SmashMouth

For the second week in a row, the New Orleans Saints could pay the price for not nailing down a first or second NFC playoff seed in the divisional round on Saturday.

Instead of playing in the climate-controlled Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the sixth-seeded Saints will take on the top-seeded Seattle Seahawks in CenturyLink Field — where rain and wind could play havoc with the Saints’ passing game.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the forecast called for a 100-percent chance of rain with the wind out of the south-southwest at 21 mph. A high temperature of 48 is expected.

The Saints had to deal with temperatures in the mid- to low-20s in Saturday’s 26-24 wild-card victory against the Philadelphia Eagles, but survived to set up the game with the Seahawks.

Saints coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees often talk about being more concerned with wind, which was the topic Wednesday during Payton’s daily news conference.

“The wind means a little bit more; I think you pay close attention to that,” Payton said. “How long can you make a quarter last when you’re with the wind? How quick can you make a quarter go by when you are against it?

“It’s all field-position-related,” he said. “If it gets (stronger than) 15 miles an hour, it impacts what’s going on for two quarters.”

‘Can you hear me now?’
The Saints may again use specially made earplugs to combat the Seahawks’ boisterous fans, who set a Guinness World Record for crowd noise in running the decibel level up to 137.6 for a Dec. 2 game against the Saints.

“We will see,” Payton, whose team was drubbed 34-7 that night, said when asked if they will use them again. “Look, I don’t know how much worked well the last time. I think it helps with regards to the constant noise, but we’ll kind of see how we approach this one.”

Brees said the earplugs worked fine for the Saints, who got the idea from Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings when they used them in the 2009 NFC title game in the Superdome.

“Yes, they definitely quiet things,” Brees said. “I think there’s definitely something to them.”

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