Saints Date and Opponent Set for Wild Card Weekend
The 12-4 New Orleans Saints sewed up the second seed in the NFC playoffs with a 33-7 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday afternoon. With the NFL's addition of an extra playoff team in each conference this year, only the top seed earned a first-round bye. That honor went to the 13-3 Green Bay Packers, who clinched it with a 35-16 win over the Chicago Bears.
New Orleans will host the 8-8 Bears next Sunday January 10th at 4:40 Eastern Time on wild-card weekend. The NFL had previously announced that players on the Reserve-Covid list would not affect their scheduling match ups for the three first-round games on Saturday and three more on Sunday. Saints running back Alvin Kamara tested positive for the virus on Thursday. That automatically meant that Kamara would have to be away from the team facilities for ten days, making him ineligible to play on Saturday, but able to return for a Sunday game pending a negative test result.
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara (41) Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
The Saints defeated the Bears in Chicago 26-23 in overtime on November 1. New Orleans owns a 17-15 record over the Bears all-time, and a 7-5 advantage against them in New Orleans. The Saints have won six consecutive matchups over the Bears. These teams have played twice before in the postseason, both games in Chicago. The Bears defeated the Saints 16-6 in a wild-card game on January 6,1991. Chicago was again victorious in the NFC Championship Game on January 21, 2007, beating the Saints by a 39-14 score.
Here are the NFL wild-card match ups for next weekend.
SATURDAY JANUARY 9TH
AFC - #7 Indianapolis at #2 Buffalo (1:05 EST)
NFC - #6 L.A. Rams at #3 Seattle (4:40 EST)
NFC - #5 Tampa Bay at #4 Washington (8:15 EST)
SUNDAY JANUARY 10TH
AFC - #5 Baltimore at #4 Tennessee (1:05 EST)
NFC - #7 Chicago at #2 New Orleans (4:40 EST)
AFC - #6 Cleveland at #3 Pittsburgh (8:15 EST)
If victorious over Chicago, the Saints will host either Seattle or the winner of Tampa Bay/Washington if the Rams upset the Seahawks in the divisional round on January 16-17.
