Ethermac|The Falcons are the NFL's iffiest division leader. They have nothing to apologize for.

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ATLANTA — Somebody had to say it to Arthur Smith: His team is, gulp, in first place.

That was the bonus for the Atlanta Falcons after a 24-15 victory that was neither stylish nor dominant. It just worked, in part because the New Orleans Saints were just bad-awful whenever their offense sniffed the end zone.

No, the Saints didn’t deserve to leave town still holding onto first place in the worst division in the NFL. And that’s where the Falcons (5-6) come in after snapping a three-game losing streak.

Suddenly, they lead the danger zone that is the NFC South…even while still looking at .500.

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“This thing’s got to play out,” Smith, the embattled Atlanta Falcons coach, replied. “We’ve got six games to go, right? That will feel like six lifetimes in the NFL. It ebbs and flows.”

No, now is not the time to pop the cork for a champagne toast. The NFL can be so fickle.

Yet the Falcons don’t need to apologize, either. They punished the Saints with a powerful rushing attack that tallied 228 yards. Their prized rookie, Bijan Robinson, scored two touchdowns and accounted for 123 yards from scrimmage. Safety Jessie Bates III, the big free-agent signee, collected two turnovers in the red zone – including a 92-yard pick-six. The defense didn’t allow a touchdown as the Saints settled for five field goals.

And hey, they gave themselves and the raucous crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium – which was also treated to several performances that celebrated 50 years of hip-hop music – some hope.

“Obviously you wanted to treat it same as any other game, but really you couldn’t,” Falcons defensive lineman Calais Campbell told USA TODAY Sports. “There was lot of buildup, a lot of emotion. This game was crucial. You could see around the locker room. Guys saw the importance.”

Smith called the victory “cathartic.” Winning was one thing. The Falcons head into December still planted on the NFL’s relevance map, seeing that even with a losing record – as was the case with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year – it’s a fact of NFL life that some team has to win the division. At the moment, the Falcons have the tiebreaker edge over the Saints (5-6), while the Bucs (4-7) trail by a game.

As strange as it may seem, even better than winning in this case was not losing. That’s the psychological boost Smith alluded to, knowing how long these past two weeks have been as they idled in Week 11 with a bye. And the mix included Smith opting to re-insert Desmond Ridder as his starting quarterback after flipping to Taylor Heinicke.

“You come off three or four losses, everybody is asking questions,” Bates said of the backdrop. “ ‘Is Art going to be here? Did they make the right decision on the quarterback?’ “

The questions have been thick for weeks now, and they could persist.

“One thing I love about this team is the mindset,” Bates added. “Just blocking out the noise and getting back to work.”

Smith raved about the work week leading to Sunday. Sure, it’s typical for coaches to talk up the preparation efforts, even when a team is losing. But Smith said it stood out like a heavyweight fight.

“If you has seen our Wednesday practice, it felt like training camp,” he declared. “It was a damn battle.”

He wasn’t alone in the assessment. Campbell and Bates also pointed to the mid-week session in pads as setting the tone. And although Campbell plays defense, he saw the practice work of the offensive line as a direct link to the rushing performance. The Falcons ran 41 times and averaged 5.6 per carry.

On the final possession, a 54-yard march that resulted in a 39-yard field goal from Younghoe Koo that made it a two-possession game, the Falcons called nine consecutive runs – and never threw a pass.

“The linemen were all juiced up,” noted Ridder. “We wore ‘em down in that fourth quarter.”

It could hardly be taken for granted. In their previous two games, the Falcons blew fourth-quarter leads. This case was close enough to worry. But they protected themselves with the running game, which used a three-man committee as Cordarrelle Patterson and Tyler Allgeier spelled Robinson.

“That’s who we need to be to close out games,” Smith said. “It’s just one win, but we needed a win in the worst way.”

They also needed a solid performance from Ridder, the second-year pro whose status as the starter beyond this season is rather unsettled. Ridder was shaky in spots, intercepted twice by Tyrann Mathieu and finishing with a 63.3 passer rating. But he avoided huge mistakes when it mattered most. And three times, he executed great decisions and scrambled for first downs.

Now what?

The Falcons head to the Meadowlands to face the New York Jets next weekend looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since Week 2. Only one team of their remaining six opponents, the Indianapolis Colts (6-5), currently has a winning record. It’s easy to suggest that the schedule is in their favor. But that means little for a team that has demonstrated little consistency.

Still, they’re in first place. Maybe they will build on the positives. Or maybe not.

“I caution getting too excited,” Campbell said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. If we go lay an egg next week, it’s all for naught. It just gives us an opportunity.”

Which at this point is better than the alternative.