Saints clinch first playoff berth since 2013

Not only did the New Orleans Saints end a three-game losing streak to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, they punched their ticket to the post-season for the first time in four years in the process.
2017 will be the year of the playoffs for the New Orleans Saints who punch their ticket back to the post-season for the first time since 2013 with Sunday’s 23-13 victory over rival Atlanta.
The turning point in the game was a 54-yard touchdown strike from Drew Brees to Ted Ginn Jr. in the moments following Marshon Lattimore’s butt interception. There’s really nothing else you can call it although guys in the locker room are trying to think of something else. Cornerback Marshon Lattimore said, “I mean a butt-erception just doesn’t sound right. (Cam Jordan said butt-erception doesn’t sound right.) It don’t, it don’t sound right. (Is there anything else you can call that pick.) “I don’t know, man. I don’t know. We’ve got to think on that. But nah, that don’t sound right. I don’t like that. (Something different than butt interception, I don’t know.) Backside, that sounds better than the butt. (The backside interception?) Yeah. That sounds better than anything.”
Head Coach Sean Payton said, “That was a big swing, that was a huge swing. For them to be in a position to get points before the half and then for us to all of a sudden be in a two-minute drill and then hit the big play. We had seen something the last time we played them on film, wanted to get the look and it was perfect.”
Running back Alvin Kamara said, “Yeah, of course it felt like revenge. They beat us the last time, so being able to get in there and handle what we had to handle and it feels good.”
Defensive End Cameron Jordan said, “Again, we have loftier goals. We’ve been saying it all year that we’d love to win our division, so we’ve got to go out next week and take that.”
Quarterback Drew Brees said, “I think that we’ve won in a lot of different ways. I think we’ve overcome a lot, especially early on when you guys were all asking us how we felt another 0-2 start. But we stayed true to what we felt like was our process and a winning formula and we knew that our time would come. And we were able to rattle off eight in a row, and then here we are poised to win the division with one more win.”
After the win, Head Coach Sean Payton said week 17 now has an ‘edge’ with Carolina coming back to beat the Bucs to keep pace at 11-4 with that NFC South crown still up for grabs.
Early in this game, Brees finally eclipsed 70,000 passing yards for his career.