ATLANTA (AP) — Saints have been unstoppable. The Atlanta Falcons have struggled to stop anyone. It all adds up to a Thanksgiving night game that could get out of hand quickly.“Where do you start?” moaned Marquand Manuel Julio Jones Jersey Super Bowl , the Falcon’s defensive coordinator.The Saints (9-1) are leading the NFL in scoring and really piled it on the last two weeks, dropping 51 points on Cincinnati and 48 on defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia in a pair of blowout wins.Most amazingly, New Orleans has scored on 24 of its last 29 possessions, not counting kneel-downs at the end of the game.Eighteen of those possessions have resulted in touchdowns.Next up is Atlanta (4-6), a team that has lost two straight and ranks near the bottom of the league in every major defensive category. The Falcons have been ravaged by injuries, losing both safeties for the season and top linebacker Deion Jones for the last nine games. Jones has returned to the active roster but it’s not known if he’ll be able to go Thursday.“It’s a challenge,” Marquand said. “The guys just have to be up to it for four quarters and understand that they’re going to make some plays. They’re hot right now.”While Drew Brees is having another huge year at age 39, New Orleans’ running game might be the real key to its offensive success.The Saints rank sixth in the league with an average of 131.4 yards per game, and they’ve been especially tough to defend since Mark Ingram returned after serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on banned substances.“Complementary football,” Ingram said. “Great teams play complementary football.”Ingram has rushed for 388 yards since his return, combining with Alvin Kamara to provide a dynamic 1-2 punch. Kamara has run for 617 yards and 11 TDs, to go along with 56 receptions and four scores.“The combination of both he and Alvin together has been pretty good for us,” coach Sean Payton said. “It is much more difficult if you are limited to just one of those players.”Marquand said Atlanta’s focus will be on trying to turn the Saints one-dimensional.“It’s where you start every week: the ability to stop the run game,” he said. “Ingram has come back and given them a nice balance. That allows Drew to be who he is.”Indeed, Brees is still the one who makes it all click.Last week, with newly signed receiver Brandon Marshall on the inactive list and the Eagles shading their coverage toward top receiver Michael Thomas, Brees threw touchdown passes to second-year pro Austin Carr and rookie Tre’Quan Smith.Smith finished with 10 catches for a career-high 157 yards, giving the Falcons another player to worry about, though he hasn’t been practicing during the short week because of a foot issue.Thomas is certainly a handful Julio Jones Jersey For Sale , having already eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving with six games still to go.“Drew’s going to shred you up, man,” Ingram said. “When we’re running the ball well, it just opens it up more for him. Even if not, he’s still going to do his thing. When he’s throwing it and slicing and dialing up plays like that and playing pitch and catch like that, they have to respect it.”When these longtime division rivals met in Week 3, New Orleans pulled out a 43-37 victory in overtime . Most memorably, Brees forced the extra period with a 7-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes of regulation, spinning away from both Brian Poole and Robert Alford to reach the end zone. The Saints then won the coin toss and held the ball for more than 7 minutes in OT, capped by Brees’ 1-yard TD plunge that ended the game.The thrilling contest set a course for both teams.The Falcons lost their next two games, as well, and never really recovered. The Saints haven’t lost since.“The last time we played them, the tackling was not up to par,” Marquand said. “But we are a better defense than the last time we faced them. We’ve got to make sure we stop them in the red zone, because they’re going to make their plays. We’ve got to make them earn everything they get.” The signings of James Carpenter and Jamon Brown represent a significant shift in offensive line philosophy for the Falcons, but Atlanta—with some minor tweaks—will continue to run the zone blocking scheme in 2019."There has been a lot of speculation among fans recently about the direction of the Falcons’ rushing attack. The signings of James Carpenter and Jamon Brown—two offensive guards who don’t necessarily match the prototype of the players Atlanta sought after under Kyle Shanahan and Steve Sarkisian—have brought up a lot of questions. Clearly, the team is seeking to get bigger along the offensive line. But what does that mean for the scheme, andfor the Falcons’ offense as a whole?Under Shanahan and Sarkisian Julio Jones Jersey On Sale , it was pretty clear that Atlanta valued athleticism above all else from their offensive linemen. In 2015, that system worked well for running the ball but not much else. In 2016, with the addition of Alex Mack and Chris Chester playing well, we saw just how effective the system could be. However, under Sarkisian in 2017 and 2018, the Falcons offensive line was a constant issue. The running game rarely got going and the pass protection was lousy, to say the least.It’s hard to say if the size of the offensive line had anything to do with that. After all, we’ve seen virtually all approaches to offensive line building work at some point in the NFL. That is, unless you’re Tom Cable in Seattle. Regardless, the Falcons have decided to invest in larger offensive linemen in 2019. James Carpenter (6’5, 320) and Jamon Brown (6’6, 340) are clearly a significant change from 2018 starters Andy Levitre (6’2, 305) and Brandon Fusco (6’4, 306).This shift in philosophy extends to the players the Falcons are looking at in the draft, as well.It appears that Atlanta is focusing their scouting on OTs, with the possibility of also adding a developmental center later in the draft. Take a look at the top names the team has met with:OT Andre Dillard: 6’5, 315OT Cody Ford: 6’4, 329OT Tytus Howard: 6’5, 322OT Jawaan Taylor: 6’5 Julio Jones Jersey Sale , 312All are bigger than the typical OL whom the Falcons targeted from 2015-2018—albeit only by a few pounds in some cases—but all also possess the all-important characteristic that the team covets: plus athleticism. The same goes for Carpenter and Jamon Brown, who are bigger but also have the requisite mobility to succeed in the zone blocking scheme.So why do so many fans believe that Atlanta is moving away from the zone blocking scheme in 2019? Nothing the team has said would indicate such a change. New offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter has run both zone and power schemes during his coaching career. Quinn additionally emphasized the athletic aspect of Brown and Carpenter’s game during an interview at the NFL league meetings, and also clarified that the Falcons’ would not be changing their blocking scheme outside of some “tweaks”.With bigger offensive linemen on the interior (and possibly at RT), Atlanta is likely to add more inside zone runs to their offense. But I believe the change in “prototypical” personnel has more to do with a change in philosophy for Dan Quinn than any sort of schematic shift. There was an interesting quote from Quinn at the 2019 NFL Combine which actually gives some context to these changes. The Falcoholic’s own Jeanna Thomas wrote about it earlier in the month, but here are the relevant bits as Quinn talks about evaluating college offensive linemen:Quinn seems to be remarking on one of the big challenges of scouting offensive linemen for the zone blocking scheme. It’s generally true that smaller OL will be more athletic, and therefore more successful in the mobility-focused zone blocking scheme. In college, that lack of ideal size isn’t as much of an issue—the players generally have good technique and understanding of leverage, allowing them to handle larger defenders without a problem. Plus, they’ll usually be more effective at blocking the lighter, more athletic defenders.However, in the NFL, the size mismatch can grow to pretty ridiculous levels. NFL players are, after all, some of the biggest and best athletes in the entire world. Using the zone blocking scheme, you can often mitigate some of these size disparities with technique and double teams. But there are still times where raw size can overwhelm linemen—particularly depth players who aren’t as sound with their technique. We saw it regularly with Wes Schweitzer and Ben Garland in 2018, and in short-yardage situations in general.But finding larger offensive linemen with the requisite athleticism to thrive in the zone blocking scheme—I like to call them “scheme-diverse” or “dual-threat” OL—is pretty difficult, particularly if you’re not willing to spend premium picks or cap space. Under Quinn and Dimitroff, the Falcons have demonstrated that they’re totally unwilling to draft interior offensive linemen on the first two days of the draft—they haven’t done so since C Peter Konz in 2012 (second round), and the only other one taken by Dimitroff was G Mike Johnson in 2010 (third round).To Atlanta’s credit Replica Julio Jones Jersey , they have been willing to invest significant draft capital and cap space into OTs and centers. Jake Matthews has been a phenomenal addition from the draft (and, coincidentally, the last OT taken prior Day 3 by the Falcons) and Alex Mack has arguably been the best free agent signing of Dimitroff’s tenure. Their “MO” has always been to invest at LT, C, and RT, and go cheap at guard. That worked fine when you were happy taking smaller, zone-scheme linemen—but it’s a lot more difficult when you’re chasing a prototype that every team in the NFL is interested in.With James Carpenter and Jamon Brown, the Falcons managed to find a way to make it work. Both are examples of “scheme-diverse” guards, but both were available on reasonable starter contracts. How did they manage that? By targeting players that were either coming off poor seasons (Carpenter) or developing players that were simply caught between teams (Brown). To be clear, neither are likely to be slam-dunk additions like Alex Mack or even Andy Levitre. Although they are bigger, I’m not sure we can expect a huge uptick in rushing production. What we should expect is for Carpenter and Brown to provide more stability in pass protection while also giving the Falcons a more reliable short-yardage rushing attack. If that doesn’t happen, I think the team will be fairly disappointed—as will we.The team is transitioning to a more “scheme-diverse” prototype on the offensive line, but don’t expect that to translate to significant schematic changes. I think Quinn was simply tired of seeing his interior offensive line trapped in size mismatches, and decided it was time to give his offense a little more “beef” up front.One thing is certain, however: Quinn and Dimitroff aren’t done remaking this offensive line. Whether the pick comes early or late, expect the Falcons to add an offensive tackle to either supplant or compete with Ty Sambrailo. We’ve heard the team say repeatedly that fixing the OL was a priority—now we have to wait and see how serious they were about it.What are your thoughts on the Falcons’ offensive line changes? Do you expect improvements to the pass protection and/or run blocking with James Carpenter and Jamon Brown in the fold? Do you think Atlanta will still add a right tackle in the 2019 NFL Draft?