It’s tough to take much satisfaction from the Green Bay Packers’ blundering loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night — at least for New Orleans Saints fans, no matter how many interceptions Jordan Love threw. This was a team the black and gold had on the ropes back in Week 3, with Derek Carr’s offense holding a 17-0 lead that felt unsurmountable.
Then Carr got hurt and couldn’t return. The offense punted four consecutive times with Jameis Winston under center and Blake Grupe missed his only field goal of the season as the margin for error shrunk defensively. Pass interference fouls on Alontae Taylor and Isaac Yiadom gifted Green Bay 67 of the 80 yards they gained on their first scoring drive, and a rare missed tackle by Demario Davis let the Packers cut the lead to just a single score. You know the rest (and if you missed it, read our full recap here).
What matters now is that the Saints lost a very winnable game to a bad team in a golden opportunity to pad their record against conference opponents. Letting this game get away from them could come back to haunt the Saints when the playoff picture solidifies in December and January.
There are currently eight teams in the conference with three or more wins, but various tiebreaking procedures like divisional standings and conference records leave New Orleans at the bottom of that group. If the playoffs started today, the Saints would be left on the outside looking in. For the sake of illustrating that point, here’s the way-too-early NFC playoff picture after Week 5’s games:
- 5-0 Philadelphia Eagles (1) on bye
- 5-0 San Francisco 49ers (2) vs. 3-2 Dallas Cowboys (7)
- 4-1 Detroit Lions (3) vs. 3-2 Atlanta Falcons (6)
- 3-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4) vs. 3-1 Seattle Seahawks (5)
And the 3-2 Saints would be left watching from home. The good news is that they have plenty of conference games left; they’re in the middle of a four-game stretch of matchups with AFC teams leading up to their bye week. They’ll come out of that midseason break with seven consecutive games with NFC teams, four of them at home, with four matchups against division opponents. That’s going to be a great opportunity to strike back and disrupt the standings.
But it all starts now. The Saints must remain focused and take care of business against the teams lined up in front of them. The next step forward will fall Sunday against the Houston Texans.
