The 2017 New Orleans Saints will get to play in the NFL's postseason in 2018.
The third meeting of the year between the Carolina Panthers and the Saints is set for Sunday afternoon.
All week long I have heard people tell me how hard it is to beat an opponent three times, but in the modern era of pro football, when a team has played another for the third time after beating them twice in the regular season, they are 13-7 overall.
Explain to me how much confidence a team has when they have to go on the road to play a team they haven’t beat the past two times out?
That sounds great to fans of the black-and-gold. They will make their voices heard Sunday afternoon as the 12th man and Saints fans are feeling good about their beloved team.
After sitting middle of the pack for three straight years, the 2017 run came unexpectedly in the toughest division in the NFC, but the Saints of 2018 will not be a team that unexpectedly is a contender.
New Orleans Saints officials are quietly basking in the spotlight of an 11-5 overall record with an NFC South division title this season.
After three straight seasons with a 7-9 overall record and yearly reports, and some of them were correct, that head coach Sean Payton was having his agent actively look for a way out of New Orleans, the Saints management team feels as though they have righted the ship and better days are ahead.
“You can say we don’t read or hear about it, but we would be lying saying we didn’t hear or read about it,” said a Saints official last week. “It’s easy to say fire the coach, fire the general manager, fire the assistants and sign this player and that player, but when you are in the position to do so, it’s not so easy to do. It’s just not print or television but also the social media elements. If you listened or read what most posted or wrote they wanted everybody gone after last season. We were patient with the process and it paid off this year. And we got great support from the Benson family. Our offense again was a top-5 offense in 2017, second overall in total offense, and we got our running game going.
For the third time under Sean (Payton) we rushed for over 2,000 yards (2,070) and we did that really well in 2009 and 2011. Drew (Brees) had a marvelous year again and certainly what we have in Michael Thomas, Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara gave us a potent offense again averaging 28 points per game. Our offensive line was tremendous and they are our unsung heroes despite the injuries and we lost one of our top players and leaders in Zach Strief.”
The Saints official said the key to their success in 2017 was improvement on special teams and on defense.
“We made some coaching changes that helped out, but really it was the decisions as an organization we made personnel wise that really helped out our defense and in particular the reshuffling of our linebacking unit,” the Saints official said. “Overall they did a real solid job against the run and also in pass defense. We got 42 quarterback sacks this year, 20 pass interceptions, we averaged giving up just a little over 20 points per game (20.4) when in the past few years it was in the high twenties and we were plus-7 in the very important giveaway/takeaway statistic.
We haven’t totally fixed our defense yet, but with the additions of Marshon Lattimore, Marcus Williams, Vonn Bell, the development of Ken Crawley, Alex Okafor was having a strong season before he got hurt and a spectacular year from Cameron Jordan and everyone understood we have made good progress. We saw Wil Lutz develop into one of the top kickers in the NFC and (Thomas) Morstead had another top year. Throw in the improvement in our coverage units and no huge breakdowns upfront and we were solid there. And I think we found a kickoff return man in Alvin Kamara. Alvin (Kamara) is something special in space. Again, every year is a little different, and we will address some upgrades in personnel, but we are still in the hunt right now and it’s a great feeling for our fans. Our fans played such a huge part of our success at home and also on the road. But the defense has been the story this year.”
The Saints official is correct in saying that a major part of their success was the quick development of the 2017 draft class in Lattimore, Ryan Ramczyk, Williams, Kamara, Alex Anzalone, Trey Hendrickson and the potential of defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad.
The defense came through big under defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, despite losing standout defensive tackle Nick Fairley before the season started due to a heart ailment and cornerback Delvin Breaux to a lower leg break and watching starters in defensive end Alex Okafor, outside linebacker Alex Anzalone, middle linebacker A.J. Klein, strong safety Kenny Vaccaro and top reserve/special teams linebacker Nate Stupar go down to injuries during the 2017 season.
Before the season started, nobody could have imagined the defense of the Saints in 2017 would be the top storyline this year.
Playoff talk, favorable matchups, playing excellent defense and running the ball, hey, that’s something we all want to be talking about in January. The talk of change in the front office, change in head coach, Drew Brees is too old and vast personnel changes are silent in early 2018.
Finally, good news in January and even better, the building blocks for future years are in place for the black-and-gold.
KEEPING LOUISIANA TALENT AT HOME
In the past few years, Alabama has been able to pick off some of the top prep football talent in the state of Louisiana.
The Tide did land West Monroe High School standout athlete Slade Bolden, but LSU has done a terrific job in the Class of 2018 to keep the top prep talents in-state.
In the rankings of 247Sports, LSU has landed seven of the top 10 prospects in the state already and Saturday afternoon they got a verbal commitment from the top defensive back in the state of Louisiana in Kelvin Joseph from Scotlandville Magnet High School in Baton Rouge.
Joseph selected the Tigers over Alabama, Clemson, Florida State and Auburn.
Here is the 247Sports Top 10 Rated Players in Louisiana for the Class of 2018
1. JaMarr Chase, receiver, Archbishop Rummel, Undecided
2. Terrance Marshall, receiver, Parkway High School, LSU
3. Justin Rogers, quarterback, Parkway High School, TCU
4. Kelvin Joseph, safety/cornerback, Scotlandville Magnet High (verbally committed to LSU)
5. Micah Baskerville, inside linebacker, Evangel Christian Academy, LSU
6. Davin Cotton, defensive tackle, Evangel Christian Academy, LSU
7. Damone Clark, inside/outside linebacker, Southern Lab, LSU
8. Kenan Jones, receiver, Berwick High, LSU
9. Jaray Jenkins, receiver, Jena High School, LSU
10. Cameron Wire, offensive tackle, East Ascension High, LSU
-- NFL analyst Mike Detillier is based in Raceland.