The New Orleans Saints are hanging on by a thread. And there’s a scenario where they fall off the cliff altogether. If the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can take care of business against the Arizona Cardinals this week and if the Saints lose to the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans will be eliminated from the playoffs. Their only path to the postseason lies in winning the NFC South, and this elimination scenario takes that possibility off the table.
If they knock off the Cardinals, Tampa Bay will have won as many games (7) as the Saints will be able to win themselves after a loss to the Browns (putting them at 5-10). The Buccaneers could lose each of their last two games and end up in a tie with New Orleans at the end of the season (assuming the Saints win their last two games), and Tampa Bay owns the tiebreaker with a pair of head-to-head wins. Other teams competing for wild-card spots have already won more games than New Orleans would be able to win themselves after another loss, so the NFC South title is their only path forward.
Yikes. The Saints kick off in Cleveland on Saturday at noon CT, but the Bucs and Cardinals won’t match up until Sunday night (at 7:20 p.m. CT). So if New Orleans loses, fans will have something to watch for the next day. And the outlook is grim: the Cardinals are starting third-string quarterback Trace McSorley against Tom Brady’s Buccaneers after backup Colt McCoy suffered a concussion filling in for Kyler Murray, who is out for the year with a knee injury.
So there’s a startlingly real chance that the Saints’ fortunes end up weighing on McSorley’s shoulders. But they can control their own destiny (to an extent) with a win on Saturday against the Browns. Let’s hope they can handle it on their own and keep those playoff hopes alive.
