Falcons run all over Saints, match team record with 5 rushing TDs in latest blowout win

The New Orleans Saints, even with the extra fanfare that was surrounding Caesars Superdome, never stood a chance at stopping Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson on Monday night. The Atlanta Falcons ran all over the Saints to pick up a dominant 45-24 victory in New Orleans. Bijan had 145 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries in the team's second blowout in as many weeks. Brian had three scores, which brought the Falcons to five to match the team's single-game record. Bijan set the tone early. He broke out a 59-yard score on the third play from scrimmage, and made it into the end zone completely untouched to silence the Superdome crowd on the 20th anniversary of their post-Hurricane Katrina "Domecoming." Bijan got another rushing touchdown in the books by the end of the first quarter, and he entered the locker room at halftime with 103 rushing yards. Brian scored his first TD late in the first half which helped lift the Falcons to a 21-7 lead that grew to 24-7 at the break. It was a truly dominant start, while the Saints struggled to get much of anything going. New Orleans managed only 15 rushing yards in the first 30 minutes, though Alvin Kamara punched in a 3-yard touchdown. It marked his first score in more than a year. Chris Olave was about the only bright spot for New Orleans as he finished with 116 yards on eight catches.Brian got his second touchdown on the Falcons' first drive of the second half, and that just about put the game away. He ran it in from 8 yards out to cap a long drive, which came after the Saints managed just a field goal after burning more than seven minutes of clock to open the quarter. The Falcons had very little issues getting down the field there, either. The Saints had no way to stop them. While Kamara found the end zone again — he ran it in from 5 yards out early in the fourth quarter — it was way too late. The Falcons answered with a quick drive and Michael Penix Jr. found Jahan Dotson for a 31-yard touchdown pass, his only passing TD of the night, to keep the game out of reach.Brian added his final touchdown midway through the fourth quarter for good measure. He finished with 62 yards on 14 carries. Penix went 15 of 20 for 223 passing yards. Drake London had 96 yards on five catches, and Dotson had 54 yards on two catches.Saints QB Tyler Shough went 30 of 48 for 286 yards and a touchdown — a late one he threw to Devaughn Vele in garbage time — in the loss for the Saints, who fell to 1-3 on the year. Kamara had 23 yards on seven carries. They ended up with just 50 rushing yards as a team.The Falcons now sit at 2-2, and look like a very different team than the one that lost back-to-back games to open the season behind quarterback Cooper Rush. They went into Lambeau Field last week to beat the Green Bay Packers 35-14. Bijan had 194 rushing yards and two touchdowns in that win.It is now also, remarkably, the first time the Falcons had more than 400 total net yards in back-to-back road games since October 2020. Back then, Matt Ryan was Atlanta's starting quarterback. He's now leading its front office.It's still very early, but the Falcons' rushing game looks as good as anybody else's in the league. If they keep this up, now that Penix is back and healthy, their first NFC South title since their Super Bowl run during the 2016 campaign is absolutely on the table.