Previewing Las Vegas Raiders vs. New Orleans Saints

The Las Vegas Raiders were able to pick up a season-opening win against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. It was a closer game than some fans may have liked, but the most important thing was that the team got off on the right foot to start the season.

It’s not as if they don’t need it. Their schedule now only gets tougher, with the team’s next game being their first in Las Vegas on Monday Night Football against the New Orleans Saints.

After going through a rough stretch from 2014-2016 where they went 21-24, the Saints the last three years have once again become a perennial NFL power. They’re 37-11 since 2017, not including the win in their season opener against the new-look Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

They’ve done this by accumulating one of the deepest rosters in the league, filled with Pro Bowlers like Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, Cameron Jordan, Marshon Lattimore, Ryan Ramczyk, Demario Davis, and others.

There have always been two constants, though, and those of course quarterback Drew Brees and head coach Sean Payton.

Brees, entering his age 41(!) season has remained the model of efficiency at the QB position. At an age where most players are well into retirement, he has come off leading the league in completion percentage the last three seasons at 72 percent or higher.

Credit, of course, also has to be given to Payton, long heralded as one of the brightest offensive minds in the NFL. He has continually evolved the Saints offense as Brees has aged to continually play to his strengths, mainly by accumulating some of the best offensive talents in the league in players like Kamara and Thomas.

The Saints will stand as great of a test that the Raiders could face this early in the season.

Derek Carr, Josh Jacobs, and the Raiders offense will need to be ready to face a defense that’s far deeper than Carolina's, and defensively the Raiders can’t afford to not execute, lest they want to be surgically taken apart by Brees’s pinpoint passing.

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