MVN - Most Valuable Network

Saints Poised to Make a Run

The Saints are right back in the thick of things.  With a dominating 31-6 win over Carolina on Sunday, New Orleans remains two games behind Tampa Bay in the NFC South and right smack in the middle of the NFC wildcard race.

With the Bucs coming to town this Sunday in an all-important division matchup, the Saints can ill-afford another slip up as they close out the regular season. 

If New Orleans continues their trend of streaky play this Sunday, they most certainly will beat Tampa Bay.  One victory in a row just isn’t characteristic of this team, just like one loss in a row doesn’t cut it.  They will win Sunday because they have to continue the winning streak they started with Carolina, if only for one more game.

I think it’s going to continue beyond a Tampa Bay victory.  Despite what I’ve written in the past, New Orleans is a well coached football team.  Sean Payton earned Coach of the Year last year for a reason and I think now is the time that he’s going to show the league again what kind of coach he is. 

It’s the stretch run, the final five games of the season.  This is where you make or break your season.  This is where the contenders emerge and the pretenders fizzle out. 

Remember in 2002 when the Saints were 8-4 through 13 weeks of play and headed for a division title and maybe a home playoff game?  What happened that year?  Oh yeah, the marvelously brilliant Jim Haslett refused to play Jake Delhomme over of an ailing Aaron Brooks and Brooks spaghetti-armed the Saints to four consecutive losses and destroyed any chance for playoffs.

My point is that’s not going to happen this year.  Sean Payton is an infinitely better coach than Haslett ever was and he’s going to keep this Saints squad on track through the final quarter of the schedule. 

It’s totally conceivable that the Saints could run the table and finish 10-6.  I don’t think it’ll happen.  They are going to drop one of their final three games to Arizona, Philly or Chicago.  But that’ll put them at 9-7 because I think they get past Atlanta and Tampa Bay in the next two weeks.

If the Saints can get to 9-7, they will have a decent shot to make the playoffs.  If they run the table and get to 10-6, they’ll be in, no doubt.

It starts with Tampa, though.  The Bucs are the toughest test remaining on the schedule for the Saints.  If they can get through this game without sinking the ship, it should be smooth sailing for the remainder of the season.  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 1:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.