The New Orleans Saints ruined the Atlanta Falcons' perfect season last Sunday, but despite the disparity in records heading into the game, the outcome was no surprise to Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma.
Vilma, who was displeased with some of the Falcons' antics prior to the contest, does not feel the victory was anything special. He says it's been pretty commonplace recently (via ProFootballTalk.com):
"We're not going to sit here and keep talking about how we beat the Falcons," Vilma told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "We always beat the Falcons. Our team is 11-2 since Sean [Payton] got here."
The linebacker said that while there's usually a mutual respect between the two squads, none of that was to be found prior to Sunday's game. Vilma accused the Falcons of going over the line with their trash talk, and that it rubbed several Saints players the wrong way. He tried to confront a Falcons assistant coach about it, but the coach said there was nothing that could be done.
Atlanta and New Orleans will square off again in two weeks, so it will be interesting to see if any bad blood carries over from this incident.