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The Atlanta Falcons just sent out their first injury report for Sunday’s playoff game with the New York Giants and it’s pretty extensive.

Veteran tight end Tony Gonzalez, center Todd McClure and defensive end John Abraham did not practice Wednesday. They are not listed with injuries and the team said the three veterans were resting.

But there were some other players who did sit out with injuries that could be reasons for concern. Cornerback Brent Grimes (knee), linebacker Sean Weatherspoon (head), running back Michael Turner (groin), linebacker Stephen Nicholas (toe), safety William Moore (groin) and receivers Kerry Meier (groin) and Harry Douglas (groin) did not participate in practice.

It appears the Atlanta Falcons will catch a bit of a break on Sunday when they play a road playoff game with the New York Giants.

The projected high for East Rutherford, N.J. that day is a reasonable 45 degrees. However, the above-average temperature doesn’t mean the Falcons are out of the woods when it comes to the weather. The forecast also says there will be a 40-percent chance of rain Sunday.

That’s not good news for a team that plays its home games in the comfort of the Georgia Dome. Recent history has shown the Falcons aren’t a great team when they’re playing outdoors, even when weather doesn’t matter.

They lost early season road games to Chicago and Tampa Bay on days when the weather wasn’t a factor. They also won at Seattle, but only after almost blowing a big lead. They also won a late-season game in Carolina on a day in which the weather was decent.

If the rain is heavy, it obviously could impact Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez in the passing game. It’s probably a good thing coach Mike Smith pulled running back Michael Turner in the second quarter of Sunday’s romp against Tampa Bay.

If the weather is rough, Turner should be rested enough to carry a heavy load.

The Atlanta Falcons have long been nicknamed “The Dirty Birds’’ and their offensive line occasionally has been accused of playing dirty.

But New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck has a new nickname for Atlanta’s offensive linemen and it’s not pretty.

“Most people would call them dirt bags,” Tuck said Monday. “But it is what it is. We got to make sure we do our job, and, if we are doing our job well, then they will be upset and they will be trying to do things to get us off our game. We’ve got to take that as a compliment.”

Some opponents also have claimed the Falcons intentionally flop when there’s an extra shove after the whistle to try to draw penalties. Tuck doesn’t disagree with that accusation.

“Yeah, we have seen it,” Tuck said. “We know that they have that quote-unquote reputation. But in a way it is kind of exciting. ... In the same sense you got to protect yourself, and hopefully the referees have 20-20 vision this week.”

Three things to know about next Sunday’s Atlanta Falcons-New York Giants wild-card game.

1. Take the next step. Since arriving together in 2008, coach Mike Smith and quarterback Matt Ryan have produced four consecutive winning seasons. That’s great, but the big knock on Smith and Ryan is that they have yet to win a playoff game. When they were the No. 1 seed last year, they lost at home to the No. 6 Packers. Going on the road to a cold-weather venue will be difficult. But Atlanta went all-in this season with the trade up to draft Julio Jones and sign defensive end Ray Edwards. They need a postseason victory to make this season any sort of success. Ryan also needs to shed the label that he can’t win the big one.

2. Stop the pass rush. The Falcons had problems protecting Ryan early in the season and that caused lots of problems. The offensive line has played better lately. But the Giants feature a very strong pass rush. They have Jason Pierre-Paul and Osi Umenyiora is back from an injury. The Giants can generate pressure with their front four alone. The Falcons are going to have to use their running backs and tight ends to give left tackle Will Svitek some blocking help.

3. Slow down Victor Cruz. The New York receiver has come out of nowhere to become one of the league’s top receivers. Cruz has lots of speed and has been making lots of big plays downfield. If cornerback Brent Grimes, who has missed time with a knee injury, is healthy, he and cornerback Dunta Robinson can match up with Cruz and the short and mid-level passing game. But safeties William Moore, Thomas DeCoud and James Sanders will have to step up and do a better job providing help than they did in the regular season. Of course, it would also help if Atlanta can generate a pass rush. There are some signs that’s possible. After a slow start, defensive end John Abraham has come on strong in recent weeks.

ATLANTA – Thoughts on the Atlanta Falcons’ 45-24 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday at the Georgia Dome.

What it means: The Falcons are 10-6 and in the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history. The Falcons are in as the No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs. They’ll play on the road against the winner of Sunday night’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. The Buccaneers ended their season in dismal fashion. After starting off 4-2, they lost their final 10 games and weren’t even competitive in most of those.

Momentum found: The Falcons bounced back nicely after a bad Monday night loss to the New Orleans Saints. Yeah, they were playing the Bucs, who might have become the worst team in the NFL, but the victory should create a positive vibe for the Falcons as they head into the playoffs.

Record Turner: Michael Turner broke Gerald Riggs’ team record for career rushing touchdowns with two in the first half. Turner now has 50 rushing touchdowns since joining the Falcons in 2008. Riggs set his record over the course of seven seasons. Turner also tied Riggs’ team record with his 25^th 100-yard rushing game since joining the Falcons. Too bad Turner doesn’t play for the Saints. Sean Payton would have kept feeding Turner the ball and given him a shot at a 500-yard day.

Roddy’s records: Roddy White became Atlanta’s all-time leader in receiving yards. He passed Terance Mathis’ previous record of 7,349 yards. White also had his 100th catch of the season. That makes White the first player to have two seasons of 100 or more catches.

Farewell, Jeff George: Quarterback Matt Ryan surpassed Jeff George’s 1995 record for passing yards in a season (4,143).

The Morris Watch: If Tampa Bay’s ownership hadn’t made a decision about the future of coach Raheem Morris before Sunday, another embarrassing loss couldn’t have helped his case. This game was over almost as soon as it started and it’s stunning to remember that the Bucs beat the Falcons in Week 3. As has been the case through most of the losing streak, the Bucs looked like a team with no direction. At some point in the next few days, the Glazer family, which owns the Bucs will have to break its silence and let the world know if they’re sticking with Morris or going in a different direction.

What’s next: The Falcons have to wait until the end of Sunday night’s game between the Giants and Cowboys to find out where they’ll travel to for the first round of the playoffs. The Buccaneers will get a top 10 draft pick and an offseason that’s sure to be filled with change even if Morris stays.

NEW ORLEANS -- I’m settled into the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the Detroit Lions' bus just arrived. The players are walking across the field to the locker room.

I’ll be back with inactives and any other pregame news or notes that come along.

Meantime, I’m watching this game between the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers. A lot of people have been talking about how the Saints may be close to being as good as the Packers. If Green Bay ends up losing this one, that theory could grow. After all, the Saints blew out the Giants on Monday night.

Of course, the Saints will have to do their part and win against the Lions Sunday night for that argument to even have a chance.

NEW ORLEANS -- We’ve talked plenty about Drew Brees' performance in Monday night’s 49-24 victory against the New York Giants.

But we’d be terribly wrong not to mention the support the quarterback got from his running game. If there is such a thing as very quietly running for 205 yards, the Saints did that.

They didn’t have a 100-yard rusher. But that’s not really their style. They use a rotation in their backfield --and that’s a backfield that’s so deep that Chris Ivory, last season’s leading rusher, was on the inactive list Monday night, even though he was healthy.

Mark Ingram, Darren Sproles and Pierre Thomas all were active and each of them played a significant role. Ingram had 80 yards on 13 carries and ran for a touchdown. Thomas had 63 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Sproles had 54 yards on eight carries. Brees added 8 yards and a touchdown on his only run of the night.

Again, the running game sometimes gets lost in Brees’ significant shadow. But the Saints have a much better running game than they did last season when they struggled with injuries and basically ran out of healthy running backs in a first-round playoff loss to Seattle.

That’s why the Saints went out and drafted Ingram and signed Sproles as a free agent. The results have been impressive.

The Saints are averaging 125.5 rushing yards per game this season. They’re averaging 26 rushes a game and 4.8 yards per carry. Through 11 games, they already have 12 rushing touchdowns.

In 2010, the Saints scored only nine rushing touchdowns. They averaged 94.9 rushing yards per game. They also averaged 23.8 runs per game and 4.0 yards per carry.

By the way, according to ESPN Stats & Information, 22 has been the magic number of carries per game for the Saints this season. In games in which they have run 22 or more times, they’re 7-0 and average 37.3 points. In games in which they have run 21 or fewer times, they’re 1-3 and average 25.3 points.

NEW ORLEANS -- Maybe the reason Drew Brees is such a good quarterback is because he can see things the rest of us can’t.

Take the case of Monday night’s 49-24 victory by the New Orleans Saints against the New York Giants at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. It looked to be about as close to a perfect performance by a quarterback as there has ever been.

Brees threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for a touchdown, perhaps the most spectacular run of a career that hasn’t included a lot of runs. But the most impressive stat of all might have been that the Saints had 577 yards of total offense (the second-highest output in franchise history) without a 100-yard rusher or receiver and without a sack.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever witnessed that before.

Didn’t think so. It sure looked like perfection.

Instead of celebrating, though, Brees was ripping himself apart -- and apologizing to Michael Jordan -- for not doing enough.

“I’m always hard on myself,’’ Brees said. “I expect perfection. I just know deep down there are some things I still need to work on.’’

Really? What’s left to work on when you’ve put 49 points on the board and spread 25 completions among seven different receivers?

“He is his own worst critic and he is as hard on himself as anyone else could possibly be,’’ New Orleans coach Sean Payton said. “The time he’s been in our system, we’re on Year 6 now, and he’s throwing the ball with great rhythm and anticipation.’’

But let’s stop the tap dancing and the personal critiques. Let’s get right to the truth.

Brees has been a very good quarterback for a long time. But he now is playing better than he ever has. He should be a candidate for Most Valuable Player.

Go ahead and start the chants for Aaron Rodgers. I get it and there's no doubt Rodgers is having a tremendous season. But I think Brees is having every bit as good a season as the Green Bay quarterback. Maybe better, and I am not alone.

“Aaron Rodgers is on an undefeated team and obviously that means a lot,’’ New Orleans right tackle Zach Strief said. “Aaron Rodgers is an absolutely great quarterback, no doubt. But is anybody playing better than Drew Brees right now? Probably not.’’

No, definitely not. Brees is on a roll that has him on pace to break Dan Marino’s record for passing yards in a single season (5,084 in 1984). On his current pace, Brees would finish with 5,366 passing yards. He’s also got the Saints off to an 8-3 start and alone atop the NFC South.

Yeah, the Packers defeated the Saints in the season opener and Rodgers and Green Bay have kept right on winning. No knock on Rodgers, but he’s got a great team around him. So does Brees, but name another true superstar on the New Orleans roster?

I don’t think there’s one besides Brees. He’s surrounded by a bunch of good players, who he makes even better. If he wasn’t hitting running back Darren Sproles and tight end Jimmy Graham on underneath routes against the Giants, he was throwing downfield to Devery Henderson, Marques Colston and Lance Moore.

Could Brees end up as the MVP?

“He’s in that conversation,’’ said Colston, who had six catches for 78 yards. “As long as we keep winning, he’s got to stay in that conversation.’’

Colston came into the NFL in 2006, the same year Brees arrived in New Orleans. Colston has seen Brees in games and practices. They went to an NFC Championship Game in their first year together and won a Super Bowl in the 2009 season. Brees became only the second quarterback ever to throw for 5,000 yards in 2008.

“Drew Brees is even better now than he’s ever been,’’ Colston said. “The crazy thing is that we long ago came to expect great things from him. But he’s taken it to an even higher level. Heck, that touchdown run he had, I’ve never seen out of him.’’

Ah, yes, the touchdown run. If you haven’t seen it, check the highlights. It came with 5:48 left in the third quarter. That’s when Brees dropped to throw, tucked the ball, ran and dived across the goal line.

Shades of Tim Tebow from a guy who's never been known as a runner.

“When he’s throwing the football, you would say he’s very decisive,’’ Payton said. “On that play, you could say the same thing.’’

Brees was decisive on the run that gave the Saints a 35-10 lead. He even was decisive on what he attempted to do next, although that was the one moment of the night where Brees wasn’t perfect and that’s where the apology to Jordan came in.

After scoring, Brees made a run for the goalposts. His plan was to dunk the ball over the post, in the same manner he used to imitate Jordan’s dunks on a shorter-than-regulation basketball rim when he was growing up.

“I was a little more tired than I thought I would be,’’ Brees said. “I didn’t quite get the oomph and I turned it into more of a finger roll. I apologize to Michael Jordan.’’

But Brees didn’t have to apologize for anything else. Heck, Brees is so good that he forces Payton to defy every coaching handbook he's ever seen. When the Saints got the ball back at their own 12-yard line with 1:09 left in the first half, Payton didn't call for handoffs to run out the clock. He turned Brees loose. The Saints went straight down the field and scored on a pass to Moore with 40 seconds left in the half and a 21-3 lead.

"It's that confidence that players around have in him and, obviously, we have in him,'' Payton said.

In the locker room after the game, his teammates were still in awe.

“It’s weird to say this,’’ Strief said. “You play with lots of guys through the years and every guy you play with, you can remember him having a bad game at some point. I can honestly say I’ve never seen Drew Brees have a bad game. What he did tonight was simply amazing. He just keeps getting better and better.’’

“He’s the only quarterback I’ve really played with in the NFL,’’ Colston said. “But I look around at other quarterbacks and I just can’t imagine a better quarterback than Drew Brees.’’

Or a better MVP candidate.

NEW ORLEANS -- Thoughts on the New Orleans Saints’ 49-24 win against the New York Giants on Monday night at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

What it means: The Saints are 8-3 and still alone at the top of the NFC South. They also have the city of New Orleans rocking as the season comes down to crunch time. When teams have to come into the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for prime-time games late in the season, the Saints have a huge home-field edge. They’ve got the Lions coming in for a prime-time game Sunday, and the Falcons come to New Orleans the night after Christmas. If the Saints win the NFC South and get the No. 3 seed, they’re pretty much guaranteed a trip to the NFC Championship Game, which could be a return trip to Lambeau Field, where the Saints started the season with a close loss to the Packers. But, hey, I'm thinking anything is possible for the Saints right now. This season is starting to remind me a lot more of 2009 than 2010.

The streak is over: The Saints had lost the coin toss in each of their first 10 games. That ended Monday night as they won the toss and elected to receive.

What I liked: Everything on offense. The Saints have so many weapons, and coach Sean Payton and Drew Brees use them all so well, it’s almost unfair for a defense to have to put only 11 players on the field. It might have been a little hard to notice because of Brees' ridiculous passing numbers, but the Saints also ran the ball pretty well.

The confidence factor: I wasn't crazy about it at the time when Payton went with a fake field goal on the first drive. It didn't work. But he basically was saying, "I don't care if we score here or not. This offense is going to put up so many points that it won't matter if we get seven, three or zero points here." He was right.

What I didn’t like: New Orleans’ defense gave up way too many yards. Then again, it didn’t really matter because there was no way a depleted New York defense was going to stop Brees and the New Orleans offense. But New Orleans still needs some improvement on defense, or that might come back to bite the Saints in the postseason.

Unsung hero: Linebacker Will Herring was hurt much of the early part of the season, and we haven’t seen much of him since he’s been healthy. But Herring showed up big, intercepting Eli Manning in the first quarter.

What’s next: The Saints host the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.

NEW ORLEANS – I’m about to head over to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome to cover Monday night’s game between the Saints and Giants.

Yeah, I know it’s very early, but I’d rather get into the building and work on Tuesday’s NFC South Stock Watch and some other things than get caught up in the pre-game traffic, which will be getting pretty heavy if I wait any longer.

I’ll check back in once I get settled and will get you the inactives for the Saints about 90 minutes before kickoff. NFC East colleague Dan Graziano will bring you any other pregame news and notes.

Once the game starts, we’ll be jumping into Monday Night Live to chat throughout the game. We’ll be joined by Scouts Inc.’s Matt Williamson, “Football Scientist’’ KC Joyner and ESPN Stats & Information. If you want to join the chat, just check back on the NFC South Blog as the game gets closer. Just look for the Monday Night Live post and you’ll be able to get directly into the chat.

NEW ORLEANS – Before I start getting ready to make my way over to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, let’s hear a few words from New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees.

In this radio interview with Bobby Hebert, Brees talks about how and why the Saints have exceled in November. They have won 10 straight November games.

“For us I think we always view that month of November as the middle part of the season and that is when I think the contenders separate themselves from the pretenders and we view ourselves as a contender and want to be that year in and year out,’’ Brees said. “I think we just put extra emphasis on that month really to kind of establishing our identity and creating momentum moving into the latter half of the season.”

The Saints can extend their November winning streak to 11 games when they host the New York Giants on Monday night. The Saints are coming off a bye and the Giants have struggled lately. But Brees said nothing will be easy because he expects the Giants to play like it’s a must-win game.

“Yeah, they are extremely dangerous,’’ Brees said. “Especially right now because so much of this league is not who you play it is when you play them. I just know our mentality. If we were in their situation and that would be very much a must-win. You want to play your best football. You are on the road Monday night in a hostile environment and all those things, so we are going to need to do our absolute best coming off a bye week to just show how well rested we are by coming out guns blazing and really execute well and just do all the little things cause games like this come down to who’s the most disciplined and who can take care of it when it comes to crunch time.”

Drew Brees is on pace to break all sorts of passing records. Darren Sproles might be the best free-agent pickup of the year, and Jimmy Graham is well on his way to becoming the best tight end in the NFL.

Oh, and let’s not forget a group of receivers (Marques Colston, Lance Moore, Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem) that’s as deep as any other in the league. All of the above are huge reasons the New Orleans Saints are 7-3 and sitting atop the NFC South.

But if the Saints are 8-3 on Tuesday morning, it won’t necessarily be because of the previously mentioned guys. It will be because of the best thing the Saints have going for them right now.

That’s the offensive line. Yep, seriously. A group that struggled with adversity from training camp right up until midseason suddenly has become one of the team’s biggest strengths. That offensive line will have to be stronger than ever Monday night when the Saints host the New York Giants at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

The Giants come into New Orleans tied for second in the league with 31 sacks. Jason Pierre-Paul is No. 3 with 9.5 sacks, and Osi Umenyiora is tied for 12th in the league with 7. There’s no doubt the Giants can get after the quarterback, but I’d give the edge to the New Orleans offensive line right now.

This unit has suddenly found itself, and it’s only going to keep improving.

“The offensive line is the group that has to play with the most continuity,’’ Brees said. “They have five guys that need to be on the same page every play. It’s hard to do, and yet I feel like we have smart, tough guys that do that.”

But it wasn’t always this way. The New Orleans offensive line has been flawless only the past two games. In victories over division rivals Tampa Bay and Atlanta, the Saints haven’t allowed a sack. Note what Brees said about continuity. That’s why I’m saying the New Orleans offensive line will continue to improve.

Coach Sean Payton has a brilliant offensive mind, and his offensive coaches have worked very hard to fix some early problems. The linemen have put in a lot of work after a flaw that could have ruined the season was fully exposed to the rest of the league.

On Oct. 30, the Saints strolled into St. Louis as huge favorites against the Rams, who were winless at the time. The Saints left embarrassed, and Brees was battered like he’d never been battered since joining New Orleans in 2006. He was sacked six times and hit at least an additional 10 times.

It added up to a 31-21 victory by the Rams and a lot of tape for the rest of the league to look at. The season could have spiraled out of control right then, but it hasn’t.

That’s because the Saints limped out of St. Louis knowing something like that could never happen again, and it hasn’t. Brees hasn’t been sacked -- or even pressured very much -- since that day.

That’s because the Saints finally have figured out who their five best linemen are, and they’ve finally been able to get them all on the field at the same time. It just took about half a season for all the pieces to be on the table.

The Saints came out of the lockout knowing they would have to mess a bit with the continuity of the offensive line, which might have been the league’s best during the 2009 Super Bowl season and wasn’t bad last year.

The Saints liked Jonathan Goodwin, but they weren’t going to pay huge money to keep a 32-year-old center. They let him sign with San Francisco. They’d prepared for Goodwin’s eventual departure by drafting Matt Tennant in 2010.

But the Saints looked at Tennant for the first few days of training camp and quickly realized he was nowhere near ready. They quickly went out and signed Olin Kreutz, who was 2 years older than Goodwin, to a much cheaper deal and hoped he could act as a bridge for a year until Tennant was ready.

The bridge collapsed quickly. Kreutz started three games before being sidelined for two games with a knee injury. He came back for one game and then decided to walk away from the Saints, saying he no longer had the desire to play. Subsequent reports said Kreutz’s decision might have been made because the Saints were about to bench him -- not to go with Tennant, but to throw in the ultimate no-name player.

That was Brian de la Puente, who’d been bouncing around training camps since 2008 but had never appeared in a regular-season game until he started when Kreutz first was injured.

About the same time Kreutz was walking away, right tackle Zach Strief was dealing with a knee injury that sidelined him for five games. Strief didn’t exactly have a great pedigree to begin with. He’d been with the Saints as a backup since 2006 but was thrust into the starting job when the Saints decided to cut aging veteran Jon Stinchcomb in training camp. The Saints initially hoped the Goodwin departure would be the only change and they could squeeze one more season from Stinchcomb. But training camp quickly showed that Stinchcomb was at the end of the road, and the Saints handed the starting job to Strief. He started off pretty well but then went down with the injury. Charles Brown struggled as Strief's replacement.

But Strief has returned to start the last two games, and de la Puente is getting very comfortable in the middle.

“Certainly the time on task, snaps and experience for a young center and Zach Strief coming off an injury, all those things help,’’ Payton said. “They’ve played very good football here of late. We think it’s a key to us playing good football games. Certainly from a repetition standpoint, the more those guys get to work together, the more they become comfortable with the center, who is going to making a lot of the calls and [identifying] the defense along with Drew, I think that’s very important.’’

It’s important to note that the Saints already had and continue to have the league’s best guard tandem in Jahri Evans and Carl Nicks. Left tackle Jermon Bushrod is never going to be a superstar, but he’s been starting for three seasons and has become a very dependable player.

The Saints went through some changes and early adversity on their offensive line. But now that Strief and de la Puente have emerged as nice complementary players to Nicks, Evans and Bushrod, things have stabilized.

The Saints might have taken a couple of initial steps back when they let Goodwin walk and released Stinchcomb, and they certainly took a hit when Kreutz didn’t work out. But all of a sudden, it’s looking as though the adjustment period is over. The Saints might have an even stronger offensive line than before.

They’re going to need that against the Giants.

This little bit of news about cornerback Brian Williams signing with the New York Giants doesn’t really impact the Atlanta Falcons. It just demonstrates why the Falcons are doing what they are at nickel back.

They’re letting young players Dominique Franks and Christopher Owens compete for the right to be the third cornerback behind Dunta Robinson and Brent Grimes. That job very easily could have belonged to Williams, and there’s little doubt he would have been the safer choice.

Williams spent the past two seasons with the Falcons and played well as the third corner and even started at times. He came from Jacksonville, where Atlanta coach Mike Smith was an assistant before taking over the Falcons. In short, Williams would have been a comfortable fit for the Falcons.

But that never really was an option. The Falcons decided sometime between the end of last season and the start of the lockout that Williams wasn’t in their plans. The logic was simple. Williams is 32 and has absolutely no upside. You know what you’re getting with Williams. That’s an experienced guy, who isn’t going to make a lot of mistakes, but isn’t going to make many big plays.

The Falcons took all that into consideration and knew that Franks and Owens rarely would see the field if they brought Williams back. He was just good enough that any coaching staff would rather take the safe approach and play him over Franks and Owens.

The Falcons are letting Owens and Franks battle for the job at nickel back throughout the preseason and there have been moments where both have stepped up. Smith has yet to declare a winner in the competition and there might be some mistakes ahead.

But Owens and Franks both have upside and either one could turn out to be much better than Williams ever was. That’s why Williams was sitting out there until late August, when the Giants had a slew of injuries at cornerback and had to grasp for someone who probably won’t do anything special.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

All week long, the fine folks at ESPN’s Stats & Information have been sending me a steady stream of numbers about Sunday’s battle of the undefeated –- the Saints and Giants. I’ve shared some of that with you as soon as it came in, but I’ve been stockpiling some other nuggets for a moment like this. Here you go:

Giants vs. Saints, NFL ranks this season Giants Saints PPG 4th 1st PPG diff 2nd 1st Total YPG 2nd 3rd Opp YPG 1st 6th

Best starts in Saints history Year Started Finished 1991 7-0 11-5 1993 5-0 8-8 2009 4-0 ?

5-0 starts in Saints history Year Started Result 1991 7-0 11-5 1993 5-0 8-8 2009 4-0 ?

Saints' first game coming off bye in last 6 seasons

2009: vs Giants -- ?

2008: at Falcons -- Lost

2007: vs Panthers -- Lost

2006: vs Ravens -- Lost

2005: at Patriots -- Lost

2004: at Chargers -- Lost

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

I just found out I’ll be talking about the Saints and Sunday’s huge game with the Giants on ESPNEWS of Friday at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET.

As always, television schedules often have to be a bit flexible. But we should be talking somewhere within a few minutes of 2:30. If there are any drastic changes to the schedule, I’ll let you know here.