This afternoon's matchup between the Saints and Panthers offers the most relevant set of statistics of any wildcard matchup thus far. The Saints and Panthers, because they play in the same division, already faced off twice this season. This might be a bit more interesting if these teams had split their matchups in 2017. Alas, the Saints beat the Panthers soundly in both matchups.
One might assume that, of the two games these teams played against one another, the game in Charlotte would have been the closer contest--and that would be incorrect. The Saints absolutely slaughtered the Panthers in North Carolina 34-13 for New Orleans' first win of the season. Ironically, the next meeting between these teams was somewhat closer, 31-21, but it still wasn't exactly a barn-burner. The Saints were winning 28-14 going into the 4th quarter, and despite a late touchdown by the Panthers, the Saints put together a 4th quarter drive that ended in a field goal to put the game mostly out of reach.
It's always difficult to beat a quality team in the NFL, even if your team has beaten them twice already earlier in the season. The Panthers have now seen most of what the Saints can throw at them, and Cam Newton is always a threat to take over a game. The issue is that the Saints are nearly perfect at home with their only loss in New Orleans coming understandably against the Patriots early in the season. The Panthers are not the Patriots. They do have a decent 5-3 road record this season, and playing in the Super Dome shouldn't intimidate them--it just doesn't appear that they have the weapons to outscore the Saints.
New Orleans boasts the first two players on the same team in NFL history who have each compiled 1500 all purpose yards in the same season in Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara. Throw in a wide receiver with over 1200 receiving yards on the season in Michael Thomas and you have a extremely dangerous trio of top-level weapons. It certainly doesn't hurt matters that Drew Brees is the man delivering the ball to these three dynamic athletes. Oh, and let's not forget that the Saints did get a reasonable amount of production from the field-stretching speed of Ted Ginn Jr.
The Saints offense certainly isn't invincible as the Saints have lost on the road to a good chunk of the NFC teams that made the playoffs this season. The Saints lost to the Vikings in Minnesota, the Rams in L.A., and the Falcons in Atlanta over the course of 2017. It is for this reason that their road to a Super Bowl could be a rough one, but there's little reason to believe their road will end today. The Panthers do not have the level of offensive weapons that New Orleans possess. Cam Newton has had to rely on his own will and athleticism to lead his team to victory in many cases. Newton, in fact, leading his team in rushing with 754 yards on the ground, and his leading receiver is Devin Funchess with only 840 yards on the season. Because of Newton's heroics on the ground in concert with a solid level of production from Jonathan Stewart and Christian McCaffrey, the Pathers' rushing attack ranks 4th in the league. The Pathers' passing offense, by contrast, ranked 28th.
The Carolina Panthers did finish the regular season with the 9th ranked defense by yards allowed and the 11th ranked defense in points allowed, but their offense is probably too one-dimensional to ultimately keep up with a Saints team that scored a combined 65 points against Carolina this season. This would be far more interesting if there were some major key injuries that figured to change the dynamic of this game in a major way, but that does not appear to be the case today--but who knows? Everything else thus far as been a total upset.
PREDICTION: SAINTS 33-24
THE BILLS ARE UP AT HALFTIME 3-0 AGAINST A JAGUARS TEAM THAT HAS YET TO FIND ANY SORT OF OFFENSIVE RHYTHM. WHERE WAS THIS JAGUARS TEAM WHEN THEY FACED THE RAVENS IN LONDON? ENJOY THE REST OF TODAY'S GAMES!
AS ALWAYS
GO RAVENS!!!
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