Could the Saints be ready for perfection?
Three weeks into the NFL season and no true favorite has emerged in the outright betting for a Super Bowl victory, but there have certainly been plenty of movers in the market and none more so than the New Orleans Saints.
Although plenty is known about the fierce Saints offense, which has played brillianty twice and spluttered for one half in an eventually big win over Buffalo, but their defense has surprised many this season.
Maybe facing Detroit at home and then Philadelphia and Buffalo on the road has not been the hardest task any team has been set, but for a team which is usually at the bottom of the team defense league to be inside the top half is a big difference.
And the performance against the Bills opened a lot of eye. A total of 243 yards of offense and the only score Buffalo could muster of any kind was on a fake field goal that ended with holder Brian Moorman finding defensive end Ryan Denney from 25 yards.
The acid test for the Saints, now among the favorites to land the Super Bowl, comes in the next three weeks (they have a bye in week five) when they host both of the unbeaten New York teams, the Jets and then the Giants.
If they should come through those two games unscathed you might get NFL betting sites suggesting that the perfect 16-0 season is on again – the combined record of the teams they play after week six is 9-24.
The Saints have conceded 56 points so far – nothing special really – but since half-time in the impressive win over Philadelphia that number is only nine, and they gave Trent Edwards and Donovan McNabb heavy beatings in the last two games.
McNabb ended up with a broken rib and Edwards was sacked four times as the fired-up Saints again went a game without giving up 100 yards on the ground. Their 67 yards per game average has them fourth in the NFL and up against two teams who rely on the run there has to be a decent chance they are 5-0 by the end of the Giants game.
Add in the apparent return to fitness of Pierre Thomas (a brilliant second half against Buffalo) and the fact the NFC South is a two-team division, and the playoffs have to be an absolute minimum for a team which could well have the MVP in Drew Brees at the end of the season as well.
One reply on “Quick Hits: Saints Picture Perfect?”
Right now the Saints are second to only the Giants in the NFC. Remember it is only Oct 1st and the teams that win in December go to the Super Bowl. As defensive coordinators begin to scheme against their offense they will have to find ways to adapt.
With the talent on this team,if they can do this they might just earn themselves a trip to Miami