Dallas Cowboys fans are New Orleans Saints fans on Thursday night

Last week the Dallas Cowboys got a fair amount of help for their playoff hopes from their NFC comrades, the New Orleans Saints among them.

There’s a place in New Orleans they call the Superdome. These were the words sung by Green Day and U2 when they re-opened one of the NFL’s iconic venues back in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, and it was the house where Sean Payton and Co. took down the Carolina Panthers in Week 13.

This week, today, the Saints will be on the road. They travel to the NFL’s newest stadium, home of their division rivals, for a date with the Atlanta Falcons.

New Orleans (9-3) and Atlanta (7-5) square off with the NFC South seemingly in the balance, although leaning one direction obviously. A Saints win all but secures a division championship cap for Drew Brees at some point over the next few weeks, a Falcons win keeps Atlanta’s hope of exorcising 28-3 alive.

While the NFC South is up for grabs, so is one of the NFC’s wildcard spots. This is why tonight is of critical importance for the Cowboys and their playoff hopes.

Because the Cowboys lost in Atlanta way back when (Chaz Green sighs), the Falcons are a big-time threat for one of the NFC’s two non-division playoff spots.

Carolina (thanks again New Orleans), Seattle (real threat), Detroit (lol), and Green Bay (we are forever scarred by Aaron Rodgers) are all also threats for a wildcard spot. Thankfully the Panthers and Packers square off next week, but we’ll get there when we get there.

For now we need the Saints to drop the Falcons to 7-6, that way when the Cowboys hopefully beat the New York Giants this Sunday, they’ll be all the more in this thing.

It’s also worth noting that the Saints and Falcons will play in the Superdome two weeks from now as well. So if you planned on buying an Alvin Kamara jersey in support, you’ll at least have two opportunities to wear it in the near future as we’ll need them again.

Also if you need another reason to root for the Saints, just know that the Falcons pulled the whole “we wrote you up an excuse for work!” bit.

It’s a rule of thumb that if you do this, especially on Thursday Night Football, that you don’t deserve to win. Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs back in 2015, or anyone else who dared to try something so cheesy.

Geaux Saints.