The Saints (6-7) wrap up their three-game homestand Sunday against the New York Giants (5-8). Can the Saints make it back-to-back wins in the Dome? Here are four things to keep an eye on Sunday as the Saints try to get to .500 on the season.
Defending DeVito
I know this sounds like a broken record, but the Saints have had their struggles with mobile quarterbacks. Well, they face another one Sunday in Tommy DeVito. Chances are, you had never even heard that name before the past month. But the rookie will make his fifth start Sunday after leading the Giants to a three-game winning streak. He comes in as the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Week after throwing for 116 yards and rushing for 71 yards in a victory over the Green Bay Packers. He became the first quarterback in NFL history to complete 80% of his passes with 70-plus rushing yards and no turnovers or sacks. Can the Saints cool DeVito down, or will he give them problems like so many mobile QBs do?
Stopping Barkley
Stopping the run used to come easy for the Saints. That’s no longer the case. They gave up 204 rushing yards to the Carolina Panthers last week. The week before that, it was the Detroit Lions rumbling for 142 yards in the Dome. Now they must try to slow down Saquon Barkley, who is averaging 4.2 yards per carry and is one of the league leaders in big runs. Barkley has seven rushes this season that have gone for 20 or more yards, which ranks second in the NFL behind only Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs. The Saints’ run defense is towards the bottom of the league (26th) in yards allowed per carry (4.6), so slowing down Barkley and getting the Giants into third-and-long situations will be important. Especially because the Giants give up a lot of sacks.
Carr and the offense
Saints quarterback Derek Carr has received his share of boos over the past two weeks. The only way to stop that will be for the offense to sustain drives and score points. The Saints have scored touchdowns on seven of their last eight trips to the red zone, a vast improvement from where the dreadful numbers to start the season. The offense struggled early last week against Carolina but came to life in the fourth quarter to pull away for a victory that looked more convincing than it actually was. It would help matters in this one if Carr and the Saints could get off to a fast start. It would also help if the Saints don’t have any more distractions like the one they had last week when Carr and center Erik McCoy had an exchange after a sack. Winning cures everything, and this is a golden opportunity for Carr to silence the boos.
Final stretch
With just four games remaining, the Saints need to start stringing some wins together. They are currently in a three-team log jam with the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the NFC South lead. All three teams are 6-7. The Saints have a quick turnaround after this one, having to travel to the West Coast to play the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night before finishing out the season on the road in Tampa and then back home for the regular-season finale against the Falcons. None of the teams the Saints face the rest of the way currently have a winning record. But none of those games will be easy, which has pretty much been the case all season. To start, the Saints desperately need to take care of business at home against a Giants team that has had a resurgence over the past three weeks.