Surging Falcons, Saints aim to end season on high note

Ahead of the regular-season finale on Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons and visiting New Orleans Saints are undoubtedly the hottest teams in the NFC South.

Unfortunately for the two rivals, their respective December hot streaks will amount to nothing more than momentum heading into 2026.

Atlanta (7-9) has won three straight games since it was eliminated from postseason contention for the eighth straight year on Dec. 7. New Orleans (6-10) began the year 2-10 but has now strung together a four-game winning streak -- tied for the Saints' longest since a nine-game stretch in 2020.

Despite the teams being unable to propel themselves into a postseason berth, Sunday's 113th all-time regular-season meeting between the division foes could have a major ripple effect in the lackluster NFC South.

The Carolina Panthers (8-8) will win the division if they beat or tie the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-9) on Saturday. Carolina can also clinch a playoff spot if Atlanta beats New Orleans.

Tampa Bay can earn its fifth straight NFC South crown if it wins on Saturday and Atlanta loses or ties the Saints.

Atlanta head coach Raheem Morris knows his team would have been in the thick of the division race if it had avoided its five-game midseason skid, making the fallout all the more frustrating.

"It's really upsetting," Morris said. "You would have liked for us to have won some games so that we could have been in this race, or leading this race. We feel we could've been, but we're not. What we've done is focused on winning and focused on doing the best job we can do to close out our last game."

Helping key the Falcons' surge is star running back Bijan Robinson, who ranks fourth in the NFL in rushing yards (1,445) and is second among running backs with 810 receiving yards.

Of Atlanta's problems in its eighth straight losing season, Robinson has been far from one of them. The third-year all-purpose back did all he could to will the Falcons into the playoffs, but wouldn't mind knocking Tampa Bay out of contention.

"That could be cool," Robinson said of spoiling the Buccaneers' season. "That's so unfortunate (if there is) a three-way tie. I wish it was us going in. ... But it is what it is. We did our job. We're trying to finish our job."

New Orleans waited until Nov. 2 to give rookie quarterback Tyler Shough his first career start. Nine weeks later, Shough has pulled the Saints from the league's basement and continues to close the gap on a potential NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

The 26-year-old is averaging 304.3 passing yards per game and has thrown four touchdowns in the Saints' last three wins, solidifying a solid season for the second-round pick.

"Frankly, I don't care about anything else other than finishing strong this week," Shough said. "... We've got another really good week this week to utilize our reps and make sure we finish off the way we want to because last time (against Atlanta), it wasn't good enough."

In the teams' first meeting, Kirk Cousins threw for two touchdowns in a 24-10 Atlanta win on Nov. 23. The Saints kept Robinson at bay -- by his standards -- holding him to 70 rushing yards, a performance head coach Kellen Moore would like to see repeated.

"You can do a lot of things right, and you can do one thing wrong and it's a touchdown." Moore said of Robinson.

On the injury report, Atlanta cornerback Clark Phillips III (triceps/illness) was a non-participant in practice on Wednesday, while defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus (hamstring) and Mike Hughes (ankle) will miss the season finale.

In a lengthy list for New Orleans, defensive tackles Bryan Bresee (knee) and Nathan Shepherd (ankle/knee) didn't practice on Wednesday. Cornerback Michael Davis (shoulder), running back Alvin Kamara (knee/ankle), tight ends Zaire Mitchell-Paden (knee) and Jack Stoll (knee) and wide receiver Chris Olave (illness) were non-participants.

--Field Level Media