Week 18 brought the winless Carolina Panthers and the 9-7 New Orleans Saints together in a matchup that had scenarios for each team that were the complete opposite. Carolina was looking for its first win, while the Saints needed a win in order to stay in playoff contention.
Coach Burn knew the Panthers offense liked to run the ball, while adding screen plays in between. On defense, the game plan was to beat the man blitzes that the Panthers are known for. In short summary, the game went the way that the Saints had gameplanned for, however, they weren’t able to stop it. No particular player on the Panthers had a fantastic day running the ball, however, they all contributed. Cam Newton had one of his best passing days and the Panthers offense scored an astounding 44 points.
Normally, given the last placed Saints offensive attack this would have been enough to beat them, however, Winston and company had one of their best offensive performances of the season. Winston threw for 3 touchdowns, and 375 yards while completing over 80% of his passes. Kamara only had nine rushing attempts, however, he ran for over 140 yards and 3 touchdowns. All of this offensive firepower propelled the Saints to a 58 – 44 victory over the Panthers.
The playoff scenarios for the New Orleans Saints were complicated at best. They would have to win against the Carolina Panthers, then have the Bears beat the Vikings, and have the Cowboys beat the Commanders. If the Vikings beat the Bears then there was a shot at the playoffs as long as the Cowboys lost to the Commanders. Sadly, the Vikings beat the Bears, and the Commanders beat the Cowboys, which left the 10-7 Saints out of the playoffs.
This was a tough break for a team that was 3-6, and clawed their way back to end their season at 10-7 after trading superstar wide receiver Michael Thomas. The NFC is stacked this cycle in the Premier Madden League as two teams, the Bears and the Saints were left out of the playoffs while winning 10 games. This means that going forward, Coach Burn knows that 11 games is the goal in order to reach the playoffs at the end of the season. The Saints only have themselves to blame as they had their chances to win at least one more game. In both of their games versus the Buccaneers this season, they were up multiple scores at one point, only to let up that lead and lose the game.
Even after trading Thomas, the Saints only have a few million in cap space. They were able to sign defensive end Davenport and offensive lineman Lamp to new contracts, however, everyone else has yet to sign a contract this season. Two big names that could potentially hit free agency are wide receiver Harty and center Mccoy. These are two players that Burn wants to sign for the upcoming season. Mccoy has already rejected an offer and would like to test free agency. He would cost around 10 million to tag if the Saints wanted to go that option. With Chris Olave’s suspension for being used too much, Harty is a player that the Saints need to find a way to sign. Olave will be serving a 4 game suspension at the start of next season.
We will see what happens with regressions, retirements, and free agency, however, for the draft, the Saints don’t have their first but rumors are they are trying to trade into the top 10. In ending, even though they didn’t make the playoffs, the Saints proved that they could make a comeback and fight, instead of rolling over and tanking like certain teams in the league.
