The New Orleans Saints head into Sunday’s trip to East Rutherford with their defense squarely in the spotlight. Against a New York Giants offense that has its own flaws, this matchup feels like the kind that could either steady the Saints’ season or drag them deeper into the hole.
Through five weeks of the 2026 season, New Orleans has been stuck near the bottom of the league on defense. The Saints are 31st in points allowed per game at 30.2, and the biggest problem has come against the run. Opponents are piling up 148.8 rushing yards per game against them, and that weakness has become the easiest way to knock them around.
That matters because the Giants do enough on the ground to test it. New York ranks 16th in rushing, and its offense leans more on the run than the pass. The Giants aren’t lighting up the scoreboard, sitting 22nd in the NFL at 21.8 points per game, but they’re good enough in one area to make the Saints uncomfortable.
Cam Skattebo is the name New Orleans has to have circled. The Giants halfback has brought a physical style and has averaged an explosive run - a 10+ yard rush - each week early in the season. That lines up directly with the Saints’ biggest vulnerability, and New Orleans has already given up 19 explosive runs this year.
Even if the Saints find a way to slow Skattebo, the game won’t be over. Jameis Winston and the Giants passing game haven’t matched the production of the run game, but they’ve still averaged 199.2 passing yards per game, which ranks 20th in the league. That’s not a dominant air attack, but it does come with a dangerous target in Pro Bowl receiver Malik Nabers.
The Saints’ pass defense gives them a fighting chance there. New Orleans ranks 11th in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game, which puts that unit just outside the top 10.
But rankings won’t matter much if Nabers gets loose. He’s coming off back-to-back 100-plus-yard receiving games and brings enough big-play ability to stress even a decent secondary.
So yes, this is a favorable setup for New Orleans in one sense. The Giants aren’t a juggernaut.
But they do have enough balance to test the Saints in the exact areas where they’ve been shaky. If Brandon Staley’s defense can contain Skattebo or keep Nabers from taking over, that would go a long way.
It might also give the Saints a much better shot at getting their second win of the season.
In Other News...
Saints Suddenly Face A Crisis Bigger Than Just One Bad Loss
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Gayle Benson made clear after the Falcons loss that this is not the standard New Orleans is supposed to meet, and the frustration has only deepened as the problems have piled up. Even in the Minnesota game, there were stretches where the Saints needed defensive help just to stay in it, which only underscored how fragile things have become as the season has moved along. [Read more 🡒]
Gayle Benson Just Raised The Stakes For Everyone In New Orleans
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The timing only adds to the pressure, with the Giants up next as the Saints keep chasing their second win. After the latest setback, the conversation around the team has shifted from sorting out early-season issues to whether enough can change quickly enough to keep the season from slipping further away. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Face A Giants Twist That Could Change Sundays Matchup
Week 6 brings a familiar kind of intrigue for the Saints, with the Giants offering the sort of matchup that can be shaped by a few late-week developments as much as by anything that happened in September. Ed Valentine of Big Blue View laid out the state of play ahead of Sunday, taking stock of New Yorks offensive direction, the players worth keeping an eye on and the uneven mix of strengths and weaknesses that has followed this team into October.
The wrinkle New Orleans will be watching most closely is on the Giants side of the ball, where J.J. McCarthys role has become part of the conversation and the injury report could matter just as much as the game plan. Valentine also flagged the status of key Giants pieces who would affect how the matchup is played, leaving the Saints with a clearer sense of the threat level but not yet a final answer on how much of it will be available when kickoff arrives. [Read more 🡒]