Wild Card Recap: Saints Become Road Warriors

Narratives in sports are a funny thing. Most of the time they are overblown, but there are some that become a 'Death, Taxes' and team x losing to team y or losing in y condition.'  The latter became how people treated New Orleans Saints on the road especially in cold. People believed the Saints could not win a big game when they had to be away from the SuperDome. New Orleans could not really disagree as the facts were there with Saints going 8-8 since 2011 on the road. Well they shed some of the criticism beating Philadelphia on a chilly Saturday night in the city of Brotherly Love.

While their road failures have been an issue for New Orleans, kicking field goals have been a real problem for Saints this season. Garrett Hartley is currently looking for work after going 22/30 this season missing three field goals inside 30-39 and another four field goals inside 40-49 so it is not like Hartley missed field goals from deep distances rather he missed short yardage field goals. Credit to New Orleans for making sure it would be not be what came back to bite them in the ass in the playoffs. Shayne Graham was a rockstar on Saturday night drilling three field goals including the game-winner at the very end. Couple weeks ago, Graham did not have a job and now he is kicking field goals in the playoffs, what a world.

One of the more impressive things about New Orleans' win is they grinded out this victory. This was not a classic Saints game where they relied on big plays and a huge Drew Brees performance in the process.  Only twice did Brees have a lower quarterback rating yet New Orleans still found a way to find this football game. Further, Saints lost the turnover bout to with Philadelphia picking Brees off twice and still New Orleans came out ahead in this football game. Saints Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan gets a great deal of shit from people, but he deserves a ton of credit for the game plan he had against Philadelphia. He is the biggest reason why Saints were able to win with a negative turnover ratio and a poor Brees performance.

Philadelphia only had one play of 25 yards or more. Eagles make their living off of those plays as they had 62 this year leading the NFL. DeSean Jackson usually on the receiving end of the big play assault was held in check with 53 yards on three catches with 40 of them on one play. Even without Saints cornerback Keenan Lewis whom went out of the game earlier with a concussion, they were able to hold Jackson in check. New Orleans also held LeSean McCoy at by as the league leader in rushing only had 77 yards averaging 3.8 yards per carry. Ryan's yeoman effort on Saturday night makes me think this New Orleans team might be step up for a deep playoff run even though they will be battling the elements for all four weeks of the playoff season.

Hell of fight by Philadelphia this season. Nobody really knew what to expect with Chip Kelly and this team. When they started off season 3-5, many people started writing off this team and people began to criticize Kelly's style as a coach. Eagles responded by only losing one game the rest of the season and will definitely be a Super Bowl contender in a couple years with a couple more pieces. They have a plan in place, and might be one of the most exciting teams moving forward. Expect to see this team a great deal in primetime next season.

New Orleans heads back to Seattle for their second game, and place that has given them all sorts of trouble in the Pete Carroll era. All week they will see the Marshawn Lynch run, or the game in December when Seattle wiped the floor with them. But given how New Orleans gutted out a playoff road win, I would not doubt this team at all.

Charlie.