With their homefield advantage moved over to Jacksonville, missing stars and even more questions up and down the roster, the Saints weren't supposed to beat up the Green Bay Packers.
And they didn't, because "beat up" isn't a strong enough term for how thoroughly the Saints dominated Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay on both sides of the ball. The game was shades of a similar beatdown from the last time the Saints visited Florida, even down to the score of 38-3.
The result was surprising. Unless you ask Alvin Kamara, that is.
"I'm coming in every year thinking we're gonna be the sh**," Alvin Kamara said.
Still sporting his signature white tape hanging off the back of his left arm, Kamara says he never worries about who's there or who's not. Whether it's a now-retired legend at quarterback in Drew Brees, or a star wide receiver on the mend from offseason surgery.
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That was shown clearly when durable center Erik McCoy went down with a leg injury on the first drive of the game. Cesar Ruiz, a center in college, slid over seamlessly to the position he had yet to play at the NFL level. Fellow second-year lineman Calvin Throckmorton took over at guard. The first drive bogged down for a field goal by Aldrick Rosas, another fill-in as Wil Lutz recovers from surgery. The kick went through, and from that point on the OL didn't miss a beat, holding the Packers without a sack and allowing just three QB hits all game.
"[Ruiz] has kind of got an approach to the game where he's kinda waiting for a challenge," Kamara said, noting that the offense didn't change at all with the shuffle. "I guess first game, that was a challenge. But he did well, so it's encouraging to see that."
Kamara also knows there won't be any teams feeling sorry for the Saints as they navigate their displacement to Fort Worth to start the season. The Saints have been sharing TCU's facilities the past few weeks, and held their home-opener the Jaguars' TIAA Bank Field.
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"They're not gonna postpone the game. They're not gonna say 'oh, the Saints had a disaster in New Orleans. Let's just' ... it don't matter," Kamara said, the team still had to handle their business.
That included the star running back, who had a reasonably light statistical game by his lofty standards. He carried the ball 20 times for 83 yards, and caught another four passes for 8 yards and one of Jameis Winston's 5 passing touchdowns.
"I think everybody was locked in," he continued.
Packers fans were clearly more than willing to ship down to Florida for the game, making up a very healthy portion of the crowd. But it was never really an advantage for the "road team," as the Packers didn't give the crowd much of a reason to cheer. By the final minutes the crowd remaining was primarily Saints fans -- still a good number -- who put out a Who Dat chant that might've tricked broadcast viewers into thinking the stands were still packed.
That meaning behind that home energy on the road wasn't lost on the Saints players, something Winston made sure to address right off the bat when he spoke post-game after the first win of his tenure as the starting quarterback.
The inspiration came from not only the people who made it out to the game, but for everyone still recovering from Hurricane Ida across south Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
"We did that for them," Winston said. " We knew how much it would mean to get a victory. They’ve been through so much, and for us to celebrate this victory with them is amazing. Hats off to [New Orleans] for their resilience. They inspired us to go out there and ball."
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Follow Jeff Nowak on Twitter @Jeff_Nowak or contact him by email at jeffrey.nowak@audacy.com