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Did Saints bye week come at right time, or will it kill momentum? Time will tell



BY ROD WALKER | RWALKER@THEADVOCATE.COM OCT 15, 2018 - 5:46 PM

A.J. Klein spent the week in the mountains in North Carolina with his wife.

Michael Thomas made the trip back to Ohio State and watched his alma mater beat Minnesota.

Cam Jordan went home to Arizona and spent time riding his bike.

Now that recess is over, the Saints look to keep up their recent success after a bye week when they travel to face the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

Since the 2009 Super Bowl season, the Saints are 8-2 coming off a bye week. It's tied for the best winning percentage (with Baltimore) in the league during that span.

Sean Payton doesn't have a secret formula to why his team has avoided any type of rust after its open date.

"I don't know that I can put a hand on it," Payton said. "I think each team's different and there's a give and take with what you want to try to get done in advance (of the bye week) and then also getting guys away from the building to kind of recharge their battery if you will."

About 10 years ago, Peyton consulted with current Chiefs coach Andy Reid (when Reid was coaching the Philadelphia Eagle) and got some pointers on how to handle the week off. Reid has compiled a remarkable 16-3 record after the bye week in his days in both Philadelphia and Kansas City.

"He's someone that I think a lot of," Payton said. "He's had a lot of success in this league and his record after the bye week was real strong, and we chatted a little bit and he just talked about what he did and we kind of followed that a little bit."

Defensive end Alex Okafor says Payton giving the team the entire week off helps. When Okafor played with the Arizona Cardinals, the team would practice one day during the off week.

"As a player, you see your coach taking care of you like that and you want to go out there the next week and say 'OK, we are not going to blow this, we are not going to ruin it.' We take advantage of the rest and come back fresh," Okafor said. "It's not just rest physically, but it's good rest mentally. It gets your mind fresh and gets you ready to lock back in."

Tight end Ben Watson, who started his career with the Patriots in 2004, remembers when the open date wasn't all about rest.

"I remember the days when you loathed the bye week because you practiced every single day and it was like training camp again," Watson said. "With coach (Bill) Belichick, we didn't know if we were going to get three days off or two days off."

That was back before the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, which requires players have four consecutive days off during the off week.

Players like Klein appreciates that Payton gave the team all six days off.

"Getting to go home and take time away and reset our clocks and our minds and get away from football a little bit, that's important, Klein said. "We come back in here on Monday and get to working and moving around and by Wednesday we have got the kinks out. When Wednesday hits, we are ready to roll and get back in football mode. We needed the time to recharge."

The Saints are riding a four-game winning streak, with the hopes that this year's open date has similar results to last year, when the Saints won two straight heading into the bye week and then came back and reeled off six more consecutive wins. Perhaps even more promising is that the calendar has flipped to October. The Saints have never had a losing record in October during the Payton era. They went 4-0 last October.

"If we can keep it rolling like we did last year, we will be in a better place," said Cam Jordan.

The Saints are coming off their most complete game of the season, a 43-19 dismantling of the Redskins.

Will the bye come at an inopportune time and slow things down? Or did it come right when the players needed to recharge their batteries?

"Momentum is big in this league, whether it's in a particular game or a couple weeks in the season," said defensive back Chris Banjo. "I feel like our last game we were striking on all cylinders. But we can still do a lot better. The bye week is a great time to get back to the fundamentals. It gives you a chance to remember why the team is where it is, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. It gets you back to the foundation and gets your body back."

While having the bye closer to the middle of the season is more ideal, Klein is OK with the Saints getting theirs after Week 5.

"Training camp here is difficult, so after five weeks everyone is ready for a little reset," Klein said. "Eleven more weeks to go. We are ready for this push to get to the playoffs. We are ready for this grind."

K Major

"Training camp here is difficult, so after five weeks everyone is ready for a little reset," Klein said. "Eleven more weeks to go. We are ready for this push to get to the playoffs. We are ready for this grind."

There you go Klein.

Believe your eyes. Mine are telling me the truth.

This Sean P & Brees led offense isn't the one to suddenly go 2-3 & I don't really care how bad the defense performed (they continue to get better each week) early on in the season. I don't think the bye killed any momentum.

Good teams find a way. Yep, keep grinding.

“Winning is a habit, but losing is too.” Russell Wilson

dizzle88

Right time I'd say, Injuries were starting to creep up.

The Dude

Even if we do lose due to “momentum loss” our bye couldn’t have come at a better time from an injury standpoint. Rather lose this one and give them a chance to heal than go straight up against the Ravens with lingering injuries. Stallworth, Lattimore, Kamara all need a break.

Rugby Saint II

If I recall correctly this is our latest bye in years. We have taken a beating and the players needed time to heal and just take time off. This gives the coaches extra time to study film and game plan not just for this game but identify tendencies from the teams we will play later.