This week sees the 0-1 (yes I said 0-1) New England Patriots travel to New Orleans to face Drew Brees and the Saints in what is a highly anticipated showdown. After the Patriots were defeated by the Chiefs 42-27 on opening night people have raised questions around Tom Brady and co. The same happened when the Pats were defeated 41-14 by the Chiefs back in 2014 but the doubters were silenced when New England went on the dismantle the Bengals 41-17 the week after and finish the season by winning the Super Bowl.
Now that Tom Brady has turned 40 though people are starting to doubt him again despite his unprecedented success in the past 3 years for someone of his age and with the talent around him I don't see the Patriots derailing anytime soon. They always bounce back in style and the Saints could be in for a spanking later on today when the two teams meet especially when you look at the holes in their defence. Drew Brees is an outstanding quarterback and one of the top 5 to play the position in the past 10-20 years so he could keep this game close but I expect the Pats to come away with the victory.
Both the Patriots and the Saints lost to teams who's quarterbacks were questioned in Alex Smith and Sam Bradford but the two both outplayed their counterparts with stellar performances so credit needs to be given to both of those guys for their play in week one. Both teams will be looking for a much needed victory to get back to .500 and I think we can expect to see lights out play from the Saints and the Patriots. The key factor here is that New England acquired New Orleans' best weapon in the off-season and I think Brandin Cooks will have a huge game today along with Chris Hogan now that Danny Amendola is out injured. Brady will also look to get Gronk back in the mix after he was shut out for the majority of the game by the Chiefs D.
You can see though that Cooks is the most likely to be the deciding factor when Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro said "We can't let Cooks get a deep ball". This shows that the Saints know how important he could be on those deep plays down the middle and Drew Brees himself knows how speedy the wideout is from their time playing together. Even if he is somehow shutdown today against his former team then the speed of Hogan will exploit the Saints' weak defence. I expect to see a lot of mismatches caused today when New England's offense takes the field and it will be a long day for the Saints.
On the flip side New Orleans 3 keys to victory are for Brees to "have a day" which he is most certainly capable of. Number 2 would be to force turnovers so they can keep their defence fresh and off the field to give Brees and the offense more opportunities to score points which would lead on to key point number 3 which is establishing the run. As key as Drew Brees is to the Saints offense we saw Sean Payton bring Adrian Peterson in over the summer to go along with Mark Ingram and rookie running back Alvin Kamara as New Orleans looks to establish a more balanced attack in order to get this team back to the top of the NFC South and become more successful again. In years gone by Brees has been magnificent but his defence has let him down so the Saints need to improve on their clock management by having a run game and not always go full guns blazing.
If the Saints do establish the run and force turnovers against the Patriots then they could cause an upset plus the Superdome isn't exactly the easiest place to go and win on the road so it won't be easy pickings for the Pats in some peoples opinion. In my opinion though even though it could be a shootout at times between Brady and Brees I think the run game for both teams is key in order to unlock the passing game and whoever manages to establish that will win the game. It could well be a repeat of when the Pats beat the saints 30-27 at Gillette Stadium back in 2013 when Brady hit Kenbrell Tompkins for the game winner with 5 seconds left.
That day the Patriots had the likes of Michael Hoomanawanui who now plays for the Saints and slot receiver Austin Collie on their offense who fun fact is only one of 5 players to catch a pass from both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning (Torrance Small, Jermaine Wiggins, Wes Welker and defensive Tackle Dan Klecko are the others). Now though the Patriots have lots of weapon at their disposal and I think they will play a big part in the Patriots getting their first win of the season today. Their defence also has lots of question marks after being torn up by Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill and Alex Smith but Bill Belichick is a defensive mastermind who will have taken such a horrendous defensive display personally and will want his team to get back to being the juggernaut that we know them to be.
My bold prediction is that either Dion Lewis or James White goes for over 75 total yards and a touchdown today. I'm sticking with Cooks as the deciding factor and he will get a touchdown, I expect Chris Hogan to get in to the mix or at least rack up 50 receiving yards and Gronkowski should at least have a touchdown to his name today. With all of that being said and my analysis above I am going for a New England win today; the Patriots haven't been below .500 after the second week for over 5,000 days and we know how well the Patriots respond after a loss. Now that all the talk of an undefeated season is out of the way following that opening day defeat I think Bill Belichick can get the Patriots to refocus and look forward for the rest of the season... It is unfortunate for the Saints that they are the ones who have to face the Pats a week after such a painful loss.
Prediction: Patriots 34-27 Saints
