With a chance to put a stamp on the season and keep marching toward the playoffs, the Falcons couldn't hold two fourth-quarter leads and fell to desperate New Orleans 29-25 before 70,011 fans Sunday at the raucous Superdome.

"We definitely took a step back as a team today," Falcons safety Lawyer Milloy said.

The Falcons dropped to 8-5. They will be two games behind the winner of tonight's NFC South Division showdown between Tampa Bay (9-3) and Carolina (9-3) with three games to play. The loss also dropped the Falcons behind Dallas (8-5) for the final wild-card spot in the NFC. Dallas currently has a better conference win percentage.

A division title likely will require a sweep and some help. Making the playoffs as a wild card would likely require winning at least two of the final three games.

The Saints were on life support, but they put air back into their playoff hopes by improving to 7-6.

Milloy, a 13-year veteran, knows from his New England days about these playoff marches.

"It's all about controlling your own destiny," Milloy said. "At the end you never want to be looking at who's winning and who's losing. ... Most of the times that I've been in that situation it has never turned out. To be able to control your own destiny is the way you go about it."

Now the Falcons will be fighting with a group of teams that includes Dallas, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago and Minnesota for the two NFC wild-card spots.

"Every game is crucial from here on out," Milloy said.

Receiver Roddy White, who turned in a spectacular game with 10 catches for 164 yards, concurred with Milloy.

"We felt like we could beat this team," White said. "We started out good. It was nothing they did. We just did little things to stop ourselves today."

White admitted that the loss, in which the defense couldn't stop the run, special teams allowed an untimely 88-yard kickoff return, and the offense couldn't execute on a key fourth-quarter drive, wasn't playing well in the locker room.

"We can't let this linger, because if we do it's all downhill from there," White said.

Falcons coach Mike Smith was not happy with the run defense, which gave up 184 yards on 30 carries. Saints running back Pierre Thomas ran for 102 yards on 16 carries, and Reggie Bush added 80 yards on 10 carries.

"We'll have to definitely take a good hard look at that," Smith said. "After our film evaluation, we have lot of things that will have to get corrected."

The Saints were 0-17 when trailing entering the fourth quarter under coach Sean Payton. The Falcons led 17-16 going into the final period.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Thomas. The two-point conversion was stopped to make it 22-17.

Riding the hot passing of Matt Ryan --- he passed for a career-high 315 yards --- the Falcons had scrambled back to take a 25-22 lead with 7:51 left. Ryan scored on a 12-yard scramble and tossed a two-point conversion pass to Michael Jenkins.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Saints slipped Thomas into the game. Courtney Roby had been returning kicks.

Thomas hit a seam to his left and broke back to the middle. Eric Weems, Thomas DeCoud and kicker Michael Koenen all had shots at him but whiffed.

"Yeah, I had a shot at him," Weems said. "I just missed the tackle. I had a clear opening toward him. ... It's tough, letting one out at the end."

DeCoud and David Irons hustled back to keep Thomas from scoring. But the Saints had the ball at the Falcons' 16-yard line.

"I came from the left side," DeCoud said. "He tried to bounce it, and then he cut back inside through the middle. Then I just had to go run him down."

"It's very disappointing that we weren't able to cover that kick more efficiently and make them at least go a long way," Smith said. "We put ourselves on a short field."

Thomas would later score from the 5-yard line for the 29-25 lead.

The Falcons had the ball with 5:47 to play but were stopped. When faced with a decision to punt or go for it on fourth-and-5 from their 35, Smith elected to punt.

"You have to play the odds there," Smith said. "They get one first down and they are kicking a field goal. The way we approached it was that we were going to go back out there, punt and try to get the stop."

The Falcons had stopped the Saints only once on their six previous possessions.

The Saints ran out the clock and put a dent in the Falcons playoffs hopes.

NFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

A look at the NFC playoff race with three games remaining.

Division leaders

Giants 11-2*

Buccaneers 9-3

Cardinals 8-5*

Vikings 8-5

Wild-card leaders

Panthers 9-3

Cowboys 8-5

Contenders

Falcons 8-5

Eagles 7-5-1

Bears 7-6

Redskins 7-6

Saints 7-6

* Clinched division title

UP NEXT * VS. Buccaneers * 1 P.M. SUNDAY * FOX * 92.9 FM