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On paper, the New Orleans Saints have many advantages in Week 4 — the New York Giants are without their middle linebacker Blake Martinez and left guard Shane Lemieux (out for the year with knee injuries), as well as their center Nick Gates (also out for the season with a broken leg), plus several of their best wide receivers in Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard (resting hamstring injuries).
Top free agent pickup Kenny Golladay has also been limited in practice, but it’s not like risk-averse coaches Joe Judge and Jason Garrett were using him much anyway.
And the Saints are coming home. The Caesars Superdome will be packed with 70,000 or so of the Who Dat Nation’s most fervent followers, eager to pack the building for the first time since their wild-card round loss to the Vikings in the 2019 playoffs (yeah, it’s been that long). It’s going to be a hostile environment for the visiting G-Men. So why worry?
To be frank, the Saints aren’t good enough yet to take it easy on a team like the Giants. Until the offense can shift gears and score at will again, they’ve got to take every opponent on their schedule as seriously as they did the Packers back in Week 1. The Saints themselves have some weaknesses that can be exploited. If there’s a path for New York to win in an upset, they’ll have to take some initiative and hit on these keys to the game: