Metairie, La. — The waiting game continues for the Saints, who won’t know their next opponent until Sunday evening, when the second NFC Wild Card game has ended. Until then, they’re doing the only thing they can do– work on themselves.
“It’s unusual but it’s exciting,” said Saints Quarterback Drew Brees. “It’s the position you want to be in. It’s different than a bye week during the season when you know who the upcoming opponent’s going to be. You still approach that bye week similar to what we’re doing now which is rest and recovery first and foremost. That’s the benefit of the bye week, right? And you get to basically leap frog the first round of games and go right to the second round and you get to host it. All those are good things. We’re really just focused on ourselves right now, so getting guys rested, getting guys recovered, focusing on some details, a chance to self-scout a little bit.”
Once they find out who they’re playing, the focus will shift to their game plan and they’ll treat it like “just another week.” However they all know the difference now, is if you lose, that’s the end of the line.
“If you approach every game during the season like it’s the most important game then I don’t think there’s any difference,” Brees said about whether they’ll be more amped-up for this coming playoff game. “It’s not like, oh it’s time to crank it up now. No. We’ve been cranking it up. I’ve had that same approach, had the same preparation, had that same process so that when these games come around it’s to me– been there done that. But of course understanding it is a single elimination tournament right? It’s a win or go home and obviously we want to win.”
Up ahead for the Saints will be the lowest remaining seed after this weekends games, meaning they could face the No. 5 Seahawks, No. 4 Cowboys or the No. 6 Eagles. That NFC Divisional round game will be Sunday, January 13 at 3:40 p.m. (CT).
