New Orleans Saints: Game-by-game predictions of 2019
Fourth Quarter: 3-1
Thankfully, the Saints will have gotten through the most demanding part of their schedule by this time and have already put themselves squarely in playoff contention.
The last four games of the season will likely be against teams that won’t be in playoff contention. They open up the last portion of the season with San Francisco.
This is a team that should be improved, but they won’t be making any noise in that division. And improved is relative – they only won 4 games last season. With their team and their schedule, 6 wins would be good. The game against the Saints won’t be one of those wins.
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Had Andrew Luck not retired, the matchup against the Indianapolis Colts may have been more interesting. Still, they are a decent squad, and Jacoby Brissett isn’t a terrible QB. But not a squad that the Saints should lose to.
In an odd twist, one that hasn’t happened since 1996, the Saints will close out their season with two road games. First, they take a trip to Tennessee three days before Christmas. The Titans are an enigma. They are one of the most mediocre teams in football.
They win the games they are supposed to, plus one shocker every season it seems. Let’s hope they’ve gotten that shocker out of the way by the time the Saints visit.
The Saints wrap up the season with a trip to Carolina. It’s been noted that a few so-called experts have the Panthers winning this division. Hard to see unless Cam Newton comes back a better QB than he left. Regardless of the injury of last seasons, Newton has not been truly great since the Panthers’ Super Bowl season.
Their offensive line has not been great either. With Newton’s shoulder and his already documented accuracy issues, this seems to be less a year for them to be great. But this will be the last game of the season. The hope is by this point the Saints have a playoff spot and home-field locked up so they can rest people, like last season’s closer with Carolina.
It wasn’t pretty to watch but it wasn’t a necessary game. Also to note is this is the only division game in the last quarter of the season, something else new for the Saints, who normally have two to three division games to close the year.