Saints sliding after slew of setbacks
METARIE, La.-- The New Orleans Saints have lost three of four games, and in the process, relinquished their once-firm hold on the NFC South title and No. 2 seed in the playoffs.
Thanks to their most recent setback, a 17-13 final-seconds loss to the Carolina Panthers last week, the Saints (10-5) no longer control their own destiny going into the season finale with the Tampa Bay Bucs (4-11) on Sunday in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
The Panthers now have an opportunity to take the second seed the Saints began eyeing back on Dec. 2 when they were pummeled 34-7 by the Seattle Seahawks to start their current slide.
Still, the Saints know they have two things to play for in Sunday's game with the Bucs.
Amazingly, they can still claim the division crown and No. 2 playoff seed with a win against the Bucs and a loss by the Panthers, who travel to Atlanta to play the Falcons.
If the Panthers go out and take care of business earlier in the day, the Saints can still get in with a victory over Bucs, whom they defeated 16-14 in Week 2 in Raymond James Stadium.
"We do know if we win this week -- and we must win this week -- we get into the tournament," Saints free safety Malcolm Jenkins said. "That's all that matters."
Saints coach Sean Payton was disappointed, but certainly not discouraged, after Sunday's loss to the Panthers. A win would have wrapped up the division title and second seed, and obviously, have changed the way they look at this game with the Bucs.
"I think the main thing is that there will be a lot of different, not distractions, but scenarios," he said. "We're approaching this like a playoff game itself. There are a handful of things we can't control ... but we can control this week."
As such, with the Panthers playing the Falcons in an early game Sunday, Payton said they won't be scoreboard-watching during final pregame preparations and on-field warm-ups.
It would be real easy, he said, to get caught up in what the Panthers are doing rather than what the Saints have to do -- which is beat an upset-minded Bucs team.
"We control one thing. ... We know that if we're able to go out and play well and win, we're guaranteed a spot in the playoffs," he said. "I don't want to spend those two hours prior to the game with the television sets going and all the other potential distractions that can take place with a game that's being played prior to ours."
One problem for the Saints is that their secondary is limping to the end of the regular season after rookie strong safety Kenny Vaccaro suffered a fractured left fibula in Sunday's loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Vaccaro, who ranked third on the Saints' defense with 79 total tackles while starting all 14 games he was healthy for, had surgery on Tuesday and was put on injured reserve Wednesday.
Saints coach Sean Payton compared the injury to the one that tackle Bryce Harris suffered late last November. Harris underwent surgery and was not cleared to return until a week before the start of OTAs this spring.
"It's fairly clean," Payton said of the injury that occurred when several players landed on Vaccaro after his leg was pinned beneath him while trying to stop a running play. "If you had a chance to see how the foot was sitting, you could tell something was wrong."
"That's a tough loss to us," free safety Malcolm Jenkins said. "He's definitely a big part of what we do on defense. But anytime someone's gotten injured this year, we've had guys fill in and play well. So I think we'll be all right."
Vaccaro is the seventh key defender who was being counted on back in training camp to be lost for the season.
The others are defensive end Kenyon Coleman; linebackers Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma and Victor Butler; and cornerbacks Jabari Greer and Patrick Robinson.
Coleman had a torn pectoral muscle and the others all had knee injuries.
