New Orleans Saints @ Chicago Bears
There’s now talk in the Big Easy that Sean Payton may have run his course with the Saints, and perhaps now Payton’s job is on the line as he tries to win the NFC South with a losing record.
The Saints have actually fared better away from the friendly confines of the Superdome this season, and perhaps a trip to the Windy City will do them wonders, since the Bears are 2-4Â on their home field, with wins against lowly Tampa Bay and Minnesota. Khiry Robinson is now healthy, adding another weapon in the New Orleans backfield as they look to exploit a Chicago defense ranked 30th in DVOA.
Interestingly enough, the Bears and Saints are both 5-8, with one team expecting to make wholesale changes in the offseason and the other still in contention for the fourth seed in the NFC. Jay Cutler has been a turnover machine of late, which comes as nobody’s surprise, and the offense has turned it over 10 times in the past five games and at least once in all but two games this entire year. Workhorse Matt Forte has been a non-factor of late, getting 13 carries for a mere 26 yards last week against the Cowboys, a week after getting a career-low five carries against Detroit.
Bold prediction: The Saints have been arguably the biggest disappointment in 2014, the worst of the preseason Super Bowl favorites. Drew Brees has played well, statistics wise, but the box score doesn’t accurately represent how spotty the unit has been. More troubling is their defense, which brought Jairus Byrd in via free agency to pair up with 2013 first-rounder Kenny Vaccaro, who has since been benched. This likely will result in Rob Ryan finding work elsewhere come 2015. Still, the NFC South is within reach, but given how their season has went, wouldn’t this big of a game be one where New Orleans comes up short? The Bears pull off the upset as the Falcons begin their march toward a division crown.
