Washington Football Team Reality Checks for Week 5 vs New Orleans

3. The Reality Is, New Orleans is bad offensively and very good defensively.

I am old enough to remember back when New Orleans was among the worst teams and the league on a perennial basis. Then along came Sean Payton and Drew Brees, and all of the sudden, New Orleans was a threat to win the NFC every year. Their formula was simple…score more points than the other team and have really good special teams. Their defense, for the vast majority of Brees’ time there was somewhere between terrible and passable. But certainly never the strength of the team.

But that all started to change last year as Brees started to tail off in his production. And with the two-headed monster of Winston and Hill serving as Brees’ replacement, the offense this season has been quite bad. Outside of their opening game against a Green Bay team that hadn’t yet realized the season had started, they are averaging 18.6 points and 262 yards per game. Many are calling this yet another opportunity for Washington’s defense to “get right”. It certainly SHOULD be an opportunity for them to exert some dominance, but I have a feeling the prowess of the New Orleans defense will largely bottle up the Washington offense, leaving Winston and Hill ample possessions and great field position to work with. This Sunday, expect New Orleans to look a lot more like they did against Green Bay than how they did against Carolina.