Sometimes it’s not enough to win football games to garner respect. According to the latest NFL power rankings from Doug Farrar over at Touchdown Wire, the New Orleans Saints’ lopsided effort against the Jacksonville Jaguars — which they won, improving to 5-1 on the year so far, and 4-0 without Drew Brees at quarterback — wasn’t quite decisive enough, with miscues on offense and errant throws from Teddy Bridgewater keeping the score (13-6) too close for comfort. Now, the Saints have fallen from third-best to fourth-place in Farrar’s weekly NFL power rankings.
But he doesn’t want to lose sight of the positives: the Saints defense has played exemplary, doing enough to keep things moving as scheduled until Brees returns from thumb surgery. Here’s some of what Farrar had to say about the job Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has performed:
It was that defense that shut down Gardner Minshew and DJ Chark with two-high coverage concepts, and it’s that defense that’s keeping a potential Super Bowl spot warm for Drew Brees, whenever he returns. If it all comes together down the stretch, it’s feasible that Brees could get his second ring, and Sean Payton will have his own problem — replacing Allen, who will be a head coach elsewhere.
Elsewhere in the NFC South, the Cam Newton-less Carolina Panthers are an unconvincing 4-2, good enough for eleventh-best in the league. The 2-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are spiraling as Jameis Winston continues to throw the ball to his opponents (lobbing five interceptions to the Panthers defense on Sunday), and the 1-5 Atlanta Falcons may be one of the worst teams in football despite Matt Ryan’s gaudy garbage time numbers. The 5-0 San Francisco 49ers are emerging as New Orleans’ chief competitor in the conference, ranked second-best in these power rankings, setting the stage for a clash inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome later in December.
