black_floyd
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I selected "Not good". Aside from 2009, our second playoff game has been our kryptonite game every single postseason unless we'd already lost the opener. 2018 is something of a write-off considering the ref tampering but we also gave the refs that opportunity to screw us over by not salting it away once we were up 20-7. I'm not saying that to excuse the refs' inexcusable actions, I'm just saying we had the chance to prevent that corruption from deciding the game.
I think we're definitely good enough to beat TB as we've already proven so twice this season. I also thought we were good enough to beat SF in 2011 and MIN in 2017 but we let both of them score twice on us in those games' final minutes (SF started their first of two scoring drives with 4:02 left in the game and MIN started their first of two scoring drives with 3:01 remaining.)
As for our other losses in second games of postseasons, CHI was 3 games better than us in 2006 and we were playing in 28 degree weather. That was a game we were supposed to lose so I don't hold that against them. 2013 in SEA is kind of a coinflip. They destroyed us 34-7 on MNF when we were 9-2 and we never recovered since we went 2-3 in our final 5 games counting that loss. I think that playoff loss was more about the team playing scared or being psyched out than anything else due to the MNF arse kicking.
So basically, we just have a history of playing below our potential in second playoff games and we need to be prepared to play the closest thing we can muster to mistake-free football. We can't be playing scared, move the ball 5 yards at a time, never attempt passes beyond 10 yards football and we need to tackle well. Unfortunately, Brady will probably be gifted at least 2 possession-saving penalties by the refs on 3rd or 4th downs so there's that to overcome as well.
We can definitely win this game but we're gonna have to play like regular season Saints and not playoff Saints.
I think we're definitely good enough to beat TB as we've already proven so twice this season. I also thought we were good enough to beat SF in 2011 and MIN in 2017 but we let both of them score twice on us in those games' final minutes (SF started their first of two scoring drives with 4:02 left in the game and MIN started their first of two scoring drives with 3:01 remaining.)
As for our other losses in second games of postseasons, CHI was 3 games better than us in 2006 and we were playing in 28 degree weather. That was a game we were supposed to lose so I don't hold that against them. 2013 in SEA is kind of a coinflip. They destroyed us 34-7 on MNF when we were 9-2 and we never recovered since we went 2-3 in our final 5 games counting that loss. I think that playoff loss was more about the team playing scared or being psyched out than anything else due to the MNF arse kicking.
So basically, we just have a history of playing below our potential in second playoff games and we need to be prepared to play the closest thing we can muster to mistake-free football. We can't be playing scared, move the ball 5 yards at a time, never attempt passes beyond 10 yards football and we need to tackle well. Unfortunately, Brady will probably be gifted at least 2 possession-saving penalties by the refs on 3rd or 4th downs so there's that to overcome as well.
We can definitely win this game but we're gonna have to play like regular season Saints and not playoff Saints.