5 reasons why the Patriots should be concerned about the Saints
The New England Patriots will place host to the New Orleans Saints this Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.
This will be the first time the teams have met since 2017 when the Patriots beat the Saints 36-20.
Both teams enter this matchup 1-1 but have gotten there in very different ways. New Orleans blew out the Packers in Week 1 and crashed down to Earth in Week 2 against the Panthers. New England, on the other hand, had two rather low-scoring affairs that didn’t give many hints as to what type of team they are.
While many are looking past this game to get ready for next weekend’s exciting battle, that would be a mistake.
These are the reasons the Patriots should be concerned about their Week 3 game against the Saints.
Alvin Kamara is arguably the most dynamic back in the NFL.
When you're talking about the best running backs in the NFL the conversation usually starts and ends with Alvin Kamara or Christian McCaffrey. While Kamara has had a slow start to the season, don't forget just how talented he is. In every season that he's played at least 15 games, he has totaled at least 1,500 total yards. Last season, his best, saw him score 21 touchdowns and put up over 1,600 yards. New England's front hasn't been great against the run and may not be athletic enough to cover Kamara in the passing game, so this could be a huge advantage for the Saints.
New England's offensive line has struggled early.
Heading into 2021, New England's offensive line would've been at the bottom of the list of concerns for most. However, through two weeks, the opposite has proved to be true. Mac Jones has been pressured or hit fairly often and a lot of that is coming from the right side. That's probably to be expected when your starting right tackle goes down just one series into the season. Trent Brown has still been limited on the practice reports with a calf injury this week, so it's far from a guarantee that he re-takes his spot on the right side. With Cameron Jordan bringing his pass-rushing prowess as well, New England might need to put an extra blocker on his side of the field.
Sean Payton may be one of the few coaches who can go toe-to-toe with Bill Belichick.
Among active head coaches, only three who have coached more than two seasons have a higher winning percentage than Sean Payton. Those coaches are Mike Tomlin, Sean McVay, and Bill Belichick. Like Belichick, Payton has had the fortune of working with one of the best quarterbacks of all time during his tenure. Without Brees, Payton has a 9-5 record, and two of those losses were in meaningless Week 17 games with benched starters. Without Brady, Belichick's record is just 63-74 including his four seasons with Cleveland. This game could very well come down to Payton's offensive genius vs. Belichick's defensive wizardry.
New Orleans is strong against the run.
The Patriots' rushing attack, the strength of their offense, may be stymied by a strong Saints' front. In the first two weeks, the Saints have held opposing teams to just 66 yards per game on the ground, which is the third-fewest behind only Tampa Bay and Carolina. The impressive aspect of this is that they've been forced to stopped Aaron Jones and McCaffrey. We mentioned how good McCaffrey is, but Jones is no slouch either. He led the league in rushing touchdowns (16) in 2019 and ran for 1,104 yards in 14 games last season. Damien Harris, while talented, hasn't proved to be the running back that those two are just yet, so it may be a tough afternoon for the Patriots' back.
The Patriots could be without one of their defensive leaders.
Matt Judon was spotted at practice Wednesday, but when the official report came out, the linebacker was listed as a DNP with a knee injury. While Judon did practice on a limited basis on Thursday, it is still concerning that he may not play in this game. New England's front has had a tough go of it, so not having their big free agent addition who appears to be one of the real leaders on defense should be a real concern for Patriots fans.
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