The New Orleans Saints head into week two of the NFL regular season at 0-1 after their lopsided loss to the Minnesota Vikings last Monday night. If the Saints are to avoid going 0-2 for the fourth straight year, they’ll have to achieve these three Saints keys to victory in the Mercedes Benz Superdome against another 0-1 team in the world champion New England Patriots.
Week Two New Orleans Saints Keys to Victory
While 0-2 starts seem to be becoming the norm in New Orleans, New England is quite the opposite. In fact, the last time the New England Patriots were two games below .500 was week five of the 2001 season. To put that in perspective, Tom Brady was making his third start of his career that day. Yeah, it’s been a while.
1) Saints Offense
Start with the most glaring change needed: the offensive line needs to give Drew Brees more time. Last week against the Minnesota Vikings, Brees, while only sacked once, was under constant duress. The combination of a rookie on one end of the line in Ryan Ramczyk along with the injury to Zach Strief and having no true replacement for that injury was disastrous. The addition of Bryce Harris this week gives the Saints a true tackle on the roster until Strief can return from his MCL sprain.
Assuming that pass protection improves, so to will the passing effectiveness. Unlike most teams, the Saints rely on the pass to set up the run. If the three-headed monster running attack gets going, that will not only eat up clock and keep Brady and company off the field, but also attack the Patriots where they are most vulnerable.
It helps that the Adrian Peterson returning to the Vikings story line is in the past and any pressure or obligation to Peterson is gone. Once the running game is working, the Saints will need to take some shots down the field using play action to keep the Patriot defense honest.
2) Saints Defense
To say the week one Saints defense under-performed is fair. Not only did Sam Bradford throw for nearly 350 yards and three touchdowns, Dalvin Cook set a franchise rushing record in that same game, running for 127 yards in his debut (ironically, a record previously held by Peterson). While there were some standout performances, the defense as a unit played poorly in all phases.
The key to victory on the defensive side of the ball for the New Orleans Saints this week is pressure on the quarterback, particularly with the front four. Dropping seven into coverage on passing plays is key when Brady is behind center.
Brady thrives when he sees a blitz and has made a career exploiting the vulnerabilities that a blitz exposes on a defense. Despite having no Julian Edelman this season and seeing Danny Amendola injure his knee last week versus the Kansas City Chiefs, Bill Belichick has always instilled the “next man up” mentality in his club.
Not unlike the Vikings being inspired to outperform their former star week one in Adrian Peterson, the Saints defense will go out of their way to neutralize Brandin Cooks. Cooks was traded to New England this off-season, along with a Saints draft pick, for two better draft picks belonging to the Patriots. Those two picks materialized into Ramczyk and Trey Hendrickson.
3) Special Teams
While the 2016 campaign was basted with articles about the New Orleans Saints special teams failures, no such issues have existed thus far in 2017, albeit one game in. Thomas Morstead continues to be a vital weapon in field positioning and will be a true asset against the Patriots this week. Will Lutz continues to impress in the kicking game and may end up being the Saints leading scorer this week if things turn into a shootout. Long snapper Zach Wood, signed two days before opening night, made it through the opener without making headlines.
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