The New Orleans Saints know it won't be easy repeating as Super Bowl champs. They might have a hard enough time winning their own division.

Matt Bryant kicked a 46-yard field goal with 1:55 left in overtime, lifting the Atlanta Falcons to a 27-24 victory over the Saints on Sunday at the Louisiana Superdome.

Matt Ryan threw for 228 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Atlanta (2-1) used a powerful running game to bulldoze New Orleans into its first defeat of the season.

Despite watching the Falcons move up and down the field, the Saints had seemingly escaped the upset bid by their NFC South rival when Garrett Hartley booted a 32-yard field goal with 4 seconds left to force overtime.

After New Orleans stopped Atlanta on its first possession of OT, quarterback Drew Brees guided the Saints into position for a chip-shot field goal attempt.

Hartley, though, hooked the 29-yard attempt badly to the left to give the Falcons new life. It was the third miss of the young season for Super Bowl hero Hartley, who barely managed to knuckle a partially blocked kick through the uprights as time expired in Monday night’s 25-22 win at San Francisco.

Relying almost solely on the backfield tandem of Michael Turner and Jason Snelling, the Falcons ran the ball on nine of the next 12 plays to get in position for Bryant's game-winning kick.

The decisive kick was filled with drama. Chris Reis burst through the line to block Bryant’s attempt with 2:00 left in overtime, but Saints coach Sean Payton had called for a timeout just before the kick.

The Falcons were then whistled for a delay-of-game penalty, adding five more yards to the attempt, but Bryant drilled it through to give Atlanta just its second victory over New Orleans in the last nine meetings.

Turner finished with 114 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries and Snelling piled on 62 yards on 14 carries as Atlanta held the ball for 45 minutes and 50 seconds - 18 minutes more than New Orleans.

Ryan was 19 of 30 and connected on touchdown passes of 13 yards to tight end Tony Gonzalez and 22 yards to Roddy White.

Gonzalez had eight receptions for 110 yards while White finished with five catches for 69 to help offset a spectacular performance by Saints wideout Lance Moore.

Moore reeled in six passes for 149 yards, including touchdown grabs of 80 and 16 yards. He also had a 72-yard punt return to set up New Orleans’ first touchdown, a 2-yard scoring pass to Jeremy Shockey (8 catches, 78 yards).

Brees completed 30 of 38 passes for 365 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions for the Saints, who had little semblance of a ground game playing without the injured Reggie Bush.

Pierre Thomas rushed for just 30 yards on nine carries while rookie Christopher Ivory managed only 13 yards on seven carries and lost a fumble.