Who has the edge in week 3 - the Saints or Patriots?
Yahoo Sports' discuss the upcoming matchup between the New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots, including betting advice and fantasy implications.
Video Transcript
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: The Saints traveled to New England. And who are the Saints? They were unbelievable in week one, terrible in week two.
The Patriots have played-- and I'm a Patriots fan. They played two of the most boring games I've seen all year-- a boring game with Miami, a very boring game that the Jets handed to them pretty much from the opening gun. New England [? spotting ?] 3 at BetMGM.
The total is very low-- 43 and 1/2. I wonder. You don't think a Belichick team would be looking ahead, but they know the Brady game is coming next week.
I don't know who the Saints are going to be. I think the Patriots are going to try to play their 1977 football that they've been doing. Mac Jones is fine, but they don't want him carrying the water here. So I don't think there's a lot of fantasy juice in this game, but it'll be an interesting game-- two of the best coaches in modern history or really of all time. Which way you leaning on New Orleans, New England?
FRANK SCHWAB: Patriots because-- I mean, but who knows? Like you said, we can make a reasonable argument that the best team in week one was New Orleans Saints. We can make a reasonable argument the worst team in week two was New Orleans Saints.
So what do you do? They had six first downs last week-- six. I mean, that's unbelievable for any offense, much less one with Sean Payton as its head coach.
It was awful. Everything they did was awful. Jameis got jumpy.
I thought he-- you know, he got hit a few times. He was not the calm and collected Jameis Winston. Let's remember, week one, everybody was going crazy about Jameis.
Look, he didn't play well. He had five touchdowns, but he also had like 148 yards. It wasn't like he was just lighting it up here, here, here, here here.
It was-- you know, he did what he had to do. He made the big plays when they counted, but it wasn't a great offensive performance. And I wonder how good this offense really is.
I mean, no Michael Thomas-- Marcus Caloway is not the guy we thought he was going to be in the preseason. Let me be-- I have a few fantasy teams that will attest to that. Who's their number one receiver right now?
It's Alvin Kamara, but I mean, beside that, who on that offense really scares you? Adam Trautman? I just-- there's nobody there.
I don't think there's a lot of juice. Jameis is not going to-- he's not, you know, a deodorant guy like Mahomes, like you stated. He's not making everybody better.
So I just wonder where the offense comes from. And if there's a defense guy you don't want to go against when you don't have many offensive weapons when you have a weakness, it's Bill Belichick. I just-- I don't think the Saints team is going to score too much, and I don't think it's too much to ask for them to win by 3 or more.
I mean, this is-- they're going to play-- you know, you said the two most boring games. Well, they're going to play 17 boring games. Like, this is not going be a fun team, by any means.
But they're going to win a lot of games because they're really, really well coached. I think Mac is good enough. They do have some guys on offense who can make some plays unlike the Saints.
So again, this was another easy one for me. I was a little bit surprised by the line. I can't lie.
I was like, really-- if it would have been a little higher, I might have paused. But no, if it's just 3, I'm fine with the Patriots. I think they're just a better team than the New Orleans Saints right now.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: I think I'm going to have to lean New England and probably pull the trigger on them when it comes to making my picks official later in the week. I just worry that this offense has not been getting the commensurate amount of points that they should have gotten. They should have been Miami, and they had to settle for too many field goals.
They had a couple of fumbles. That Jets game, the Jets were trying to lose 40 to 3, and New England beat them, what was it? 26 to 3 or whatever it was.
I mean, New England left a ton of points on the board in that game too. And at some point, once the game is well in hand, OK, fine. Just take your foot off the accelerator.
The defense has it. Belichick has the personnel he wants on defense again. He didn't have it last year.
It's interesting that last year that New England was down all the personnel because of COVID and everything. And this year, the Saints are playing without so many key guys although it didn't seem to matter in week one. But you know, Jameis Winston, he ripped off his mask last week, and he was Jameis Winston again.
You know, it was like at the end of a "Scooby Doo" episode. And Bill Belichick, we know how much he feasts on inexperienced quarterbacks. I got to figure he'll find a way to make Jameis Winston look bad. The one X factor is I wonder if this is a week where Taysom Hill plays a lot, where-- not just a package, but maybe if Taysom Hill gets the drive and it sparks the team or maybe they're trailing at halftime and Payton just says, to hell with it, Taysom, you're starting the second half.