Reason we will WIN Sunday

[AviationMX]

As we enter into the third game this season with the Dats, the good news is this:

• Luke knows the Saints offense and schemes
• The Saints don't know our offense...because Shula doesn't either. So there's our advantage...

[JARROD]

Ahhh, week 13 the Panthers gave that game away,.. 5-6 really bad times catastrophic mistakes, fumbled punt return, fumbled punt, penalties.

we went through them like paper the first drive.

tampa showed they are beatable—

so I give us a 20% chance haha.

[Manther]

We have the same record, but I think we're the better team.

We beat the #1 team in the AFC and the #2 in the NFC, both of which beat the Saints.

The Saints have not beaten ANY team ranked above them in the playoffs.  They lost to the Minn, NE and the Rams. 

They lost to a  5-11 team last week.   We lost to a playoff team last week (a team that beat them) without our starting running back.

We will both be hungry, but because they have beaten us twice, there will be a touch of overconfidence on their part.    They feel good that they are playing a team they have beaten soundly twice... at home in the dome.  We are feeling pressure.  

[Thanatos]

One of the major issues- and yall know by now I'm not a blame the refs person- is that the Saint, in the dome, undeniably get calls they have no business getting.

We're going to have to be up by multiple scores in the 4th quarter in order to hold on against that kind of bs.

[CRA]

G-reg with tha 3rd leg 

We need a good Cam/Olsen day.  If we have that....we win. 

[IowaVikings]

Good luck from a Vikings fan! Hopefully you guys smash the Saints this weekend and we can meet each other again, only on our turf this time! 

[YungHamm]

On 1/3/2018 at 3:36 PM, t48 said:

There wasn't much shredding in the week 13 game. It was more things ;such as, Pep getting the late hit out of bounds call, Clay fumble on the punt return and Kalil missing blocks (Well still no answer for that one) but everything else seemed fixable. 

Facts! and was this also the game where Stewart had the fumble interception dropped pass thing?

[LegioX]

I don’t know. I just have this feeling they are not going to care or have any sense of “let’s win this” feeling. Last 2 games shows me something is up.

[LordOfDaWingz]

All that and because my Birthday is Sunday lol 

[toldozer]

I had a vision of two defensive/st touchdowns.  Luke gets one, the other player I am not clear on.

[Iron Saint]

On 1/3/2018 at 2:10 PM, Adb6368 said:

Ok it's the Wednesday before the playoffs and I've read about every reason in the book on why we will/should lose Sunday. It appears there is no hope. BUT... that's why they play the game. So, with that said, I want to hear why you believe we will win. Here are mine:

1) We know exactly what we are getting going up against the Saints and can gameplan for it. They have no reason to change their gameplan considering it has worked thus far. They haven't seen our best yet this season (I hope).

2) Greg Olsen is bound to have a big game sooner or later and the Saints haven't seen him yet this year. 

3) Going off point #2, their starting MLB (Klein) and safety (Vaccaro) are out. The Saints are now playing Manti Te'o and his girlfriend on the back end- we can attack this.

4) Cam Newton has been known to have bounce-back games. From all accounts he was at the Bank late all week and is putting in the time. Business just turned up.

Now get over your new years lull and get on the bandwagon.... because we going to the 'ship

#2 and #3 are what concern me the most as a Saints fan. Vaccaro (while his pass coverage has been sub-par to what we know he can do), his run stop never missed a beat so we'll miss that and expect Bell to step up. Te'o has also been phenomenal in run support, even picking up a few crucial run stops and TFL's on 4th down, but his pass coverage worries us too. More on Klein below.

As for Olsen, I'm on the record in a thread by thebigcat after our second game this year of possibly meeting up in the play-offs that you guys certainly are much tougher to beat with Olsen than without.

On 1/3/2018 at 2:18 PM, !stUp said:

I really dig this cats enthusiasm.  I also didn't know that Te'o's girlfriend was in the secondary of New Orleans. 

Yeah, man. She's normally hanging out around with Lattimore and the opposing team's #1 WR so you don't see or hear from her much.

On 1/3/2018 at 2:47 PM, Jimmy said:

The Saints defense can be exposed.  If 41 points is what we need to score I don't doubt that we can get there.  

It very well may take that. However, I see you guys only hit that number once this year, against Miami, and we've yet to give up 40; the closest being Detroit putting up 38 after getting blown out all game.

On 1/3/2018 at 3:05 PM, Khyber53 said:

The loss of Klein and the return of Olsen change everything. Klein had a bigger effect on their defensive success than they want to admit. He was calling plays and making adjustments like his mentor, our own Luke Kuechly. We've still got Luke and well, AJ will be on the sidelines or at home recuperating.

Klein's calls were also a big part of their pass defense success, but he also could worry next to nothing about Olsen. I don't think they'll have that luxury again. 

Our defense has only gotten better, so I think we'll see Pep and Mario feast on Brees. It wouldn't surprise me to see KK bring down Brees once before it is said and done. I also think that they'll use Shaq as a spy on the Saints' running backs to keep them honest coming out of the backfield.

We can and will win this one. And Cam will have one of his best playoff performances in history and we'll remark at how he was able to thread the needle time and time again.

Klein had a MASSIVE effect on our defensive success. Second to only Lattimore, he was the off season acquisition that had the most influence on our defensive turnaround and the only other free agent signing that was close was Alex Okafor. However, Robertson wore the headset last year and has been since Klein went on IR and our defense has only given up 18.3 points/game in those 3 games so we're not as desperate as some make us out to be. However, we are running out of warm bodies at LB.

13 hours ago, AviationMX said:

As we enter into the third game this season with the Dats, the good news is this:

• Luke knows the Saints offense and schemes
• The Saints don't know our offense...because Shula doesn't either. So there's our advantage...

Now that is some quality posting. LOLOL.

9 hours ago, Manther said:

We have the same record, but I think we're the better team.

We beat the #1 team in the AFC and the #2 in the NFC, both of which beat the Saints.

The Saints have not beaten ANY team ranked above them in the playoffs.  They lost to the Minn, NE and the Rams. 

They lost to a 5-11 team last week.   We lost to a playoff team last week (a team that beat them) without our starting running back.

We will both be hungry, but because they have beaten us twice, there will be a touch of overconfidence on their part.    They feel good that they are playing a team they have beaten soundly twice... at home in the dome.  We are feeling pressure.  

We also played both of them without our starting LT, our starting LG playing LT, a back-up at LG and a very green rookie that started at LT against Minnesota then had to move over to RT mid-game when Strief went down. All of which will be manning their usual posts on Sunday with the exception of Ramczyk who now has a tremendous amount of experience under his belt at RT since Weeks 1 and 2.

Regarding defense, Cam won't have the blown coverage specialist, DeVante Harris, on the field to target at will like Bradford, Brady and Goff did. Instead will have Lattimore, who missed our first two games with a concussion and sprained ankle respectively, locking down one side of the field and depending on Allen feels like calling the game, possibly traveling with Funchess most of (if not all) the game. Goff also didn't have to play against Lattimore or Crawley so we had our #3 and #4 CB's starting that game and still only lost by 6.

4 hours ago, IowaVikings said:

Good luck from a Vikings fan! Hopefully you guys smash the Saints this weekend and we can meet each other again, only on our turf this time! 

Not surprised, LOL.