Week 5 will see the Saints facing our second division game of the year as well what could be one of the most improved teams in the league. The Saints were once again kind of screwed with an early bye week so they get week 6 off and will then face the uber-talented Detroit lions. There is a very real chance that the Saints start the season off 5-0 for the second year in a row and there is no doubt that if they handle their business they will be 6-0 at the end of week 7.
Week 5: Buccaneers at Saints
The Buccaneers had probably the best off-season of anyone in the division and arguably the league. They added quarterback Josh McCown who had a really efficient season last year in Chicago and is an instant upgrade to anything they had on the roster. They also added pass rusher Michael Johnson and corner Alteraun Verner to help improve an already solid defense. In the Draft the Bucs went pure offense with the additions of Mike Evans in the first round and tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins (I’m going to call him Leroy from now on) in the second to compliment stud receiver Vincent Jackson. We saw last year the McCown is very good at throwing in the rough vicinity of his receivers and letting them use their talent to make a play..and with a massive tight end and another giant receiver he shouldn’t have too much trouble replicating his production from last year…right? The thing with the Bucs is that while they have improved their line on both sides of the ball, have pulled a reverse Carolina by completely upgrading their receiving core, and handled the loss of Revis for the most part by signing Verner…but there are still holes. Lovie Smith is an excellent coach and he will get more out of this team than Schiano did, however I don’t think that an older QB in McCown who really had that one ‘magical’ season will be able to come in and be the day 1 starter against a defense as good as New Orleans. What’s more, the Saints are built to stop many of the things that the Bucs are trying to build themselves up to do well, all things except stop the run. The key matchup between the Saints and the Bucs will be whether the Saints can stop Doug Martin early and jump out to a lead. The Dirty Gerbil will have to carry his team if the Bucs are to win this game, but Tampa Bay certainly still represents a significant threat to anyone on their schedule…at least on paper.
The Bottom Line:
The Bucs will be an improved team and since this game comes in week 5 I will have a much firmer grasp on just how much they have improved by the time I do my pre-game scouting report. As things stand currently the Bucs have one good corner and not a whole lot else in the secondary that will give the Saints a whole lot of pause. So long as the at home pass protection is similar to last years the Saints should be able to run the ball enough to keep the Bucs honest, and if that is the case I could easily see the Saints having multiple receivers over 100 yards in this game…maybe even as many as 3. The Bucs have absolutely no chance in this game if they can’t generate a pass-rush, but if they can they can keep things interesting and allow Josh McCown to be the game manager that he is at heart. On the ‘home game factor’ alone I think the Saints will win this game handily, but the improvements we have made on both sides of the ball when combined with the fact that the Saints were a vastly better team to start with should give them a strong win.
Week 6: Bye week
THE SAINTS GET TO PLAY THE RAIDERS!!!!! Ok, I’m just kidding. I’m not really a fan of us having such an early bye week, I would much rather it was later in the season. However, 2011 the Saints came out of the bye on fire and never looked back so who knows maybe I don’t know jack. The preference would be to go into the bye with a 5-0 or 4-1 record at the worst and no significant injuries so that they can work on small tweaks and just preparing for the long run to the finish.
Week 7: At the Detroit Lions
The Lions are very reminiscent of the Browns to me in that they have a ton of talent and could potentially be a major pain for the Saints. The question as always with this team is if they can capitalize on their tremendous offensive talent and play smart football. This team over the last few years has had one of the biggest cases of the ‘ijits’ (that’s idiot pronounced funniliy folks) I have ever seen in a professional sports team. The addition of Golden Tate is like a poor man’s Lance Moore with just a little bit more physicality. Other than him their off-season additions are pretty much a wash. What makes this team dangerous is that they already have a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. They have mercurial but dangerous defensive tackles Ndamakung Suh and Nick Fairley who can take over a game defensively all on their own. Kyle Van Noy is their second round draft pick and he has the potential to be a truly irritating opponent for the Saints offense to have to deal with, let us hope that last year’s o-line from the road games doesn’t rear its ugly head again. If that weren’t enough they also have a pair of very complimentary backs who escaped the Saints clutches in Reggie Bush and Joique Bell who give them the potential for balance…which means that you might not be able to just sell out on stopping the single biggest mismatch in the NFL today. MEGATRON!! Keenan Lewis isn’t Optimus Prime, but luckily for us the Lions have their own StarScream in the form of Mathew Stafford. The teams number 2 guy he can at times be a great asset, but he is just as likely to make all of Megatrons effort amount to naught by having one of those moments of brain-defying derp that makes us all think of a certain former Jets quarterback. Stafford is at times an elite passer whose arm talent has never been questioned, however he often suffers from poor judgment and inaccuracy that could very well doom him against the Saints new and improved defense. The addition of Ebron gives them a second tight end in addition to Pettigrew that could mean Mathew Stafford finally realizes that the middle of the field exists, but until I see the guy play against NFL defenses I’m not worried. Also, Kenny Vaccaro has already proven he can take even the best tight end completely out of the game.
The Bottom Line:
Detroit has a lot of weapons and if they are on their game the Saints could absolutely lose this one. That said I don’t think we will lose the game so long as the o-line plays at the level that it did towards the end of the year last year. If the game becomes a shootout the Lions lack the kind of guys who can excel in coverage in order to win that kind of game at the end, they would have to get lucky and get a sack fumble or a pick off of Drew to make up the difference in defense. The Lions are a coin flip team that can look like the deadliest team in the league one week and the worst team in the NFC the next. I really won’t even try to make any kind of prediction for this game until the week before because of how mercurial they are…but the talent on the roster is beyond contestation.
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