NFC South after Week 5: Saints Stay on Top

Drew Brees is amazing!

The Saints remain division leaders in the NFC South through Week 5. Here’s how it all happened.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Coming into Week 5, it was the 2-2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers who were on their bye week. The last place Atlanta Falcons (1-3) traveled to Pittsburgh to face the struggling Steelers (1-2-1) and the Carolina Panthers (2-1) hosted Eli Manning and the New York football Giants (1-3). The New Orleans Saints (3-1) hosted the Washington Redskins (2-1) on Monday Night Football, meaning the Saints were the only NFC South to face an opponent with a winning record in Week 5.

The Saints took care of business on Monday Night, throttling the Redskins to the tune of 43-19 to remain in first and improve to 4-1. The Carolina Panthers kept pace with the Saints, beating the Giants on a last second 63-yard field goal off the leg of Graham Gano, winning 33-31 to improve to 3-1. The Atlanta Falcons went full “Failcons,” getting demolished by the Steelers 41-17, dropping to 1-4.

So the order in the standings didn’t change from Week 5 to Week 6, but the gap between the first place Saints and the last place Falcons just got a little bigger.

Now into Week 6, the New Orleans Saints can take advantage of a well-timed bye week. The Atlanta Falcons will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers will travel to DC to face the recently-beaten Redskins. Both of those games are Sunday at noon CST.

This week, the Saints can just sit back and watch TV on Sunday.

Here’s to hoping the Redskins can bounce back this week.