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The New Orleans Saints hit the road again this week and the Who Dat Nation will close its collective eyes, rub its gris-gris and hope for the best.

All NFL teams play better at home than on the road, but the Saints might be the most Jekyll-and-Hyde of the bunch.

One Monday they're getting pummeled by the Seahawks. Six days later they're pounding the Panthers. They fail to score more than two touchdowns at New York, Atlanta and Seattle, then come home and score three touchdowns in one quarter against the NFL's top-ranked defense at the Superdome on Sunday night.

To the Saints, venue is everything. But why? How can a team's execution be affected so dramatically just by changing stadiums? What gives?

Often, it's a team's hearing.

Crowd noise, Saints right tackle Zach Strief said, "is more of a factor than anything else."

Wind, rain and wintry weather can wreck havoc with the synchronicity of the Saints' high-powered passing attack. Familiarity -- or lack thereof -- with a stadium's lighting and playing surface also comes into play. And there's something to be said about the comfort of sleeping in your own bed and dressing at your regular locker.

But nothing disrupts a team's execution like a disruptive, unruly crowd.

The Saints are particularly vulnerable because of their sophisticated offensive system, said Trent Dilfer, a former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst.

More than most teams, the Saints lean on cerebral quarterback Drew Brees to change plays at the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped. In the Saints' offense, Brees often will call two plays in the huddle and then designate through audibles which one to run after he surveys the defensive alignment. The idea is to run the most potentially successful play possible.

This works fine in the Superdome, when the home crowd is on its best behavior. But on the road, the "kill system," as its known in football parlance, isn't nearly as useful.

"(The Saints) control the tempo offensively at home," Dilfer said earlier this week. "... When you get to the line of scrimmage (in the kill system) you have to communicate a lot of stuff. At home they can do that easily, and it's seamless how they operate. Then they go on the road, they're trying to implement their kill system in an arena where you can't communicate."

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SaintsBro

Any chance Jazzy Jeff Duncan gets to beat the old "Sean Payton is arrogant" drum, he beats the living ____ out of it. That quote from Dilfer, at the end of the article, you know that made Duncan's whole month to hear that.

TheOak

So many flaws in one little article.

Danno

Lots of that going around lately. And not just obscure blogs either.

halloween 65

Communication Breakdown- Led Zepplin sang that. Good tune.

Choupique

i think the reason teams lose games is men impose their will on each other.

any... given... sunday.

even atlanta beats somebody now and then.

NOLA54

The Saints are a good enough team that they should be able to work their way through their road deficiencies. To me, it is all about mental toughness. This is what will carry them to the NFC championship & beyond.

WHODATINCA

I think it is interesting that after SEA, Brees said communication wasn't a problem and his RT says "hearing" on the road is a problem.

One thing I can tell you is that if we had a run game in Seattle and our defense had shown up -- we win that game. Noise wasn't the issue with our defense. SEA is a hard team to run on ( thats for sure ), but even with a little better running game ( 86 yards ) and a defense -- SF beat SEA ( okay at home -- but SF doesn't have our offense in any way shape or form ). Our passing yards were about the same as SF against SEA. In my mind, our defense is holding up their end of the deal. They are 5th in the league based on PTS/G. In points per game, our offense is tied for 7th in the league. Our offense needs to get better. It's disappointing, since we know they know how.

Shutdown defense in 2017 = Championship!