From the ballad of Smokey and the Bandit: “We’ve got a long way to go, and a short time to get there”. Those are prophetic words, and the days are going by fast. As of this morning, Thursday the 9th of May, the New Orleans Saints have exactly 92 days to get ready to face their arch rivals the Atlanta Falcons at home in the Superdome. When the Dirty Birds show up, the Saints have to be ready to prove we won’t let them kick us to the curb this year.

The NFL owners who took part in deciding the Saints schedule knew exactly what they were doing when they scheduled our toughest division rival for Week one. We’ll be starting the season with our 3rd defensive coordinator in three years and our second new defensive scheme in two years and won’t even get to break it in with a non-division opponent. The best thing the Saints can do is to derail any thoughts the Atlanta Falcons have of sweeping our two game series this season.

The second monkey wrench 345 Park Avenue threw into our gearbox was to schedule our second meeting with the Falcons for a short week on Thursday night on the road. We have to at least split the two games with the Falcons to have any chance at all to win the division, or to have a chance at a wild card berth. We can’t afford to start this season off with a loss in Week one. Heck, we need to start out by putting the pressure on the NFC South, not the other way around.

The answer is out there somewhere, but it won’t be a single, simple “catch-all” answer. Sean Payton will have to pull every magic trick he has out of his Saints playbook, and coach one of the best games of his career. It goes without saying that the team will have to perform at a high level, but each and every segment of the game will also have to be executed with precision.

The Saints will have to protect the ball and win the turnover battle in this one guys. This a game where if we only make a single interception or fumble it needs to be at the most critical time. We have to create a big momentum change with any turnover we get, and we need to put points on the board when we get them. Turnovers without points are almost without value, at best they often only prolong what will turn out to be a loss.

There are a few things we could use to our advantage, but Sean will have had to plan them in advance, and the team will have to execute the plays to perfection. We need to use trickery if we can. We can use mistakes from the past to accomplish that part. It’s long been known that we telegraph the nature of the play with personnel changes; that’s a good place to start. We could send in pass personnel and maybe bring that new fullback out of the backfield. We can make a change that screams run, pull the action to one side then use a sure-handed receiver on the other side to pull one down. No matter what, we can’t be predictable this season.

This is a good time to bring up receivers as well; Sean better be working on some diversity. Drew has to have some new targets and people will have to stop dropping the ball. We can’t rely upon Jimmy Graham to bail our butts out of a crack all season. Didn’t we learn a lesson from ’09? Drew would often throw to as many as nine different receivers in a game. Heck, he could run two sets in a row with three passes each and never throw to the same guy twice.

We’ve also got players who didn’t perform to expectations last season, and I don’t have to list them. The second year players need to perform like the veterans they are, and the Saints veterans need to get the lead out of their azz. The team leaders need to do exactly that: Lead by example. We know who the leader of the offense is: Drew Brees. Someone in the defense needs to step up to the damn plate and take control as well. The job is open for grabs; nobody can claim they performed as a defensive leader last season.

Picture Credit: Pic courtesy of community.abeo.us

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