Saints 2012 Regular Season Opponents Announced

It would give us additional opportunity to prove we really should have been the #2 seed by beating them up AGAIN. (Assuming of course we pull it off the first time, but even in Candlestick we flat out should…)

“This” year (though technically it’s already last year both in calendar and regular-season considerations) we played GB because of the divisional rotation. Next year we’ll play them because we both won our divisions.

In theory, they could play at us in 2013 were we both to end up with the same in-division rankings yet again.

There is none.

We own the giants. More likely to have a division rival loss. Carolina maybe?

10-6 would be disappointing, no?

Totally getting tickets to this again. Maybe it will be on Thanksgiving?

went to the 2006 on Christmas Eve, dressed for cold freezing weather & had to remove most of the outer clothes as it was about 55 degrees out that day. Will be making plans to go to that game with the hubby & daughter!

I do see Us playing the Pack on a Sunday or Monday Nite ball game though.

and that’s why we have SD at home (again) when we should have had to play them in SD

I already had plans to go to the game in San Diego :-(

Well, NYC also. But I was just there in April.

Maybe Denver, if it’s late in the season and worked around a skiing trip.

or just that you’ll be getting your tires changed, fuel tank filled up, and windshield wiped while there?

San Francisco is over-rated. I suppose it was just watered down for me because I lived there and had to deal with the traffic everyday. Traffic isn’t worse anywhere, I promise.

That would be like the Vikings at Saints to open last season, had the 2009 opener also been Vikings at Saints. Kind of overkill, from an objective point of view.

A friend of mine and I were just talking about that yesterday. One move I’d like to see — and it seems like a real possibility — is Vincent Jackson. Odds are he’s friends with Sproles and he would no doubt start for the Saints opposite either Colston or Meachem. I think there’s a pretty good chance at least one of those two could walk, but even if both re-sign, Henderson peaked long ago and Arrington has yet to prove his worth as a regular in the rotation.

Colston’s not worth Top 5 WR money. You’re kidding yourself, if you think he’s that valuable to the team. He’s the best we currently have obviously, but a franchise tag would be a huge mistake.

Actually, the NFL usually gives all the teams in a division the same schedule (more or less). It helps with tiebreakers and whatnot.

plus division foes. Standard.

Different sides of the scheduling rotation. The rotation for playing an entire division (the entire NFC North in this case) has one rotation rule. The rotation for playing the NFC-N team in equal-place-division-result is a separate rotation. In 2011 we played the entire NFC North, which means we were due for playing @GB and @MIN (as opposed to 2008, the previous time we played the entire NFC-N, where we were at home vs GB, plus @CHI and @DET).

In 2010 we played the 2009 NFC-N team that finished in the same divisional ranking as we did the previous year (which happened to have been MIN) and we got to play them at home. This is why we were able to have the “NFCCG rematch” to open the season. But because 2011 gets skipped (different scheduling rotation) then the next time up we are due to play @ the same divisional ranking team… and that just happens to put us at @GB for two years in a row.

Atlanta already took a step back this year (at least in luck and amount of help they got from the refs). Not sure how much further they can step back unless they either A) get a really crappy offensive coordinator, or B) suffer a huge wave of injuries.

I could easily see A happening. They have Bob Bratkowski as the QB coach and OC-in-waiting behind Mularkey. If Mularkey gets a HC job, they could easily promote Bob. The problem (for them, not us) is that Bob is a predictable idiot. Bengals fans didn’t call him Bratworst or Bratsuckski for nothing. He may get away with it in 2012 and maybe even 2013 but unless he makes MAJOR improvements by 2014-15 everybody who’s seen enough of their games will be able to predict the play from the players and formation with about 85+% accuracy.

B is completely unpredictable. They’re a bit due, they’ve had a few this year but nothing major, haven’t really had that since 2009. But it could easily be three more years before their next injury wave… or three more games… or anything in between. You just don’t know.

I could easily see Carolina improving if they can just find some healthy players. Two years in a row of massive injuries will result in some changes on that staff and roster. And frankly Tampa has plenty of talent, they just need qualified coordinators and coaches to motivate it, coach it, and use it properly on gameday.

Assuming Drew’s contract isn’t a full-offseason nightmare and we can at least keep two of our four most important other FAs (Nicks, Colston, Meachem, and probably Franklin), I doubt we’ll take THAT big a step backwards… but we could. Hosting the Super Bowl seems to almost be a curse on the team these last few years.

But if we are still at least good next year, then I could easily see a four-way dogfight next year.

in 2008

whupped them on MNF right before Thanksgiving…