Well, we’re halfway through our review of the Saints schedule and quick looks at each game to help you pick out your Saints tickets. Let’s move on and catch the next four games, one of which may be the best Saints home game of the season.

Eagles at Saints Tickets

The Saints will welcome the Philadelphia Eagles to the Dome on Nov 5th in a primetime game. The Eagles spent a lot of money last season on big name free agents only to see things crumble in a miserable season. In 2012 Philadelphia will be trying to justify those moves and capture the NFC East. Michael Vick is still entrenched as the starter despite a sub-par season last year. This Eagle and Saints matchup is probably going to be crucial to the final NFC standings for both teams. Starting the second half of the schedule off with a win is also big and the media will be swarming this one.

Falcons at Saints Tickets

Of course the Falcons and Saints will put on a show in Game 10 of the season. It’s hard to find a better rivalry than this NFC South pairing. In 2012 the Atlanta Falcons will be trying to take advantage of the Saints woes and regain their footing within the conference. Matt Ryan is now a seasoned NFL vet and he’s got some weapons on the receiving end. The running game may be suspect though, as Turner seems to be slowing down a little and is not the workhorse he was a few years back. The Saints and Falcons have been involved in some very close games in their history and each has had some success in the others home stadium. It’s going to be intense again, as it always is when the Falcons and Saints hook up.

Saints at Raiders Tickets

Who knows what we’re going to get when the Saints travel to Oakland to play the Raiders on Nov. 18th? On paper the heavy edge goes to New Orleans. But this is not the hapless Raiders team of the last few years. Oakland is making progress and could provide some competition. It’s very unclear which direction this franchise is going since the death of Al Davis so label this game “The Great Unknown.”

49ers at Saints Tickets

The 49ers vs Saints game that came last season in the playoffs is still burning in the gut of the entire New Orleans organization. The loss by the Saints eventually resulted in the firing of Gregg Williams and the revamping of the Saints defense under Steve Spagnuolo. Saints fans of course, will be lining up for tickets for this one just to see the Saints get their revenge. Expect a hard fought battle with the Saints having a slight edge through motivation and the home field advantage.

When we left the last time we were waiting on weeks 5-8 of the 2012 Saints schedule. We’ve previewed Weeks 1-4 where the Saints took on the Washington Redskins, Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs, and Green Bay Packers. let’s move on to the next four games of the Saints 2012 schedule.

 
Complete Chargers at Saints Preview

The fifth game on the New Orleans Saints schedule is against the San Diego Chargers in the Superdome. It’s interesting because the Chargers have been pretty generous to New Orleans in terms of players, allowing us to get both Drew Brees and Darren Sproles, two key players in the Saints offense. In terms of competition the San Diego Chargers are a talented team on paper. Quarterback Philip Rivers has carried this team for awhile and he’s a guy who can light up the scoreboard. But overall the San Diego Chargers have consistently failed to live up to expectations and either play very well or stink the joint up. Norv Turner is on his last legs in San Diego if the Chargers don’t win and win soon. The New Orleans Saints should win this based on home advantage and overall offensive capability.

Complete Saints at Buccaneers Preview

After a bye week the New Orleans Saints will travel to Raymond James Stadium to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. always an interesting NFC South matchup, the Buccaneers are something of a mystery since they basically fell apart last season. But they’ve beefed up their offensive line by stealing Carl Nicks from New Orleans and they’re operating under a new coaching staff. Each divisional game is crucial in the NFC South because there’s so much upheaval from year to year. the Bucs won 10 games in 2010 and they’ve still got the nucleus of a winning team. More weapons for Josh Freeman, and a little more consistency from him, and the Bucs will give the Saints a run for their money.

Complete Saints at Broncos Preview

This Saints at Broncos game will probably go national. Of course there’s the attraction of Peyton Manning and his move to the Denver Broncos. There’s also the re-match angle between Drew Brees and Manning, who last saw each other in a Super Bowl. The Saints will be in their second consecutive road game and playing in Mile High so it could be a challenge going against the Broncos very good defense. Denver has been elevated to a Super Bowl contender in the minds of many so the New Orleans Saints will have to play well on both sides of the ball.

Complete Eagles at Saints Preview

What can you say about the Philadelphia Eagles? They were supposed to be better last season and failed completely? Michael Vick is in a watershed season in my opinion and he has to lead this Eagles team to the playoffs or he’ll be tabbed as an athletically gifted quarterback with no talent for winning. Coming into the Superdome where the Saints have been virtually unbeatable for the past two seasons, is a huge challenge. The Saints defense will have their hands full containing Vick but with Steve Spagnuolo working the D-line now, the Saints should be able to keep their home winning record looking pretty good.

The New Orleans Saints will be embarking on one of the most memorable seasons in years as the 2012 NFL season unfolds. The Saints are a team laden with talent, yet burdened by the uncertainties of penalties and as of right now the shaky status of Drew Brees. They’ll be missing some familiar players but have managed to hang on to most of the foundation of the team, at least offensively. What the New Orleans Saints have to overcome is the loss of the guiding hand of Sean Payton and various assistant coaches. But we fully expect this to be a solid team and a playoff contender. Where it goes from there remains to be seen. So let’s take a look at the schedule, game by game. The links lead to a more in-depth preview of each game.

Complete Redskins at Saints Preview

Week 1 of the Saints season brings the Washington Redskins into the Mercedes Benz Superdome for both the home and season opener of the regular season schedule. By this time rosters are set and everyone is ready to get off to a winning start. The great unknown here is the Redskins and their highly publicized new quarterback Robert Griffin III or “RG3″ as he’s known. We’ll also have the new Saints defensive system unleashed by Steve Spagnuolo so there’s a lot of uncertainties that will begin to be answered in the home opener. A game well worth seeing.

Complete Saints at Panthers Preview

Week 2 takes New Orleans to Carolina where the Panthers will be looking for great things from Cam Newton in his sophomore season. Carolina has a habit of playing the Saints tough and this should the second week in a row where the Saints defense is sorely tested by an athletic young quarterback.

Complete Chiefs at Saints Preview

The Kansas City Chiefs have been struggling the last few years and honestly, probably won’t be a match for a full strength New Orleans Saints team, especially on offense. But the return of Matt Cassell on offense should give them a boost and this game could be competitive if the Chiefs can generate any turnovers.

Complete Saints at Packers Preview

The first quarter of the Saints schedule ends with a bang in the highly anticipated re-match between two of the NFL’s best offense. Once again the Saints will be in Lambeau Field. On the Green Bay Packers side the team will be motivated by a dissapointing loss in the NFC Championship to what many considered to be an inferior New York Giants team. The New Orleans Saints have their own motivation, having dropped a playoff game to the San Francisco 49ers and then undergoing an execution of sorts by both the NFL and the national media. This is definitely the highlight game of the early season.

New Orleans Saints Tickets

The New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers will renew their rivalry again in 2012 when the Saints travel to Carolina on Sept. 16th. Though there games have been good for the Saints as of late those times may be changing. The Carolina Panthers are a team in transition and they now have what seems to be the key ingredient in successful NFL teams, a capable quarterback.
Cam Newton spent last season proving his critics wrong, passing for over 4,000 yards and maybe more importantly, proving he can still run the football in the NFL the way he did in college. His elusiveness is a factor that every defensive coordinator must face and the Saints are no different.
The New Orleans Saints have done a credible job against Newton under Sean Payton. In 2011 the Gregg Williams defense managed to slow him down in Carolina, enough to pull off a 30-27 win. Newton threw for two touchdowns but the Saints defense held him to 27 yards rushing. Later in the season when the Panthers played in New Orleans, Newton was less effective as the Saints rolled to some offensive records and Carolina was held to less than 200 yards passing.
In 2012 the Saints are operating under big changes. Sean Payton is out and the Saints will have replacements running the offense. As of this writing Drew Brees hasn’t been signed to a long term contract and it would be a disaster if he holds out. Assuming he’s under center the Saints offense should hold up their end of the bargain. But the New Orleans Saints defense under Steve Spagnuolo is still a mystery and will be for most of the season. The Panthers didn’t face the Rams last season so we have no yardstick to go by. What I will say is that Spagnuolo generally runs a defense that has less of a tendency to gamble than Williams did, which could be a knife that cuts either way.
Bottom line is that the Saints and Panthers will put on a tough NFC South rivalry performance and based on past experience you have to give New Orleans the edge. But all the factors that the Saints will be dealing with make them enough of an unkown that a Panthers win wouldn’t be shocking.
eb5603f4c7

New Orleans Saints Tickets

Well the big news is over with and the New Orleans Saints can now get on with getting ready for the season, which will begin on Sept. 9th with a visit from the Washington Redskins. The thing about this game is that we really don’t know for sure whether we’re going to see the big attraction of the 2012 NFL draft, which is RG3. Personally, I can’t see the Redskins not putting him on the field. He’s too talented not to throw in there. The only way you won’t see Robert Griffin III is if he has an absolutely dismal pre-season and it would have to be pretty bad for him to sit.
Honestly, at this point we don’t know who will be under center for the New Orleans Saints either. Drew Brees still has not inked his name on a contract. While I believe it will get done before the season starts, there could be a protracted holdout during camp. We’ll just have to wait and see.
What we do know now is that you probably won’t see Jonathan Vilma or Will Smith, both of whom have been suspended by the NFL, Vilma for the season and Smith for four games. I really don’t anticipate this having much impact though. Vilma has been a valuable contributor but he’s not getting any younger. The Saints spent the offseason adding to their linebacker group and I suspect new Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is already plugging in the new talent.
When the Redskins and Saints line up there’s going to be plenty of questions answered in some form. The Redskins have a new identity in the RG3 era. The New Orleans saints will be operating without Sean Payton and key members of the coaching staff, a situation that will continue most of the season. As far as Saints fans are concerned this 2012 NFL season could be either a dismal failure or a huge triumph. Just having a winning record after all the Saints have been through this offseason, would be a huge victory. The Redskins and Saints in the Superdome is just the beginning but we should learn a lot about both teams by the time the final whistle blows.

More info

The New Orleans Saints probably expected worse. The NFL suspended two active Saints players today for their role in the Bountygate scandal, making Jonathan Vilma sit out for an entire season and Will Smith is out for four games. Appeals will proceed of course but aren’t likely to result in any changes.
Bad news of course but it could have been a lot worse. Only two players on the roster will sit out and the rest that were involved are gone. While Vilma is an important part of the defense, the change to Steve Spagnuolo may ease some of the loss since a new system requires emphasis on new players. Overall the Saints got off easy in terms of suspensions and player losses. Now it’s time to get on with it.

It’s extremely difficult to look at any wide receiver and call him a Marques Colston. Nobody was calling Marques Colston a Marques Colston when we got him. But hearing at least one NFL Draft analyst call the Saints newest wide receiver “another big-body receiver similar to Marques Coltson” has to make you feel better about the draft of the New Orleans Saints.
Let’s face it, having used their top pick last season in order to get Mark Ingram, and having lost their 2nd Round pick to Bountygate sanctions, the New Orleans Saints weren’t going to get any immediate impact players. Or have they? Miracles like Marques Colston don’t come along very often but they do happen so let’s keep the jury out on Nick Toon for awhile.
What we do know is that Nick Toon is the son of former Jets wide receiver Al Toon and he’s been pretty productive in his time at Wisconsin. In his last season Toon caught 64 passes for 926 yards and 10 TD’s.
Joe Vitt, who is the Saints temporary unsuspended fill in Head Coach says “He’s a polished route-runner, can catch the ball outside the framework of his body and can make the big play.” So that’s good.
What we’re all hoping for is another diamond and a Saints home run in the late rounds. We’ve seen it before and lightning can strike twice.

The New Orleans Saints spent their top draft pick (which was unfortunately a 3rd Rounder) on Akiem Hicks, a defensive tackle out of …..Canada. Some LSU fans may remember Hicks’ short stay in the state before he was sent packing because of a minor violation of NCAA rules. Hicks was out of football, then wound up playing for Regina, a Canadian college.
Hicks came to the forefront for the Saints at the East-West Shrine game. Saints Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who’s made a name for himself building great defensive lines, likes what he sees in Akiem Nicks.
“All in all, when you watch him and see the things that he does, there’s a great deal of potential there. He’s a big physical football player.” said Spagnuolo in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
The New Orleans Saints have four more picks left in the draft and as Saints fans we have to hope they can keep up the trend of finding solid football players in the later rounds and free agency.

Our favorite time of the year is here again and the New Orleans Saints schedule is written in stone. Now comes the fun part, where we look at the season as a whole and try to guess how our Saints will end up at the end. The 2012 Saints schedule is a good one, full of games against tough teams, as befits a division winner. The problem with this season is that there are still some unknowns, huge unknowns, surrounding the 2012 New Orleans Saints. How will the coaching disruptions affect the Saints? Will they fall apart or will the “us against the rest of the world” mentality produce a whole greater than the sum of it’s parts? Player suspensions? Big hits or minor annoyances? That all remains to be seen. But barring any big hits from the NFL I think the coaching will be adequate because I believe that Kromer and Vitt will take a hands off attitude on the offense and let Carmichael handle things. On defense, Spagnuolo is in charge but he’ll have some shuffling to do to compensate for missing players and remember, his defense is still a work in progress. Here’s how I see the 2012 Saints schedule:

Before the bye we’ve got 5 games. Starting with the Redskins as a win against RG3 in his NFL debut, we go to Carolina, a team improving but not there yet. So the Saints welcome the Chargers to the Superdome and leave for the bye at 4-1.
Coming off a week of rest the Saints top the Buccaneers and head for Denver. The air is too thin and they drop a close one to Manning. But a big win over the Eagles and Mike Vick revives spirits and New Orleans carries that momentum into a division win over the Falcons in the Dome, and an easy road win over the Raiders so with 10 games gone the Saints are 8-2.
A tough game with the San Francisco 49ers in the Dome results in a win but expending all that energy leaves the team drained and they fall to the Falcons in the Georgia Dome and to the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants before righting the ship against Tampa Bay. 14 games into the season and the Saints are a solid 10-4, finish with wins over the Cowboys in Dallas and against the Panthers at home and finish 12-4.
That should be good enough for another NFC South Championship and a #2 or #3 seed in the playoffs.

The New Orleans Saints get ready to head back to camp on Monday and there are still several large issues hovering over the team we all love.
Drew Brees is still unsigned as of this writing and there’s massive speculation as to whether or not he’s going to show up tomorrow morning. All we can do is wait but for those who have a grudge against the QB you need only look into his past to understand his reluctance to risk injury while not signed to a long term contract. Yes, he’s been a driving force behind the Saints success and has contributed strongly to rejuvenating the New Orleans area. But he’s still a guy who is reluctant to possibly leave millions on the table and who can blame him for that?
Tom Benson has made the decision to put Joe Vitt out front for the pre-season and Drew Brees has come out in support of that decision. Outsiders, including myself, were calling for the promotion of Offensive Coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. to assume command since he’s obviously close to Brees and the offense ran rather well under his command last season. With Vitt scheduled to be out six games the continuity of Carmichael seems the obvious choice. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.
On the defensive side of the ball we’ll see how new Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo handles his end of the bargain. With the expected punishment of several key defensive players, Spags has his work cut out for him. But new additions like Brodrick Bunkley could make things easier. If there was ever a time to clean house on defense it’s now.
Finally, there’s the overhang of the whole “Bounty” situation. While it’s nice to think of the Saints rallying around each other in a time of trouble and casting off the woes of Roger Goodell’s Revenge it’s stupid to think that this couldn’t blow up in our faces. A ragged and losing start could derail the whole train ride. And I presonally think that’s what Goodell would like to see. The Saints, and Saints fans, need to band together on this one and spit it back in the face of the rest of the NFL. It’s a tall order but if this team and this city could rise from the waters of Katrina, Hurricane Goodell could be relegated to the status of a summer breeze.