Who Wins The South?

[seanbrock 1,684]

As weird as it might seem everyone is still alive in this division title race, even the 2-6 Bucs could technically make a run at it if they can rip off 8 straight or MAYBE 7 out of 8

 

Right now though the Saints have the edge. They've already beaten Carolina and very soundly at that and they only have one loss in the conference. Drew Brees' attempts are down and he's not even on pace to throw 30 TD's but still he's been efficient competing 70% of his passes at 8 yards a clip and he's managed to keep his INT's down. The Saints are running the football this year and playing the best defense they have since the won the Super Bowl in 2011. Looking at their remaining schedule though they're going to have to fight for every single win.

 

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Next is the Panthers. All three of their losses came in conference this year. Their offense is hit or miss, mostly miss for a variety of reasons but their defense has held 3 opponents without a TD. Only 4 teams have scored more than 3 TD's against them all year and they were lead by Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Matt Stafford and Carson Wentz. The Panthers schedule coming up is actually pretty easy but if they lose again to New Orleans they're probably going to have to settle for a Wild Card and with the way their offense has played at times they're a risk of dropping games to bad opponents.

 

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The Falcons are not at all out of the running for the NFCS crown as crazy as that may seem. They have the same amount of conference losses as the Saints do and while they are 0-1 in the division, that also obviously means that they have 5 division games remaining and 3 of them are at home. 2 of them are against the Bucs lol. All that talent that made them one of the best offenses of all time last year is still there. They can probably drop two games and still have a shot at the dvision title and a pretty good shot at a Wild Card at 10-6 with 3 conference losses. All the rest of their games are against NFC opponents. Zeke's suspension started right before they had to go to Dallas and then Sherman and Chancellor go down two weeks before they have to go to Seattle.

 

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The Bucs are actually still in it too but they have to win 8 straight or at least 7 out of 8. To do all of that though they would need to look like a totally different team than they did and they don't really even get a bye week this year because of the hurricanes. They're going to have to play 16 straight games.

 

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Kind of just goes to show how much football is left with this division. I kind of hope Atlanta gets it going and makes things interesting. The Saints have to go from their dome this week to Buffalo in mid November so that should be a big game to watch this week. I think this is what makes the NFL so much better than college, where once you lose two games you're season is over.

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by seanbrock

[Thanatos 2,847]

You missed a game in Atlanta's schedule bud, @Seattle is after the Dallas game.

 

Carolina's offense is stuck in neutral atm, but that will change after the Fins game, I hope, as Greg Olsen is designated to return after the bye week. That should give our offense a huge spark, and we have the best defense in the division.

 

It's going to be a tall order going into Nawlins and winning, but it's possible.

 

I'd still say the Saints have the edge, but they have a much tougher schedule coming up.

[seanbrock 1,684]

You missed a game in Atlanta's schedule bud, @Seattle is after the Dallas game.

 

Carolina's offense is stuck in neutral atm, but that will change after the Fins game, I hope, as Greg Olsen is designated to return after the bye week. That should give our offense a huge spark, and we have the best defense in the division.

 

It's going to be a tall order going into Nawlins and winning, but it's possible.

 

I'd still say the Saints have the edge, but they have a much tougher schedule coming up.

thanks, fixed it. I was kind of torn between the Saints and Panthers. If they go up to Buffalo and win they I think they're probably a 12 or so win team. That's a kind if litmus test for a dome team. This week might be pretty telling.

[Thanatos 2,847]

The Saints pass the eye test to me a lot better than Carolina does.

 

The Panthers have no consistency on offense week to week.

 

The Saints have a bruising run game, a QB who is deadly efficient with a great WR on the outside in Thomas and a reliable speedster in Ginn, and a middle of the road defense that is good at forcing turnovers.

 

Carolina has zip for a run game outside of Cam being mobile, no reliable deep threat- Curtis Samuel is still learning the game, no good WR on the outside now that Benji is gone, but a great defense that doesn't allow many yards or points, but isn't good at forcing turnovers.

 

The Saints also already have the win over Carolina in Charlotte, which means the Panthers are almost certainly going to have go into New Orleans and win in order to have a shot at the division.

Edited November 11, 2017 by Thanatos

[Sarge+ 3,436]

Saints are for real, man. I don't know if the Panthers are going to pull it off.

[BigBen07 285]

298 rushing yards and 6 rush TDs by the Saints today. Wow. That's impressive.

 

EDIT: I really hope Lasco doesn't have any lasting damage. That was a hard hit he delivered.

Edited November 12, 2017 by BigBen07

[Thanatos 2,847]

Saints are for real, man. I don't know if the Panthers are going to pull it off.

 

I think our defense can stop the run game, I'll take Luke and that front 7 vs any other in football, it's whether the offense can put up enough points to contend with what the Saints offense puts up that is the major question to me.