SmashMouth

It took the New Orleans Saints a matter of about 15 or 20 minutes to spin their Week 1 loss in Atlanta forward by looking to how they responded in the past when dropping a season opener.

"It reminds me of 2011 when we were at Green Bay," linebacker Junior Galette told me. "A loss, close call. We picked up the slack and bounced back. It's all we can do right now."

Drew Brees used his freakishly quick recall by spelling out what happened after the Saints lost 42-34 to the Packers at Lambeau Field to the defending Super Bowl champions. The Saints rebounded by rattling off four consecutive wins en route to a 13-3 regular season and an NFC South title.

You can't blame the Saints for mentally leaning on that experience throughout the week of preparation as New Orleans takes on the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday afternoon. It's about mimicking 2011, just don't dare mention the notion of falling to 0-2.

Sean Payton scoffed at the mention of avoiding an 0-2 start, saying he's not dealing with hypotheticals. An 0-2 record seemed like the boogie man.

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