New Orleans Saints quarterly report: Status at the first quarter pole

First Quarter and looking forward

So my prediction of 2-2 for the first quarter of the season was beaten by a game. While it’s not a perfect record, the Saints didn’t play perfect football. But much like I said after the game against Seattle, this team is built to win regardless of who is running the offense.

With a strong solid defense, the Saints can be in every game. It’s the opposite of the bad defense days of a few years back when the Saints had to score 30+ points just to have a chance. Now they can compete without having to outscore a team in a track match.

This is a boon to our overall outlook. The second quarter of the season shapes up interestingly. This Sunday we face a Tampa Bay team coming off their highest point total ever against the one team we lost to. Is Tampa Bay for real, or was it just a good week?

We follow that up with Jacksonville who has struggled in the absence of Nick Foles but had a good showing this past weekend.

After that, we have the Chicago Bears who still may be without the services of Mitch Trubisky. That would mean their starter would likely be former Saints QB Chase Daniel. Daniel is probably a more consistent, grounded QB for their system anyway, but Trubisky is the drafted guy. Chicago’s defense is their calling card. Let’s hope the weather holds out for that one.

Finally, we close the quarter with the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals have yet to decide who they will be as a team. Hopefully, they don’t find themselves before visiting us. A rookie QB and a suspect offensive line in the passing game are factors there.

My prediction for this quarter was to go 4-0. Obviously Tampa Bay is a divisional matchup and those are always tougher games. They beat us up at home last season, so the Saints owe them.

Jacksonville can be sneaky.

If there was any one team that concerns me more than normal for this quarter it is the Bears. But I’m feeling my prediction is pretty solid. The Saints currently have a better organization than any of the teams they will face this quarter.