The New Orleans Saints have not won their season-opener since a 23-17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons to start the 2013 season. In fact, they’ve only won two Week One matchups since their 2009 championship season, with a 2010 victory over the Minnesota Vikings being the only other exception. These early losses have often carried a domino effect, with New Orleans starting 1-3 or worse in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016.
The Saints get a favorable home matchup Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who finished last-place in the NFC South last season. However, with such high expectations surrounding New Orleans, they can’t take this matchup lightly and start the season on the wrong foot again.
New Orleans Saints Season-Opener: Why They Must Knock Off the Tampa Bay Bucs
Part of what made the 2017 Saints such a great story was their turnaround following an 0-2 start. New Orleans appeared poised to end their streak of mediocrity from 2014 to 2016 after a draft that showed promising early returns last preseason. Instead, the team fell flat in blowout losses to the Vikings and New England Patriots in the first two regular season games.
Then remarkably, New Orleans pulled off a 34-13 win over the Carolina Panthers on the road and didn’t lose again until Week 12. Eventually, the Saints won the NFC South division title and were one play away from advancing to the NFC Championship Game.
It was undoubtedly one of the most impressive single-season turnarounds in NFL history, and it re-awoke a Saints fan base that was tired of watching their future Hall-of-Fame quarterback suffer due to historically-awful Saints defenses. However, the bar is set much higher for New Orleans this year, and another slow start would be considered a huge setback rather than a continuing trend.
The Saints organization showed how invested they were in this season by their aggressive off-season activity. They unsuccessfully pursued big-name free-agents such as Jimmy Graham, Jordy Nelson, and Muhammad Wilkerson, but bolstered their receiving corps and defense with lower profile signings.
The acquisitions of Cameron Meredith, Ben Watson, Demario Davis, Patrick Robinson, and Kurt Coleman all filled team needs, but there was still one glaring need remaining as New Orleans entered the draft. They targeted edge defender Marcus Davenport in the first round and sacrificed their 2019 first round pick to trade up and select him 14th overall. The Saints front office had been working on the trade for weeks.
All this roster bolstering should make the Saints better in 2018, but a season-opening loss could set the team back significantly in what should be a tight NFC race. Without even mentioning the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, there are the Vikings and Los Angeles Rams to contend with. Both are both coming off strong off-seasons after winning their respective divisions in 2017.
Not only will the Saints potentially compete with the likes of Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Los Angeles for high playoff seeding. They have to play all three teams within a brutal four-week stretch. Even winning the division looks daunting, with the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons both coming off postseason appearances.
It may seem way too early to discuss playoff seeding, but considering the Saints poor postseason away record under Sean Payton, every single loss could greatly reduce their Super Bowl odds.
New Orleans has won just one postseason road game in six appearances under Payton, a 26-24 dogfight against the Eagles following the 2013 season. Meanwhile, they’ve gone 5-0 at home in the postseason. New Orleans also made their deepest postseason runs when they had first-round byes in 2006 and 2009.
The fact that a team is more successful with higher seeding is no surprise, but it’s been essential for the Saints limited postseason success up to this point. New Orleans has the talent to rebound from another disappointing start and make a deep playoff run, but a convincing win this Sunday will go a long way towards making a potential playoff run less daunting.
