New Orleans Saints to face Cincinnati Bengals
The New Orleans Saints might not be as good this season as their 13-0 Super Bowl winning start last season but you can’t count them out just yet. They are getting back into their own as the season comes to the end.
In their first eight games the Saints were able to score 30 points against just one of their opponents. In their last four games, four successive games that they won, they have scored 30 points three times and they are all set to do it again when they meet
Cincinnati Bengals.
The Saints averaged just 20.9 points in the first half of the season. While it is a respectable number, it just does not compare to the 35.9 average the Saints were on last year. But things might be turning around for the Saints and the timing couldn’t be
better. They put 34 points on the board against both the Seattle Seahawks and the Carolina Panthers and defeated the Dallas Cowboys 30-27 in a game that came too close for comfort for New Orleans.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who has been averaging almost 330 yards in his last five games, said that New Orleans had taken an aggressive mentality. “We're kind of getting back to our brand of football with great tempo obviously, a lot of formations,
a lot of personnel groups, a lot of guys involved, taking shots down field”.
While in the first half of the season the Saints were unable to make big plays, but they have turned that around too. They Saints completed just 15 passes for 25 yards or more in the first 9 games of the season, since then they completed 7 such passes against
Seattle and Dallas alone.
Both the Seahawks and the Cowboys (the Carolina Panthers too) have been terrible this year and the Saints performance against them shows an improvement but not a significant one. The only team that could be considered a real Challenge was Pittsburgh, possibly
the best defence in the league. The Saints managed to score 20 points against them to win the game.
There are a lot of things they need to work on. They have the best third-down conversion in the league but that hasn’t been converted into points. Their touchdown scoring percentage in the red zone ranks 25th in the league and their scoring is
even worse. The Saints have left the red zone with points 78.3 percent of the time which puts them near the bottom of the league at 29th place.
The statistics have not escaped Coach Sean Payton’s attention. “The good news is that we're (first) in the league in red zone drive opportunities, and now it's just being more efficient with those drives and coming away with more touchdowns than field goals”,
Payton said. The Saints could do it too. Their four game winning streak has given them the confidence they needed.
Their opponents, however, are low on confidence. The Cincinnati Bengals couldn’t have had a worse season. They were defeated 26-10 in the New Meadowlands Stadium by the New York Jets and now are up against the new and improved defending champions. They have
nothing to go on. Their defence is nothing to talk about. They are horrible against the rush and on average have conceded 26 points per game.
Their offense is in shambles too. “It's something different in every phase of the game every week”, receiver Terrell Owens said. “We find ways to put ourselves in the hole. I'm out of answers”. They have the second worst turnover tally in the AFC.
Quarterback Carson Palmer has thrown 15 interceptions for 19 touchdowns and 2,760 yards. His passer ratings are a dismal 78.5.
Brees has also thrown just as many interceptions. The two are tied for third place for the most interceptions. Brees has been intercepted 5 times in the last four games but he also threw 9 touchdowns. The Bengals quarterback has been intercepted 8 times
in the last four games and has thrown just 7 touchdowns.
The Bengals don’t have a chance of beating the Saints in their current form. They are most probably going to be handed their ninth straight defeat and the best they could hope for is to make it interesting for the fans.
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