The 24-hour rule was a tad harder to adhere too for the Saints this week. The loss in Philadelphia on Sunday snapped some built-up mojo which had carried them to a 9 game win streak.
"You step back and it's a feeling that we're not used to,” explained receiver Emmanuel Sanders. “And, we had the number one seed and we lost the number one seed. So, that kind of affects you a little bit more as well. But, it's one of those things you just got to get over.”
The Saints can’t still be thinking about what went wrong when with the defending Super Bowl champs coming to town week 15. Back-to-back losses for New Orleans would likely assure they would not be able to take back the top spot in the conference from Green Bay with just 3 games left to play.
“I can tell you this, one thing about this team is that it don't matter if we got the number one seed or not,” Sanders said confidently.
“Wherever we go, they're going to have to give us their best shot in order to beat us. And so, yeah, the number one seed, it sounds good.
You get to be in New Orleans, home field advantage. But, at the end of the day, it don't matter.”
Sanders went on to explain there is no home field advantage anymore this season due to the pandemic.
“A football field is 100 yards, certain amount wide. You got 11 players on the field, we got to go out and try to win a game. Nothing happens with the COVID, protocols, like fans, it's really no different. There's no crowd noise, nothing crazy that's going to take you out of the element, besides the fact that you got to travel."
Winning the division would at least assure New Orleans one playoff game at home. A victory Sunday against the Chiefs would give the Saints an 11-3 record and the NFC South for a 4th straight season.
They can also earn the division crown this week if Tampa loses at Atlanta, of if both the Saints and Bucs contests finish in ties. Hey, ANYTHING is possible in 2020.
