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Final score predictions for Saints vs. Falcons in Week 18
We’re days away from kickoff in Week 18 of the New Orleans Saints 2023 season, with the longtime division-rival Atlanta Falcons standing between New Orleans and any hope of reaching the playoffs.
Can the Saints get the job done? They’ll need a lot of help to qualify for the postseason, but it all starts with a win on Sunday afternoon. Here are our staff picks and final score predictions for what may be the last game of the year:
What went right and what went wrong in the New Orleans Saints’ Week 17 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? And what’s the bottom line?
Nobody saw this coming: the New Orleans Saints dismantled the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday and are leaving town with a much-needed win, keeping their playoff hopes alive as the wild card race takes shape. It was maybe the Saints’ most entertaining game of the year, and certainly their most complete effort against a quality opponent.
How did we get here? Let’s break it down by asking and answering three questions:
The Saints shocked the Buccaneers in Dennis Allen’s first signature win. It’s their first complete effort against a quality opponent:
Credit where it’s due: Dennis Allen and the New Orleans Saints finally turned the narrative around with their first signature win. We all said Allen couldn’t beat a good team with a winning record. We doubted Derek Carr’s ability to make plays with the weapons available to him. We surveyed 52 different expert game picks going into this game, and everyone but Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton sided with the Bucs.
And the Saints pulled it off. They won 23-13 and it wouldn’t have been even that close if linebacker Pete Werner hadn’t gotten matched up with star wideout Chris Godwin on the Bucs’ final possession. The Saints dominated in all three phases by making big plays on offense, defense, and special teams.
The defense intercepted Baker Mayfield three times (thanks to Alontae Taylor, Johnathan Abram, and Paulson Adebo on the penultimate two-point attempt), also recovering a pair of fumbles (one forced by Abram and recovered by Demario Davis, the other picked up by Isaac Yiadom). Running backs Rachaad White and Chase Edmonds were limited to a combined 58 rushing yards.
Offensively, Derek Carr finally got into rhythm with his tight ends; Juwan Johnson set new career-highs in catches (8) and receiving yards (90) while Taysom Hill and Foster Moreau both chipped in with some much-needed first downs and a Hill touchdown catch of their own. Jamaal Williams had his best game of the year after Alvin Kamara exited the game with an ankle injury, running for 58 yards.
Blake Grupe nailed all five of his kicks (three field goals from distances of 45, 28, and 38 yards; plus a pair of extra point tries) and Lou Hedley dropped three of his six punts inside the Tampa Bay 20-yard line. The game was sealed by Moreau recovering the Bucs’ attempted onside kick.
This is a big win. It isn’t the end of the road, and the Saints have not clinched a playoff berth. There’s plenty of work left to do and they still need a lot of help from other teams. But it’s encouraging, and it’s the kind of performance that the Saints will point to in the offseason when trying to sell Allen’s vision of the team to a disgruntled fanbase. But today, a win is a win.
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Can New Orleans keep it close, or even pull off an upset? Our final score predictions for Saints vs. Buccaneers in Week 17:
The New Orleans Saints’ playoff hopes will be on the line when they kick off with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. These two teams are in very different spots — the Bucs have rattled off four wins in a row, while the Saints were exposed in front of a national audience in last week’s loss.
Can the Saints keep it close? Do they have a shot at pulling off an upset against a motivated Buccaneers team that knows they can clinch the NFC South title with a win? Here’s what our staff are expecting in our Week 17 final score predictions:
Staff picks: Our final score predictions for Saints vs. Rams on Thursday Night Football
Kickoff is nearly here for Thursday night’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams — and nearly every NFL expert is picking against the black and gold this week. Few prognosticators are calling for a blowout, but the Rams are a unanimous pick to beat the Saints.
So what are our staff writers here at Saints Wire expecting? Check our final score predictions and see:
What went right and what went wrong in the New Orleans Saints’ Week 15 win over the New York Giants; where do they go from here?
Whew — that was a fun one. The New Orleans Saints (7-7) took care of business against the New York Giants (5-9), and then some. The Saints won by a margin of 24-6 for their second lopsided victory in as many weeks. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was awfully close.
How did we get here? Let’s break it down by asking and answering three questions:
Final score predictions for Saints vs. Giants in Week 15
We’re closing in on kickoff between the New Orleans Saints (6-7) and New York Giants (5-8) on Sunday, but how do you see this one turning out? Can the Saints hold their own against an opponent riding a three-game win streak? Or will they play down to their level of competition? Are these teams that far apart after all, despite their records?
Here are our staff picks and final score predictions going into Week 15’s game:
The New Orleans Saints may have beaten the Carolina Panthers by 22 points, but they didn’t control the game the way the score would suggest:
The New Orleans Saints are not a good team, but the Carolina Panthers are arguably the worst team in the league. On paper, a 22-point win over Carolina is an appropriate margin of victory. That score is fool’s gold. Derek Carr pointing down to the turf emphatically after a decent throw late in the fourth quarter, as if to say “I do this,” or “This is my house,” was foolish. Even in the moment it didn’t feel as gratifying as the score would read.
It’s because the Saints didn’t play good football, and they likely would have lost if they weren’t facing the Panthers on Sunday. The 6 points scored by Carolina feels pretty accurate. There were some missed opportunities by rookie quarterback Bryce Young, but the New Orleans secondary also made their fair share of plays as well.
Offensively this was a poor performance. 28 points is a trick (and one of those scores came from a head’s-up play on special teams). Carr didn’t have even 40 passing yards until there 8:12 seconds left in the 4th quarter. The offense learning Jimmy Graham is a red zone threat at the end of the season doesn’t take away from how ugly this game was. It all started with a missed field goal on the opening drive. New Orleans scored two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter that made the score look much better.
They didn’t win this game in dominant fashion. Sunday’s performance was reminiscent of their win over the Bears a month ago. The Saints offense just isn’t effective frequently enough. This is a game you were supposed to control if not dominate. New Orleans didn’t do either. The score would suggest you did both, and that’s why it’s fool’s gold.
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Where do we go after a three-game losing skid? Predicting the New Orleans Saints’ 5 remaining games and final record:
Where do you go after a three-game losing skid? That’s the question the New Orleans Saints are asking themselves, and head coach Dennis Allen’s answer is simple: just focus on going 1-0 this week. Win Sunday’s game over the Carolina Panthers, take stock of the division title race, and keep moving.
But it’s not that simple. The Saints are rapidly losing ground in the competition for the NFC South crown, and losses to division opponents like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons.
With that in mind, here are our updated score predictions for the Saints’ five remaining games in the 2023 regular season:
Saints’ second-half heroics can’t make up for too many early mistakes in a devastating loss to the Lions
You can’t say the New Orleans Saints don’t have any fight in them. They rallied from a 21-0 deficit to keep it close with the Detroit Lions in the second half, but it wasn’t enough: that late-game effort couldn’t make up for their mistakes early on. The Lions left as victors with a 33-28 final score.
What went wrong? Derek Carr missed an open receiver to force the ball to his tight end on the first play from scrimmage, which was dropped and intercepted by the Detroit defense, setting up a short field on their next touchdown-scoring drive. Things got worse before they got better.
The Lions ran for 142 yards as a team and Jared Goff didn’t turn the ball over after giving it away six times in his last two games. Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta was unstoppable, finishing with 9 receptions (on 9 targets) and 140 receiving yards plus a touchdown catch.
It wasn’t all bad. Carr was surprisingly efficient after the end of the first quarter, though he threw too many off-target passes that asked a lot of his receivers. Fortunately Chris Olave (5 catches for 119 yards) was up to the task. Alvin Kamara ended the afternoon with 58 receiving yards and 51 rushing yards with two scoring runs. Taysom Hill impacted both phases, leading the team with 59 rushing yards and catching two passes for 15 receiving yards. Pete Carmichael made some clever play calls, picking up chunks of yardage on play action passes to Olave and Foster Moreau. They went 4-for-4 in the red zone.
But, again, it wasn’t enough. The offense showed too little too late to make a difference. Dennis Allen’s handmade defense was shredded. A 5-7 record is the best showing Allen has ever had after Week 13. This is his ceiling, and the Saints shouldn’t mistake it for anything else.
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