Well we all totally saw that coming right? The Saints who are notoriously a vastly superior team at home versus on the road (who isn’t?) get shellacked at home and lose 3 straight, and then go on the road and give a pseudo-beatdown to the Pittsburg Stealers. Yup, totally saw it coming. Well that is as they say ‘why they play the games’. Who Dat Dish’s Barry Hirstius talked about ‘Any Given Sunday’ leading up to last week’s game, and he had the right idea. The question now becomes was last week’s effort simply an ‘any given Sunday’ type game…or the prelude to something more? Can the Saints secondary continue to play well led by Cameron Jordan and surprisingly competent Patrick Robinson? Can they build off of last week’s performances against a vastly inferior offense and show the dominance they displayed for much of the game against the Stealers, and if so, then how far can they go? I find it interesting that what amounted to in many ways the best game the Saints have played as a team this year (not counting Green Bay perhaps) led not to a sudden bout of confidence, but many questions. The good news is that we get to follow that performance with a chance to take control of the division (hopefully for good) by beating the woeful Carolina Panthers as the Falcons play the surging Packers. The NFC South is the child you still love but kind of have to admit is an idiot, amoung the NFL’s divisions we are the dumb kid whose parents are so very thankful that he simply passed. I’m ok with that. Sometimes those kids have the proverbial ‘light switch moment’ and suddenly start doing a lot better. Sometimes they aren’t actually dumb…they just didn’t get it. Trust me when I tell you there is a big difference. The Saints have lost to a number of good teams this year and with the exception of the Dallas and Cincinnati games they did more to beat themselves this year than their opponents have done to beat them. That is bad. There is potential for good though as well, the Saints team that beat Pittsburg and Green Bay is entirely capable of beating any team in the league. I don’t think we can win the SB this year, but if the Saints show the combination of competent defense and devastating offense they have shown at times they can make some serious noise in the playoffs (assuming they get there of course).
The first step to that is beating the teams you should. The fact is that Carolina is not a good team this year; their QB is poor, O-line is horrendous and injured, Defense is a shell of itself without Hardy, and their receiving corp consists of one kid with potential and a box of cracker jacks. The Saints have the advantage over this team head to head in literally every position except linebacker and the last time they met NO won by 18, on the road, after turning it over twice early…it SHOULD be a blowout.
Here is why I think it WILL be:
-The Panthers spend a good amount of time this week whining about the Saints running up the score like a bunch of babies, I have a feeling Sean and Drew are going to want to put them in their ‘crib’ early and send them home with a well deserved whooping.
-Junior Gallete showed once again this week that he is interview gold (and partially insane) by taking shots and a number of former Saints in Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma. I don’t think either player holds the status of being a true ‘great’ in the game, but both were key to the Saints SB win and should be given the respect that they earned. On the other hand Junior is the kind of guy who feeds off of having an enormous chip on his shoulder and I think by making himself the bad guy he is going to go out there with a renewed focus and tenacity. Big mouth write check, better make sure you can cash it (former coach told me that for showboating before a game and it stuck). I wouldn’t be surprised if we see 3 or 4 sacks from him on Sunday as an ‘I told you so!’.
-Cam Jordan feasted on Pitt and the Carolina line is vastly inferior to theirs…I’m hoping he comes out with the same mentality and dominates.
-Kenny Stills is on fire!!! No really, he is killing people since the Cooks injury. Kenny has stepped up in a big way and continue’s to earn Drew’s trust, and as we all know when Drew trusts a guy he will give him opportunities. Add to that the fact Carolina doesn’t have a secondary and I think big things are in his future.
-Kenny Vaccaro and Prob seem to be coming around the last couple weeks (last week in particular) and the best way to keep momentum and confidence is by playing a bad team: HELLO CAROLINA!!
– Ingram has been a flat out beast for most of the year and with Khiry and PT now healthy the Saints should be able to go full Death Star through the air and on the ground. He HAS to be a big part of the gameplan.
– the final and perhaps the biggest reason I think the Saints will win this game is simple. Pride. This team has a lot of pride and in particular they pride themselves on playing well at home. As disgusted and disappointed as we all were, I guarantee it was worse for them and they are going to want to come home and make a statement about who they are and what they do in front of their fans.
I hope I am right and this team is able to somewhat salvage what has been a disappointing season to say the least. it all starts this week, but win or lose at the end of this game we will know for sure ‘who’ this team really is.
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