FIVE GAMES!!!!! Will tell the story of the 2011 Saints
 

1. Green Bay!!!!! It has rarely been done, Champs coming back to celebrate a Super Bowl Victory rarely every lose their opener, but that trend is gonna have to change if we stand any chance this season.

2, 3. Games vs Tampa and ATL in Tampa and ATL. I fully expect the Saints to win the most home games this season. But the road games against ATL and Tampa I think will be the key to the division

4. Rematch vs Indy!!! - I don't know where its at but this is our 09 Patriots game. Litmus test if you will beat indy, and the bandwagon will get full again.

5. Monday Night Football vs the Giants, I don't think it will get any bigger I think a win here gets us in the playoffs.

Six Games at stadiums, but the rest are DOME GAMES. We could walk to the playoffs if we get these five.

The Indy game is in the SuperDome

Most teams will be rusty early on. People out of position and mental mistakes unitl they settle into the schemes and into auto-mode knowing where their team mates are supposed to be. Payton til now has shown he knows how to get the Saints ready to play. If we start 5-1 we will be golden. If we start .500 we may struggle the rest of the way. Post-season is the goal. At that point its a brand new season.

I disagree with the basic premise of this.

We would not have put the Browns game on a "5 Games that will
make the 2010 season," but it ended up being, I think, a bit telling.

Nor would we have put the Dolphins game in the SB season in that list,
but that game, I thought, next to the Pats game, was our most revealing-- showed our great character.

But Im glad for this thread. Its interesting.

I will be living in Indy by the time we play them. The real litmus test is to see if I make it out of whatever sports bar I go to. Indy has something to prove not us.

So true. With a 16 game schedule, they all count. We could slap the crap out of all 5 of those teams, and then lose to Houston, Tenn, Chicago and Detroit.

The ONLY games I'd rank slightly more important than others are

1. Any divisional game

and then

2. NFC games

Cleveland and/or Arizona probably cost us home field advantage and a bye last year. With an extra week to rest injured players no one would have beaten us.

I think it will be interesting to see how the Packers respond after their SB win. Whereas most teams have the off season to get fat off their accomplishment of winning it all, this year focused more on the lockout than the Packs as the champs. I'm betting they are not as out of shape as your usual SB champs.

Of course, the lockout may change this completely.

Closest margin of victory, oh, 'bout 42 points. I'm with you. No more of this cardiac stuff. Let's bust some friggin skulls.

I'll never forget '89, when we opened with a 28-0 win over Dallas in Aikman's debut, then promptly lost to a poor-at-the-time Green Bay, and worse, Tampa when they wore orange (and sucked) in the game Hebert lost his 2 front teeth.

(I told him his teeth looked good a while back in Deanies, and he almost forgot what I was talking about it, and then I saw him smile when it clicked. He signed my Sports Illustrated cover "Saints Alive." You know that one.)

freakin Arizona... I forgot about that, thank you very much. still pissed. Who was that QB again?

bottom line. you're gonna have tests, Like the Pats. But when we play someone we're supposed to beat, lets kick the **** out of them!

Sorry, I thought I was talking about a championship team with swag. 12-4 gets this Division. I don't care how we get there and who we beat. These are just the most important games to me. I'm not saying it will be a cake walk. No game in the NFL is and if that is the way it came off them I apologize. But, this team is far superior in leadership and talent than most of the teams we will see this season. Just a fact.



If you go back and look at the browns game there is one reason that they won, and his name is Scott Fujita. Great player, knows the ins and outs of our offense and defense. How many picks Drew throw that day 3, 4 you don't think for a second Fujita helped the D-Coordinator call plays that would give them great looks against our Offense, and for that matter our Defense as well.