New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons Week 16 Monday Night Football Pick

New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons Week 16 Monday Night Football Pick: It’s nice when the game of the week is on Monday Night Football – so much better than something like Cardinals/49ers or something like that. The Saints and Falcons both come in pretty hot – New Orleans lost last week in Baltimore, but won 6 straight prior to that. Atlanta comes in to this home game with 8 straight wins and they’re tied with the Patriots for the best record in football at 12-2. No matter what happens this week, the Falcons would win their division, and get a 1st round bye and be the #1 seed if they won in Week 17 against Carolina. So this game doesn’t really mean much to them – or does it?

I’m sure the Falcons will come and play for keeps, do their best to keep the Saints out of the playoffs if they can. The Falcons have played very good football of late, and no matter what the game has done, if it’s been a passing shoot out or grinder, they’ve found out how to win. This game will be a battle.

But even in Atlanta, where the Falcons are undefeated, the Saints are the team with more to play for, more to lose, more to win by upsetting the NFC-leading Falcons. The Saints have been solid on the road, but they haven’t been that great football team they were last season when they took home the Super Bowl Trophy. Drew Brees had made a lot of mistakes (19 interceptions) and the run-game hasn’t been as consistent as it was last season (ranked 26th in the NFL this year).

With the Saints getting healthy at just the right time, and with Atlanta already having beaten the Saints (in New Orleans) earlier this season (27-24) I just like these two to even out a little more, as I see the Saints evening the season series.

New Orleans Saints (+2.5) @ Atlanta Falcons