The New Orleans Saints are entering Week 17 with a "playoff mindset," as Derek Carr puts it. It's a story we've heard before.
The Saints had a similar state of mind entering each of the past three games. The first two came with wins over the lowly Panthers and Giants, but the positivity certainly didn't carry on the road in a 30-22 loss to the Rams that took the road to the playoffs out of New Orleans' hands entering the final two games.
"You’re just out there and you’re just playing. For some guys, the younger guys, you teach them how to be in that mindset early, and now they’re going to get a real taste of it," Carr said, "and so for me individually, experience helps, you know? I’ve been in my situation a couple of times and you know what it takes. I’m gonna go out there and give everything I have all week long and then on Sunday give my best that I can give and I know if I gave everything I have, you can live with that."
The team is aware of the longshot odds ahead of them. Even if they win their final two games to finish at 9-8, they'd need a Panthers win over Tampa in Week 18 to secure an NFC South title. There's also paths to a wild card, but those could end with one more win from the Rams and Seahawks.
The team, though, is keeping its focus on the Bucs, a group that has beaten the Saints once already this season and is riding a four-game winning streak complete with a blowout victory over the AFC South-leading Jaguars in Week 17.
It all boils down to a scenario that this veteran-laden team certainly didn't foresee heading into Week 1.
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"If you would’ve told me at the beginning of the year that we would be sitting at 7-8 and we didn’t control our own destiny to get to the playoffs, I would’ve called you silly," center Erik McCoy said.
Still, whether the road ends in the playoffs or not, a win over the Bucs in Week 17 would be a shot in the arm for a team that hasn't had much to celebrate over the past three seasons. For head coach Dennis Allen, it'd mean a chance at a winning season for the first time in his five years serving as a head coach. It took a notably weak schedule to get there, but it'd be a positive progression nonetheless that would likely confirm a third season as head coach in New Orleans.
A loss, particularly a bad one (see what happened when the Chargers got blown out by the Raiders earlier this season), and things could get dicey.
"I don’t like that [Tampa has] won two divisions in a row and then on the verge of another one," Saints GM Mickey Loomis said on WWL this week. "They’ve got a chance to do that. I don’t like it. None of us like it here. None of us, and certainly none of our fans like it, but, you know, we’ve got a chance to do something about it this weekend, so we’ll see what happens.”
At the end of the day, all the Saints can do is win their games and hope for the best. The worst scenario, as Juwan Johnson laid out, would be failing to win and then watching the pieces fall into place that'd have gotten the Saints into the postseason. Mission 1 is making sure that can't happen.
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"I know how important these games are," Johnson said. "You lose a game and it feels you’re an eternity back. ... You’ve got to be in playoff-mode, especially these last two games, because you lose, you’re done. That’s the season."
The Saints (7-8) visit the Bucs (8-7) on Sunday at noon in Raymond James Stadium.