saban on bringing Alabama back to natioal prominence: "We are at about 19,000 feet. The mountain is at 26,000 feet and the air is changing a little bit. The air is rarer and you have to change how you breathe sometimes, but you still have to focus on he task at hand. Because of that, if you slip up and don't focus on what you are supposed to, the consequences can be devasting even more so when you are at 7,000 feet.
SOME HITHER, OTHERS YON: The Saints, NFL Network and Cox Communications will break ground on Tuesday on gym refurbishments at Truman Middle School in Jefferson Parish as part of the Keep Gym in Schools. The school will receive a $55,000 grant that will provide several physical education, including a new physical track, equipment and an outdoor running tack. Deuce McAllister and NFL Network's Scott Hanson will participate on a pep rally and lead students in a football-themed field day...For the fifth straight administration (and 7 or 8, excepting Jimmy Carter), we will have a sports freak in the White House. Obama is a pickup basketball addict. One of his wishes is to throw out the first pitch for the Chicago White Sox on Opening Day next season. He is often spotted wearing a ChiSox cap into and out of various gyms...
Will we see Michael Vick in the NFL again? He will play somewhere in the NFL in 2009. There is strong sentiment that he has suffered enough. In honor of Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer's firing, a final farewell rendition of Rocky Top"
Won't be the same on ol' Rocky Top, Up on that Tennessee hill,
Ain't smoggy smoke on Rocky Top, And now there ain't no Phil.
Rocky Top, you'll always be, Home sweet home to Phil,
Good ol 'Rocky Top, Where the buyout's worth more than six mill.
Tennessee lost to Wyoming the past Saturday.
MORNING LINE: Saints 4 over Chiefs, LSU 19 over Troy, Tulane 5 over UAB, Ole Miss 21 over UL-Monroe, UL-Lafayette 1 1/2 over Florida International, USC 22 over Stanford, Florida 23 over South Carolina, Georgia 7 1/1 over Auburn, Texas 14 over Kansas, East Caroline vs. USM even, La. Tech 11 1/2 over Utah State, Kentucky 4 over Vandy.
Drew Brees suffered through a miserable afternoon as the NFL's most prolific quarterback threw three interceptions as the Falcons romped over the Saints 34-20 on Sunday at 
