Weekly Preview: Saints vs. Patriots

The New Orleans Saints are coming off an absolutely brutal loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They got outplayed on both sides of the ball and was one of the most embarrassing losses of the Dennis Allen era. The team needs to bounce back this week against the New England Patriots. DraftKings Sportsbook has the Saints as one-point underdogs, so this is anyone’s game.

New England Patriots preview:

The Patriots are coming off a 38-3 beatdown loss against the Dallas Cowboys. Not much has gone right for this team to start the season. The team is 1-3 and has been riddled with injuries. Patriots first-round pick Christian Gonzalez injured his shoulder last week and is likely out for the season. The Oregon product had gotten off to a strong start, having some of the best coverage stats in all of the NFL. The Patriots also lost superstar pass-rusher Matt Judon. He will be out indefinitely while he gets surgery on his torn biceps.

On the offensive side of the ball, there isn’t much to be threatened by. QB Mac Jones is a below-average QB, and there are no real receiving threats. The best player is probably LT Trent Brown or HB Rhamondre Stevenson.

New Orleans Saints preview:

The Saints are ice cold after starting the year 2-0. The team’s offense has looked miserable and unable to score points. Many fans are calling for personnel change, but HC Dennis Allen made it clear this would not happen. Last week, QB Derek Carr looked awful, and it was clear that he shouldn’t have played. His accuracy and arm strength were all out of sorts, and this is most certainly due to the injury suffered against the Green Bay Packers.

The one bright spot I wanted to bring attention to on offense is Trevor Penning. The University of Northern Iowa product has been improving drastically every week.

In fact, Penning was PFF’s highest-graded player on offense last week. There is still work to be done, but it’s good to see that he is improving each week. Defensively, the Saints look really good to start games but are having trouble in the second half. This likely has to do with the fact that the offense isn’t sustaining long drives. This means the defense is on the field a ton and has no time to rest. That needs to change this week. The Saints need to find their identity on offense, or they might never.

Who will win the game?

To be quite honest, if the Saints don’t win this game, some serious talks need to be had. This Patriots roster is depleted and not very good in general. If the Saints can’t beat this team, some serious changes need to be made. While I understand it’s on the road, there is still absolutely no excuse to lose this one.

The Saints need to win this game to turn their season around. Starting off 2-3 would be unacceptable. Both of these teams have struggling offenses that will be looking to turn it around. It will be interesting to see what both sides do to combat these early-season offensive woes.

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