New Orleans - Is it turned around with a win?

[hepcat]

Say the Saints win tonight, move to 7-0, and face off against the Panthers next week. If the Panthers manage to win, is the season turned around? 4-4 is at the very least a good jumping off point for a playoff run, but how difficult will it be to take on the high flying Saints, who appear to be head and shoulders above the rest of the NFC (besides maybe Minnesota).

The win over Arizona should not be praised for more than catching an already mediocre team sleepwalking at home (similar to the Panthers against the Bills). The revenge implications also played a huge factor against Arizona. I would consider blemishing the Saints perfect record and moving to .500 a huge step in not only saving Fox's immediate employment future, but perhaps a springboard to a run at the playoffs. That said, it's the biggest game of the season.

[Mr. Scot]

It's still just one win.

It helps, especially from a confidence standpoint, but you have to take the week to week approach.

[PhillyB]

Originally Posted by hepcat

Say the Saints win tonight, move to 7-0, and face off against the Panthers next week. If the Panthers manage to win, is the season turned around? 4-4 is at the very least a good jumping off point for a playoff run, but how difficult will it be to take on the high flying Saints, who appear to be head and shoulders above the rest of the NFC (besides maybe Minnesota).

The win over Arizona should not be praised for more than catching an already mediocre team sleepwalking at home (similar to the Panthers against the Bills). The revenge implications also played a huge factor against Arizona. I would consider blemishing the Saints perfect record and moving to .500 a huge step in not only saving Fox's immediate employment future, but perhaps a springboard to a run at the playoffs. That said, it's the biggest game of the season.

if we play good football and win (that is, if we don't win because of some freak occurrences) then yes, absolutely.

[number28]

yup, it is just one win.

yup, the panthers are still 3-4.

BUT...this is a momentum/mental boost to jump start the tough stretch ahead.

[spartan_pantherfan]

Sadly at this point pretty much every game we play is the biggest game of the season because even to make the wildcard the Panthers have to go on a run and can only afford only 1 or 2 losses, because unless Atlanta, New Orleans and any 2 of the 3 good NFC east teams crumble ( Lets hope Dallas/Romo continue the LOL worthy trend ) its a uphill battle.

but how great would it be to sweep the Saints?

[sylvianlight]

i don't think it'll be turned around until the passing game shows they can consistently make plays down the field without having a high turnover ratio; even if we do that in a loss, we need to have that area of our football team improve before we'll have a chance to win against the better teams remaining on our schedule.

I think the defense is solid, the running game is great and the special teams are improving as the season goes on, we just haven't seen much from the passing game except for a play here and there and the game against the ATL

[Beaux Berry]

Originally Posted by sylvianlight

i don't think it'll be turned around until the passing game shows they can consistently make plays down the field without having a high turnover ratio; even if we do that in a loss, we need to have that area of our football team improve before we'll have a chance to win against the better teams remaining on our schedule.

I think the defense is solid, the running game is great and the special teams are improving as the season goes on, we just haven't seen much from the passing game except for a play here and there and the game against the ATL

I agree completely.

Even if we somehow string enough wins together to legitimately be in the playoff hunt, there is no way this team is a playoff team if we can't get the passing game going.

[Sultan33g]

like mr.scot said it would be a huge boost for our confidence...but every year that we seem to start looking better during a season we go out and shoot ourselves in the foot...I would wait till we play all our regular season games before we can decide anything about this team.

[tarheelpride]

I would say the NO game will mean more for us had we beat the Bills and Arizona. The key for us is consistency....we haven't been consistent. beating New Orleans helps, but until we win AND show consistency across a few games, we haven't turned the corner. It wouldn't kill us if we could build momentum going into the 2nd half of the schedule, which right now is looking like pure hell, save Tampa.

[goodoleboy]

Originally Posted by sylvianlight

i don't think it'll be turned around until the passing game shows they can consistently make plays down the field without having a high turnover ratio; even if we do that in a loss, we need to have that area of our football team improve before we'll have a chance to win against the better teams remaining on our schedule.

All we need the passing game to do is move the chains on 3rd down. We don't need the long down the field passes as much as the short ones for first downs. That really has been one of the bigger problems dating back to last year.