It’s playoff weekend! The Saints face the Vikings at home on Sunday at noon - and the Voice of the Saints Zach Strief has a challenge for the Who Dat Nation to make sure the Superdome is as hostile an environment as possible for the visiting team.The Saints players say this isn’t a revenge game but fans don’t exactly see it that way.“I am tired of seeing the Minneapolis Miracle highlight film, and I want to bury that and put it away forever!” Newell said.“Listen, that’s easy, low-hanging fruit for people who don’t want to spend the time to actually want to write a story on something important, right?” Strief said. “Nobody said it better than Marshawn Lattimore this week - nobody cares anymore! They didn’t win the Super Bowl, we didn’t win the Super Bowl, it’s irrelevant, let it go!”“So let’s talk about what’s important in this game - first, injuries. Minnesota has a couple of guys still not at 100%, they seem to be a little concerned about that, or at least the oddsmakers are. What’s the deal with that?”“The name that really sticks out that you’re interested in is Eric Kendricks, their middle linebacker. He’s been outstanding this year… he’s played at a really high level for them, but he’s got a quad injury. He came out of the Packers game pretty late last week. I don’t know that he’s healthy. Maybe he’s gonna find a way to play, but a lot of times, that doesn't go so well, and the real bullets start flying, those soft tissue things can get aggravated pretty easily. It will be interesting to see how healthy Dalvin Cook will be, too. He’s been banged up all season long, and the big question is, can you take that first big Demario Davis hit and pop up off the ground? When push comes to shove, are you really ready?”“Timing is everything,” Newell continued. “On our side of the ball, we seem to be peaking at the right time - we’re getting everybody back this week.”“We talked about this a couple of weeks ago,” Strief said. “We did a good job of managing and holding some of these guys back. I think Von Bell could have played last week. I think Kiko Alonso could have come back a little bit faster. It actually reminds me a lot of the 2009 season, where the same thing happened. We had a bunch of injuries, and there were a lot of guys at the end of of that season that could have played before the playoffs but didn’t. It’s a little different than the situation the Vikings are in, where they’re still not sure about their guys. Eli Apple is the one outlier right now we’re not sure about, but Janoris Jenkins is filling the role.”“Talk to us about the 12th Man,” Newell said. “I think it’s important that we just raise some hell in that Dome on Sunday. I know that gets you excited up there in the booth. And it’s good to hear all that noise in the background too!”“There’s no excuses! There’s no LSU, everybody this week needs to show up early and rested. There’s a sign in the Saints facility, it says ‘Uncommon.’ I think that means that normal people can’t do the things you need to do to be successful at this level. You have to have uncommon discipline, uncommon work ethic. We need our fanbase to take uncommon precautions and not come in and be asleep for the first half of this game. People need to go to bed Satuday at 10pm, get a good breakfast and get to the Dome. I think the Vikings feel like it’s not an issue to play us at noon, and I need people to be aware of that.”“I’ll go to bed early Saturday and get up and have a couple of Bloody Marys so I can be loose for that game!” Newell said. “That’s my plan!”
