MatthewT

I will say Carolina has made a big leap in recent years, but IMO the biggest rival is still and probably will always be the Atlanta Falcons. Beating the Falcons twice this year made this painful season a lot more tolerable.

hagan714

1 Falcons - long long history
2 panthers
3 bucs

rest of the nfl

SaintsBro

I think Payton is on the right track, the Panthers are the team we need to learn how to beat, we need to be on their level or better, in order to attain the prize.

I know I'm exaggerating a bit here, but I've always felt like Sean Payton was the FIRST Saints head coach to ever really understand the Falcons rivalry and truly grok its importance to the fan base and the ownership...the road to a good Saints season goes through beating Atlanta, period end of story. The years that we do well, are the years that the Falcons do poorly, and the years that they beat us, are usually down years for us overall.

Carolina runs the table and owns the banners right now; that makes them a rivalry and a team to beat. But from the very first game against them in '06, Sean Payton has intuitively understood how much it means to the Saints fan base to beat the Falcons, he appreciates and knows that history, and somehow I feel like I never really got that strong of a powerful feeling about it, from Mora, Ditka, Haslett, or any of the other good Saints coaches. The fact that Payton has owned the Falcons so strongly, he's almost obsessively found ways to beat the crap out of them year after year, through different Falcons coaches and players and regimes, it shows me that he GETS IT the same way that the fans get it.

foreverfan

Let me tell you why agreeing with you makes so much sense...



REMEMBER THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE IS FEAR.
This is a primal instinct and who fears the Falcons?

The Saints are 15-5 in the past 20 games with Sean Payton.
I certainly don't fear them. Show some respect for how much they suck.
I actually love them and I wished we played them every week.
We'd be a lock to win make the payoffs and win the Superbowl every year.

I LOVE THE FALCONS.

I love when we beat them.
I love when they lose to other teams.
I love how their fans leave the stadium crying.
I love when we beat them. (I had to say that again)
I love how they never win the Superbowl.
I could go on...



I certainly don't fear playing them. In fact every year I look forward to it.

SCORES OF SAINTS vs FALCONS PAST 20 GAMES

Sept 25, 2006 New Orleans 23 Atlanta 3 ATL 44-31
Nov 26, 2006 New Orleans 31 Atlanta 13 ATL 44-32
Oct 21, 2007 New Orleans 22 Atlanta 16 ATL 44-33
Dec 10, 2007 New Orleans 34 Atlanta 14 ATL 44-34
Dec 07, 2008 New Orleans 29 Atlanta 25 ATL 45-35
Nov 02, 2009 New Orleans 35 Atlanta 27 ATL 45-36
Dec 14, 2009 New Orleans 26 Atlanta 23 ATL 45-37
Dec 27, 2010 New Orleans 17 Atlanta 14 ATL 46-38
Nov 13, 2011 New Orleans 26 Atlanta 23 ATL 46-39
Dec 26, 2011 New Orleans 45 Atlanta 16 ATL 46-40
Nov 11, 2012 New Orleans 31 Atlanta 27 ATL 46-41
Sept 8, 2013 New Orleans 23 Atlanta 17 ATL 47-42
Nov 21, 2013 New Orleans 17 Atlanta 13 ATL 47-43
Oct 15, 2015 New Orleans 31 Atlanta 21 ATL 49-44
Jan 03, 2016 New Orleans 20 Atlanta 17 ATL 49-45

Nov 09, 2008 Atlanta 34 New Orleans 20 ATL 45-34
Sept 26, 2010 Atlanta 27 New Orleans 24 ATL 46-37
Nov 29, 2012 Atlanta 23 New Orleans 13 ATL 47-41
Sept 07, 2014 Atlanta 37 New Orleans 34 ATL 48-43
Dec 21, 2014 Atlanta 30 New Orleans 14 ATL 49-43

So my point on all of this is...
I HATE CAROLINA AND FIG NEWTON.

lee909

Personally i just say screw everyone else in the league,but doubly screw the rest of the NFC South.








Oh and the Whiners







And the Seahawks






And the Patriots



You know what doubly screw the rest of the league

And triple screw Pete Carroll

foreverfan

You forgot Dallas and Chicago.

Euphoria

You build rivalry's on history and time... Panthers have none of that.

I would argue if 49er's were still in our division I would think the 49'ers would be our biggest rivalry.

The only argument that can be made is that the Panthers won the division so as of now we are chasing them to beat them... but the real rivalry is the Falcons. Although its not only a team vs team thing I think it is also City vs City thing as well.

ScottF

Pittsburgh vs Cinci will be moving up on the list, and I would say Seahawks v 49ers as number 5

Raiders v Chiefs has history, but I don't know that anyone has paid attention in the past 20 years

Seer1

Don't know about the whiners -hawks thing, but yeah, Bengals-spittsberg's gotta be at the top right now.

I thought Denver-KC had something going too.

Rugby Saint II

The teams in the NFC south were built to beat the Saints. The Panthers have done just that. The question is can Payton rebuild this team to beat the Panthers?