SaintFanInATLHELL

I'm just not so sure about that. We go into the bye 4-0 then we know what we have. But 3 road games, and a date with the champs doesn't mean that anything less is by definition a bust.

Every season has 6 division games, 12 conference games (6 division, 4 outside NFC division (NFC North this year), and 2 record placement (LA Rams,Washington)), and 4 AFC outside division (AFC East) games each year. Priority never changes because of tiebreakers. Specifically in order:

0. Overall record
1. Head to head
2. Division games
3. Common opponents
4. Conference games

So the 10 critical games each season are the 6 conference games, and the 4 outside NFC division games as the 6 division games affect every category, and the other 4 affect every category except division games. So let's look at the first 4 games:

@Minnesota (outside NFC division)
New England (AFC)
@Carolina (Division)
@Miami (AFC)

The two AFC games only affect categories 0 and 3. Minnesota affects all but 2. Carolina affects all 5 categories. So Carolina is the must win, Minnesota nearly so, and the two AFC games not so much.

Point is that 3-1 or even 2-2 may not be too damaging depending on the mix of wins and losses.

The Saints season is the final 7 games. 4 division, 6 conference, 5 common opponents. That's winning time.

SFIAH

Super Bowl Championships: New Orleans Saints:1, Carolina:0, Atlanta Chokers: STILL ZERO

Only Atlanta choked in an unchokable situation... Life is definitely good.