The New Orleans Saints are in a spot they haven’t occupied every week: favored heading into Week 2 against the Las Vegas Raiders. That alone changes the tone a bit. Instead of spending the week trying to prove everybody wrong, the Saints get to walk into this one with a little more confidence and a wider range of ways to win.
One of the bolder calls for Sunday is that the Saints offense will finally put together a full four quarters. That’s the kind of step forward this group needs, especially after last week’s uneven showing.
The idea here is simple: no more waiting around for the offense to wake up. If New Orleans is going to handle business, it has to look like a complete unit from the opening whistle through the finish.
Another prediction puts the spotlight on the Raiders’ quarterback situation, with Kirk Cousins expected to run into a rough afternoon. The Saints are projected to hold him under 150 passing yards and keep him out of the end zone through the air.
The thinking is that the defense will have the upper hand this time, flipping the script from Cousins’ days with the Falcons. There’s even a forecast for Julian Blackmon to add another interception if Cousins keeps testing the defense the way he did last week.
As Molly Bauer put it, "In the Super Dome, I think Cousins will have a game he’ll want to forget."
The ground game is also getting a big vote of confidence. Travis Etienne and Alvin Kamara are expected to help New Orleans pile up 150 combined rushing yards and two touchdowns against a Raiders defense that has allowed 100.5 rushing yards per game.
Etienne has only managed 71 yards through two games so far, but the belief is that the talent is there and the breakthrough is coming. If that happens, Tyler Shough should get some real help, and Kellen Moore could lean on the run early.
There’s also a prediction that the Saints will actually be ahead after the first quarter. That matters because slow starts have been a familiar issue for this offense.
Even so, there was a small sign of progress last week, when the Saints got points on the board in the second quarter instead of waiting forever to find a rhythm. They were scoreless in the first quarter, but began to get going on their third possession at the start of the third quarter.
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