It does make sense. The Saints draw from Louisville, Misssissippi to parts of Bama and Pensacola. That gives you about 7-10 million potential viewers.
Then you have your visiting team adding onto the average.
“Over the course of 10 wild and woolly national TV dates, Campbell’s charges scared up 22.6 million viewers per game, edging the perennial ratings champs in Dallas by some 175,000 impressions.”
The article you posted suggested - using the Lions as an example- that this data is based on “National TV Dates” (the lions had 10 according to the article) and viewers per game. Nothing to do with local TV.
That being said, the Saints were unwatchable this year even for me. The organization is definitely not “must see” TV. I’m more interested in how folks can extrapolate conclusions based on poorly defined data. I see it in business all the time and I think it’s interesting when it shows up in the wild:)