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The New Orleans Saints haven’t been respected with a top-10 spot in the NFL power rankings over at Touchdown Wire since bottoming out with a 2-2 start early this season, but their thrashing of the overhyped Tampa Bay Buccaneers did a lot to help their reputation.
There’s still a lot of work to do, but the Saints are again being considered as a top-shelf team. Here’s some of what our colleague Mark Schofield had to say about them after reviewing the tape, and bumping the Saints up to No. 8 after hovering around No. 12 the last few weeks:
How high can the Saints climb? Well, look at their upcoming schedule. Their next five games: San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver, Atlanta again and Philadelphia. Then after a game against the Kansas City Chiefs, they close out the season with Minnesota and Carolina. Just one game against a team with a winning record. That is not a bad way to finish the year.
But which other teams are still ranked ahead of the Saints? Tampa Bay is one spot behind at No. 9, so they can’t be discounted yet. Their other competition in the NFC includes the Seattle Seahawks (at No. 5) and the Green Bay Packers (at No. 4), but the top three spots are all AFC teams.
It sets up for a fascinating sprint to the finish line as the Saints, Seahawks, and Packers — each of whom has earned a 6-2 record so far — compete for the No. 1 NFC playoff seed and the valuable bye week that comes with it. But if New Orleans isn’t careful and slips up down the stretch in their favorable second-half schedule, they could be left on the outside looking in.
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