"sad thing is they are going in dry on us sunday"

CHA_CHING · 11-06-2019, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by 44Champs

Meh the rivalry between the fans is greater than the one between the teams. We're gonna kill em.

XLIV CHAMPS

I used to believe this but I think in the past decade, we've really witnessed the height of the Saints/Falcons rivalry.

The previous height was 1991, the only time back in the day that both teams made the playoffs and that 1991 playoff loss is still for me, the most heartbreaking of all playoff losses. I will never forget back then. I was so young and when Michael Haynes made that long TD run, I felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest.

I don't even think the Falcons were the most hated of our rivals back in the 80's and 90's, it was the 49ers. Those of us who grew up back then hated them with a burning passion with most of us older fans still hating them. Older Falcons fans talk about the 49ers in the same way we do. They were just like us; always having to deal with that Goliath in their path any time their team had a winning season. The 1998 Falcons really caught a huge break by having their winning season in a year where the Niners dynasty was finally in it's twilight and burning out. We didn't get that lucky in the early 90s since the Niners were able to pick up where they left off after installing Steve Young as the starting QB. It didn't matter that we were 12-4 in 1992, we couldn't even win the division cause the Niners had to go 14-2 that year. Every year we made the playoffs back then except 1991, the Niners were the Goliath that moved ahead of us. I remember when an entire season would hinge on being able to compete with the Niners due to the division. That's pretty much how it went for Atlanta and all the NFC West teams back then too; if you couldn't compete with the Niners and win games, then no playoffs for you.

Most of the time, when the Saints or Falcons are in playoff contention, the other won't be. That changed in the 2000s. Though we didn't make the playoffs after 2000, they did in the Mike Vick years and those matches with them were vital and some of them were tough losses cause we could've made the playoffs had we got past them. This started to really pick up steam after 2009 when both the Saints and Falcons were making the playoffs together and more pressure was put on the divisional games.

We've had some seriously heated games since then. During the summer I made a post about how I wanted to add up some stats between the Falcons/Saints games between Brees and Ryan and see how it adds up with other QB rivalries from back in the day like Jim Kelly vs Dan Marino, and Peyton Manning vs Tom Brady. We've had so many shoot out games with the Falcons and both Brees and Ryan have posted career highs in some of them. I truly think that's good evidence of how strong the rivalry turned in the past decade.

11-06-2019, 08:10 PM	#11
CHA_CHING 1000 Posts + Join Date: Jan 2019 Location: Mobile, AL Posts: 1,159	Re: "sad thing is they are going in dry on us sunday" Originally Posted by 44Champs Meh the rivalry between the fans is greater than the one between the teams. We're gonna kill em. XLIV CHAMPS I used to believe this but I think in the past decade, we've really witnessed the height of the Saints/Falcons rivalry. The previous height was 1991, the only time back in the day that both teams made the playoffs and that 1991 playoff loss is still for me, the most heartbreaking of all playoff losses. I will never forget back then. I was so young and when Michael Haynes made that long TD run, I felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. I don't even think the Falcons were the most hated of our rivals back in the 80's and 90's, it was the 49ers. Those of us who grew up back then hated them with a burning passion with most of us older fans still hating them. Older Falcons fans talk about the 49ers in the same way we do. They were just like us; always having to deal with that Goliath in their path any time their team had a winning season. The 1998 Falcons really caught a huge break by having their winning season in a year where the Niners dynasty was finally in it's twilight and burning out. We didn't get that lucky in the early 90s since the Niners were able to pick up where they left off after installing Steve Young as the starting QB. It didn't matter that we were 12-4 in 1992, we couldn't even win the division cause the Niners had to go 14-2 that year. Every year we made the playoffs back then except 1991, the Niners were the Goliath that moved ahead of us. I remember when an entire season would hinge on being able to compete with the Niners due to the division. That's pretty much how it went for Atlanta and all the NFC West teams back then too; if you couldn't compete with the Niners and win games, then no playoffs for you. Most of the time, when the Saints or Falcons are in playoff contention, the other won't be. That changed in the 2000s. Though we didn't make the playoffs after 2000, they did in the Mike Vick years and those matches with them were vital and some of them were tough losses cause we could've made the playoffs had we got past them. This started to really pick up steam after 2009 when both the Saints and Falcons were making the playoffs together and more pressure was put on the divisional games. We've had some seriously heated games since then. During the summer I made a post about how I wanted to add up some stats between the Falcons/Saints games between Brees and Ryan and see how it adds up with other QB rivalries from back in the day like Jim Kelly vs Dan Marino, and Peyton Manning vs Tom Brady. We've had so many shoot out games with the Falcons and both Brees and Ryan have posted career highs in some of them. I truly think that's good evidence of how strong the rivalry turned in the past decade. Beastmode and 44Champs like this.