Saints LB Scott Shanle offered a slight rebuttal to those who say that Saints’ recent dominance over the Falcons has killed any rivalry between the two teams when he spoke with Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports about the Falcons:
“They’re like our little brothers. Deep down they know they can’t mess with us even when we are having a down year.”
“They were talking [expletive] to our guy Curtis Lofton,” Shanle told Silver. “I couldn’t even understand them. They were just walking all over our drills trying to mess with him. [Linebacker Jonathan] Vilma went and told their coach it was classless and they didn’t even say anything. It set the tone for the day. It was classless and they got what they deserved.”
Shanle may not be far off with his assessment. The Saints have won 11 of the last 13 meetings against the Falcons, and after Sunday’s 31-27 win that saw the Saints’ defense deny the Falcons on three red zone trips, there is certainly a strong argument that the Saints are in the Falcons’ heads. This ”sibling rivalry” resumes November 29th on NFL Network.