Pomponio: New Orleans Saints will win 2021 Super Bowl LV
The New Orleans Saints finished 12-4 in an unconventional 2020 NFL regular season and earned the second seed in the NFC playoffs. Here's the case for the Saints as my prediction to win 2021 Super Bowl LV, along with a few other NFL playoff picks and best bets.
New Orleans Saints year in review
The Saints captured the NFC South title for the fourth straight season. Head coach Sean Payton, QB Drew Brees and Co. set the tone right out of the gate, thrashing their primary challengers, in QB Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by a 34-23 count in the regular-season opener.
The rest of the route, though, wasn't exactly smooth sailing.
New Orleans followed the opening win with back-to-back losses to the Las Vegas Raiders and Green Bay Packers, and that latter 37-30 defeat wound up being the difference between the first and second seed in the NFC.
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Nine straight wins followed, but Brees missed the final three of those wins - and four starts total - after suffering multiple fractured ribs in Week 10. Offensive Swiss Army knife Taysom Hill was the surprise starter in Brees' absence and went 3-1.
Brees returned for a Week 15 home showdown against the defending Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs, but the Saints came up a field goal short as they suffered their second of back-to-back losses.
New Orleans, though, closed the season strong, shredding the Minnesota Vikings 52-33 on Christmas Day behind Alvin Kamara's 6 rushing touchdowns and then, even with Kamara and the rest of the Saints' regular running backs out due to COVID-19, walloped the Carolina Panthers 33-7 behind three Brees TD passes and five defensive interceptions.
Wagering wise, the Saints finished 9-7 against the spread, and covered in eight of their final 10 games.
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Why the New Orleans Saints will win Super Bowl LV
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Instead of a bye, the second-seeded Saints will be in action on "Super" Wild Card Weekend, drawing the 8-8 Chicago Bears in a Sunday home game. Chicago won three of its last four games to claim the final spot in the expanded NFC field, but look for the Saints to roll to the most lopsided win of the entire postseason.
I also foresee the lower-seeded Bucs and Los Angeles Rams winning on the road in their Saturday NFC wild-card games, setting up Bucs-Saints III in the NFC Divisional Round.
The Saints will complete the sweep and earn a trip to Green Bay for the NFC title game.
Despite Green Bay's decided edge playing out in the elements at home and the Saints' 1-5 road playoff record during the Brees/Payton era (since 2006), the Saints will avenge the Week 3 loss, spring the upset and shake the crushing disappointments of the previous three postseasons with the franchise's second Super Bowl berth.
There, I have New Orleans facing off with the AFC's sizzling second seed, the Buffalo Bills, who will cruise past the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers at home before upending the Chiefs in a tight AFC title tilt at Arrowhead Stadium.
Buffalo will arrive in Tampa, Fla., having won 12 of its last 13 games (losing only on the "Hail Murray" miracle TD in Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals) but the shockingly improved Josh Allen and Co. will meet their match in the more experienced and balanced Saints, who will make good on the plus-value Super Bowl ( +750) and NFC ( +325)-winning wagers.
In the end, beneath a confetti shower culminating the strangest of seasons, Brees will follow in the Hall of Fame footsteps of John Elway, Peyton Manning and Ray Lewis, winning a second Super Bowl in his final NFL game.
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