Saints 2020 schedule is easier than 2019

The downside

The main issue of note coming out of the bye is we will be on the road five of the following eight weeks, including a three-week road stretch in weeks 12 through 14.

Weeks nine through eleven, we have an interesting stretch. Sunday Night Football in Tampa Bay starts it off, followed by the defending NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers. We complete that little stretch with our rival Atlanta Falcons, a team that upset us last season later in the year.

Note that this will be the first time since the 2014 season that we have not faced the Falcons in prime time. We do, however, play Atlanta twice in three weeks this season.

To week 14 of this season, we will not have had a stretch of insane games like last season where we had the two west coast games plus Dallas or having four division games in a row. But in week 14 we get our little run of rough games.

It begins with the Eagles in Philadelphia, moves to the champion Kansas City Chiefs in the Dome, then concludes with the Minnesota Vikings in the Dome in week 16. Hopefully, we will be in solid shape prior to that little tester coming into the stretch.

We will close out the season with the Carolina Panthers, as we have the last 2 seasons. In another odd twist, this will be the first season since 2012 that we do not play back-to-back division games. We also do not have a Thursday night game this season.

That is probably because we are scheduled to play those Vikings on Christmas Day, which is a Friday this year.

For some, that might be a great Christmas gift and a great way to celebrate the day. For others, 3:30 pm on Christmas Day is Christmas dinner time, so this could be the Grinch dropping off a lump of coal.

At the initial look, I do not dislike the Saints’ schedule for this season. None of the games are easy, but as it sets up it favors the Saints in a lot of ways.

And of course, all this is contingent on being able to actually play the games… go away, Covid-19.