The New Orleans Saints (3-5) and Carolina Panthers (3-5) play Sunday at Caesars Superdome. Here are four key factors it will take for Saints to win this game between the two teams leading the NFC South.
Get to Bryce
Panthers’ quarterback Bryce Young has struggled against the Saints. He’s 1-5 against them, including 0-3 in the Dome. His only win was in 2024 in the game that led to Dennis Allen being fired. Saints should be able to get to him. Young has been sacked 26 times this season, fourth most in the NFL. He’s been sacked 14 times just in the last three weeks. So Chase Young and Carl Granderson should have a good chance to add to their sack numbers that rank among the best in the NFL. Young’s 8 sacks are second in the league, while Granderson’s 7.5 are tied for third.
Keep running
The Saints’ running game made giant strides last week. Credit Audric Estime for much of that success. Estime, who the Saints claimed off waivers five day before last week’s game against Cleveland, rushed for 72 yards and the Saints finished with 160 yards on the ground. The Saints still rank just 26th in he league in rushing (95.3 yards per game) though. Now they get Travis Etienne back from his hamstring injury. Etienne hasn’t played since the Week 3 loss to the Raiders. It will be interesting to see how Kellen Moore divides the carries between Estime, Etienne and Alvin Kamara. But it seems like a good problem to have.
Give Shough time
Tyler Shough’s first NFL win as a starter came last year against the Panthers in Charlotte. Shough and the Saints beat Carolina again in the Dome in December. In his two wins against the Panthers as a rookie, he completed 43 of 59 passes for 554 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. The only concern is the Panthers sacked him five times in the second game. The Saints had to reshuffle the o-line this week after center Erik McCoy’s bicep injury. Cesar Ruiz slides over to center and Jeremiah Wright will take over Ruiz’s guard spot. The Panthers are tied for last with the Dolphins in sacks (12).
Keep the momentum
The Saints haven’t put together back-to-back wins together this season. Favored by 2.5 points, a win Sunday puts the Saints in sole possession of first place in the dreadful NFC South. The schedule gets much tougher with three straight games against teams with winning records up next: at Chicago, at Cincinnati and home against Green Bay. The Saints will need to play much cleaner than they did last week when they won despite losing the turnover battle 2-0. The Panthers, last season’s division champs, are on a 3-game losing streak. The Saints desperately need to hand Carolina its fourth straight loss.
This Saints coverage is presented in part by BankPlus.
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