Saints vs. Lions: Five brave predictions

Golden Tate carries the Lions offense.

I hate playing against Golden Tate. It seems like he kills us every time we play the Lions. He’s worse than Greg Olsen. (Okay, maybe not.)

The problem with Tate isn’t that he’s an elite receiver. Everyone knows the deal: he’s almost impossible to bring down once he makes a reception. And it’s so frustrating. He puts the teams weakest tacklers, CBs, in bad positions, forces them to make tackles in the open field.

Now, this defense doesn’t have an outstanding group of tacklers at corner. Breaux is likely the best of the bunch, but we’ve yet to see him really play up to his level yet this year.

Behind him, Sterling Moore and Ken Crawley both have the frames to bring him down. But both players, despite their tools, have whiffed on more than a few tackles on the year. And B.W. Webb is just not an outstanding tackler. It will be on our safeties, who have admittedly tackled very well of late, to keep Tate contained. Between Bell, Byrd, and Vaccaro, the unit is more than up for the task. The problem is that they can’t be around him every play. The Lions offense will work to get Tate away from safety help, where he can do the most damage.

So the most frustrating of my predictions: Golden Tate scores at least once and helps this offense move the ball up and down the field.