Mathieu came through in the clutch to seal a win, and embarrass the Falcons
We are not just over a month away from the start of the 2025 NFL regular season! To celebrate Day 32 in our countdown, our New Orleans Saints Play of the Day is a Tyrann Mathieu interception that helped in a win over the Atlanta Falcons last year. You can see the play for yourself right here.
Mathieu, who wore No. 32 with the Saints, just recently retired. That marks the end of one of the most important careers in Louisiana football history. How better to remember him than to highlight the last time that he was able to beat the Falcons?
New Orleans was sitting at just 2-7 entering their Week 10 match against Atlanta, stuck on a seven-game losing streak. Dennis Allen had just been fired, and special teams head coach Darren Rizzi was set to take over. With the season fully on the downturn, the team needed anything to smile about. Thanks to Mathieu’s late-game heroics, they had one of the few bright spots from last year.
The Saints were able to jump out to an early lead, going into the half up 17-7 thanks to two touchdowns from breakout star Maquez Valdes-Scantling. The Falcons were able to bring it close in the third quarter, making the score 20-17. Points were impossible to come by in the fourth. Younghoe Koo, who had a tough year overall, missed a 46-yard field goal to tie it with just over six minutes left. New Orleans punted four times with no first downs in the quarter.
With time winding down and just over two minutes left, Atlanta was driving thanks to a consistent run game. Kirk Cousins dropped back for his first pass of the drive, but threw it ahead of Drake London and into the arms of Mathieu.
The Falcons offense did get one more drive, but the interception took the game past the two-minute warning and allowed the Saints offense to take away two timeouts despite stalling out. Mathieu had an interception, three tackles and three passes defended in the win. It wouldn’t have happened without him.