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The New Orleans Saints enjoyed most of their postseason play from the comforts of home last season.
This time around, that won’t be the case. The Saints are going to chase a second Super Bowl title from the road.
When the final seconds ticked off the clock in the Atlanta Falcons’ drubbing of the Carolina Panthers, the Saints knew they were officially locked into the NFC Playoffs as the No. 5-seed.
After the final regular season game of 2010 produced the Seattle Seahawks as the NFC West Champions, New Orleans booked their flights to Washington for a 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon rematch with the Seahawks.
The game will be nationally televised on NBC.
The Saints’ won the first meeting between the teams 34-19 on Nov. 21 in the Louisiana Superdome.
New Orleans will come into the playoffs following a 23-13 loss at home to their division rival the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but that wasn’t necessarily the end of the world for the defending champions.
Saints coach Sean Payton pulled several of the team’s starters midway through the game when he realized the Falcons weren’t going to lose to the Panthers, which would make the Saints the No. 5 seed regardless of the outcome of the game.
The Buccaneers, who needed to win to keep their soon-to-be dashed postseason hopes alive, then took advantage of New Orleans’ skeleton squad to seal the win.
“Our whole preparation was to win,” Payton said. “But there was a point where n and we had discussed this as a staff n if in the second half, that other game was out of whack, then we were going to back off and not get anybody injured.”
But injuries weren’t totally able to be avoided, as the Saints lost tight end Jimmy Graham, halfback Christopher Ivory and defensive back Malcolm Jenkins to minor bruises in the game.
Those injuries alone were enough for quarterback Drew Brees to believe Payton’s decision to rest the team’s key players was a good one.
“We rested some guys today and we had some guys coming back, getting healthy,” Brees said. “The big thing that we wanted to accomplish was to have everyone healthy for the playoffs.”
Even with better health, the Saints will need better play in the postseason.
The team’s starters struggled against the Buccaneers on Sunday, turning the football over three times. Brees threw an interception for a 12th-straight game in the loss, while also losing a fumble.
Halfback Julius Jones arguably had the biggest blunder of the day, though, losing a fumble at the 1-yard-line to negate a possible scoring drive.
Brees said those things need to disappear in a hurry if the Saints want any hope at another playoff run.
“All the mistakes are magnified,” Brees said of the postseason. “You have to be able to execute to perfection. We didn’t do that today. I’m confident we’re going to figure some things out this week and play our kind of football. Today was disappointing.”
The Seahawks know disappointment and poor play, too, as they come into the playoffs having lost seven of their final 10 games of the season.
The NFC West Champions are the first-ever team to qualify for postseason play with just a 7-9 record.
But none of that matters anymore for the Seahawks, who used stingy defense to keep the Rams off balance in the season finale, allowing just 184 total yards.
First-year coach Pete Carroll said he likes his team’s chances against anyone if that trend continues n especially at home where Seattle historically is among the league’s best.
“I always like doing things that have never been done before, so this is one of them,” Carroll said of his team’s 7-9 postseason berth. “We didn’t quite get here the way we’d dream of getting here, but we got here and when it came down to it, the guys played a great football game and we won a big one here tonight.”
Aside from that stingy defense against the Rams, the Seahawks also got a strong start from backup quarterback Charlie Whitehurst, who completed 22-of-36 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown in just the second start of his career.
But whether Whitehurst starts in Saturday’s game is unknown as starter Matt Hasselbeck has reportedly been cleared to return, but didn’t play Sunday night because he had missed practice last week.
Carroll wouldn’t commit to a starter for Saturday, but said he was grateful to have two options to turn to if needed.
“I’m so proud of Matt for trying to get back tonight and it was great that we didn’t have to play him,” Carroll said. “Charlie had his chance and he stepped up and he did it.”
While the final seconds ticked off the clock in Seattle, the Saints sat at home and watched and learned their opponent with the rest of America.
Linebacker Scott Shanle said that the Black and Gold didn’t have a preference in their opponent, but added they also know the regular season meeting is a plus, but not a guarantee of victory.
“They’re teams we played here,” Shanle said. “So this will be a whole new thing as far as going on the road and playing. It’s an advantage anytime you’ve played someone before and you know them personnel-wise.”
Saints quarterback Drew Brees escapes pressure during Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brees hopes to continue to shed the defense this weekend when the defending champions head to Seattle to play the NFC West Seattle Seahawks. ASSOCIATED PRESS
