The New Orleans Saints (0-2) play the Seattle Seahawks (1-1) Sunday at Lumen Field. The Saints are looking to snap a 6-game losing streak dating back to last season. Here are four factors that will determone if the Saints can.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Handle Seattle’s front<\/p>\n
The New Orleans Saints are averaging 17 points per game, which is also how many points the Seahawks\u2019 defense is giving up this season. In order for the Saints\u2019 offense to be effective, they will have to be able to handle the Seahawks defensive front. Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Jarran Reed and edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence lead a unit that leads the league in pressuring the quarterback. It\u2019ll be a difficult task for a Saints\u2019 o-line, especially since Tali Fuaga is dealing with a back and knee injury. Trevor Penning (toe) could return, but he\u2019s been limited in practice this week. Being at full strength would help.<\/p>\n
Avoid turnovers<\/p>\n
Spencer Rattler<\/a> has done a much better job taking care of the ball this season. The bad pass to Alvin Kamara against the 49ers last week ended up being fumbled, but outside of that the Saints have been turnover free. Now they face a Seahawks\u2019 team that is tied for third in the league in takeaways (2 per game). Seattle picked off Pittsburgh\u2019s Aaron Rodgers twice last week. The pressure they apply helps with that, so Rattler\u2019s decision-making needs to be as precise as it has been through the first two games. If he can play a clean game, the Saints have a chance.<\/p>\n Contain Kubiak\u2019s offense<\/p>\n This time a year ago, Klint Kubiak was the Saints\u2019 offensive coordinator and his unit lit up the scoreboard for an average of 45.5 points in the first two games. Kubiak, now the OC in Seattle, hasn\u2019t been able to duplicate that type magic early on with the Seahawks. But his offense, led by QB Sam Darnold, racked up 395 yards of offense last week vs. Pittsburgh. The Saints\u2019 cornerbacks have been a little shaky and will get a stiff test Sunday facing WRs Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp. Smith-Njigba\u2019s 113 receiving yards per game ranks second in the league. Kool-Aid McKinstry and Isaac Yiadom will be tested.<\/p>\n Blocking out the noise<\/p>\n The Saints will hit the road for the first time this season. They went 2-6 on te road last season, beating Dallas in Week 2 and the New York Giants in Week 14. They haven’t won since. Seattle\u2019s Lumen Field, much like Caesars Superdome, is one of the most intimidating venues in the league. Saints\u2019 offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeir said this week that communication will be a big key for the Saints as they deal with Seattle\u2019s boisterous fans that call themselves The 12th Man. The Saints\u2019 offense dealt with a noisy 49ers crowd last week in the Dome<\/a>, so maybe that will help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Orleans Saints (0-2) play the Seattle Seahawks (1-1) Sunday at Lumen Field. The Saints are looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,4095,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-380435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115231386789688114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}