Green Bay Packers: Ranking most favorable Divisional Round opponents
3. New Orleans Saints
What needs to happen for Packers to face Saints in Divisional Round: This is actually quite simple. As the New Orleans Saints enter the 2020 NFL Playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the NFC, if Drew Brees and his team are able to win at home against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday afternoon, they will be heading to Lambeau for Round 2 of the postseason.
Why the Saints would be a good matchup for the Packers: As potent of an offense as the Saints have, the Packers at least have the potential to be just as potent. If Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones and the full arsenal of Green Bay’s attack are clicking, they are capable of not just holding their own against New Orleans but keeping up fully and perhaps bettering them on the scoreboard.
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While New Orleans’ defense was staunch early in the year, particularly when Brees was out due to injury, they have dropped off as of late. The passing defense gave up 241.8 yards and just under two touchdowns per game while the rushing defense was better but still not perfect.
Furthermore, Alvin Kamara was not the superstar this season that we’ve seen him be in years past. As such, the Saints don’t seem primed to take advantage of Green Bay’s porous run defense. They can attack in other ways, sure, but not being able to fully exploit the Packers’ biggest weakness is good news for the Lambeau faithful.
Why the Saints would be a bad matchup for the Packers: Though the Saints offense may not be set up to take advantage of Green Bay’s biggest defensive flaw, that doesn’t always matter when facing New Orleans. Their offense keeps humming regardless of matchup, largely thanks to Brees and Michael Thomas.
New Orleans’ offensive line is more than capable of neutralizing The Smith Bros from having their way against them, thus allowing Brees the time to move the ball down the field through the air. And as good as the likes of Jaire Alexander and others in the Packers secondary are, they aren’t equipped to stop Thomas, who has firmly established himself as the NFL’s best wide receiver.
On top of that, even if the Saints defense has struggled at moments down the stretch, they are still immensely talented and capable of making splash plays with Marshon Lattimore lurking in the secondary or Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis getting after it in the front seven.
Can the Packers beat the Saints? Sure. But in terms of favorable matchups, the Saints are the team Green Bay wants to see the least in the Divisional Round.