New Orleans Saints: Predicting the final quarter of the Saints’ season
By Jason Reed
Week 14 vs. San Francisco 49ers
As we mentioned, the winner of this game will have a good shot of being the top seed in the NFC. There is even more on the line for the 49ers, as they could fall all the way to the wild-card spot if they lose this game and the Seahawks stay hot.
There is even the possibility of the 49ers winning this game but then losing to the Seahawks. If Seattle wins out in that situation, they would be the top seed. Regardless, with two tiebreakers, if the Saints win it will mostly secure their fate.
So what should we expect in this game? The 49ers are coming off of a three-point road loss to the Baltimore Ravens that only showed how good this 49ers team is. Baltimore has been running through everyone and the 49ers were the first team in over a month to limit the damage and make the Baltimore offense look human.
They still allowed Lamar Jackson and Mark Ingram to rack up the running yards but they played a perfect bend, but don’t break, defense that challenged Jackson to beat them with his arm.
The most concerning part about this 49ers defense is the pass-rush and how they punish teams on third down. With a banged-up offensive line, there is a good chance that the 49ers get to Drew Brees often in this game, and as we have seen this season, Brees is getting older and cannot handle the pressure as good as he once did.
The cure for the Saints is to get the running backs involved in running plays and check-down passes, which is great for New Orleans, as they have arguably the best running back tandem in the league.
Jimmy Garoppolo is a good quarterback but he does still make mistakes in his throw. The raucous Superdome crowd will get to Jimmy G and the Saints’ defense will capitalize to give the offense good starting field position several times.
I think San Francisco kicks a field goal to take the lead late in the game and Brees does what he does best and leads the offense down the field for a game-winning touchdown.