Everett Leaves Falcons Feeling Jittery : NFC: Saint quarterback passes for 273 yards and two touchdowns in 29-20 victory.

Jim Everett isn’t as concerned about the present state of the New Orleans Saints as he is the future.

“I don’t want to downplay the potential for making the playoffs, but I think we’ve got something going into 1995 here,” Everett said Sunday night after the Saints used his two touchdown passes and Morten Anderson’s five field goals to defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 29-20.

“We’re starting to put something together,” Everett said. “We’re not forgetting ’94.”

Both the Saints and Falcons are on the verge of being eliminated from contention for a wild-card playoff berth, each holding 6-8 records that rank 10th in the NFC’s six-team scramble for a postseason date.

“The biggest satisfaction was coming in here and playing pretty good against a good team,” Everett said. “We take more pride in the win than trying to play a spoiler role.”

Everett, who completed 18 of 31 passes for 273 yards, connected with Michael Haynes on a 78-yard scoring play when two defenders collided in the second quarter. His other touchdown pass play, a five-yarder to Quinn Early, gave the Saints a 26-17 lead with less than four minutes remaining.

Andersen’s field goals came from 45, 33, 31, 34 and 21 yards.

The Saints continued their mastery in this series of NFC West rivals by defeating the Falcons for the 13th time in their last 17 meetings.

“It’s a shame we waited till December to come together,” Haynes said. “They didn’t change their defense from the last game, so we came out and did stuff that we were looking at the films of our last meeting. And, it worked.”

The Falcons rode Jeff George’s passing to a 14-13 lead at halftime, but had to settle for Norm Johnson’s field goals of 42 and 21 yards the rest of the way.

George completed eight passes in a row in Atlanta’s two second-quarter touchdown drives.

Craig Heyward ended a nine-play, 74-yard drive on a nine-yard run through the middle five minutes into the second quarter, erasing a 3-0 deficit. George connected with Andre Rison on a 17-yard pass to key the drive.

Atlanta’s Terance Mathis became the eighth player in NFL history to catch 100 passes in a season.