Welcome back to the Saints Insider newsletter for Friday, Jan. 7. The New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons meet for the 106th time on Sunday, and the gamesmanship between the two sides is already heating up. On Thursday, the Saints sent a king cake to Falcons punter Thomas Morstead in Atlanta with a sarcastic message for their former special teams standout and longtime team captain: "Here's to hoping you set a career high in punts on Sunday, old friend!" Devin Jackson has the story and the social media post from Morstead's Twitter account. One of the reasons the Saints are in this position is their red-zone defense, which has been the stingiest in the league this season. Luke Johnson has the story on how the Saints are getting done when opponents get inside their 20-yard line. The matchup against the Falcons is the Saints' second this season. Amie Just breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of each team and explains how this game will be different than the first time the teams met back in early November. There was only one change to Thursday's injury report, which meant some good news and some bad news for the Saints. Luke Johnson has the full report on the Saints' walking wounded. And finally, I penned a column explaining why I feel like Sean Payton has done his best coaching job this season and is worthy of winning the NFL's Coach of the Year award, even though he's a long shot to win it. Payton has done a masterful job, steering the Saints' ship in this turbulent season. And, as always, thanks for following our daily coverage here at NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune. We'll have more stories as kickoff nears on Sunday. Thanks for following along! Cheers, Jeff Duncan |