Can you feel it?
Saints fever has swept across New Orleans.
The team’s scintillating 2-0 start has energized the city and rallied the citizenry.
What few skeptics remained after the season-opening rout of Carolina disappeared entirely after the 44-19 dismantling of Dallas in Week 2.
Everyone now is all-in.
Signs of Who Dat hysteria abound.
Doors — and dogs — are decorated in black and gold paraphernalia.
Impromptu second-line parades are breaking out, as was the case last Sunday, when a throng of marching Saints fans clogged the streets outside AT&T Stadium.
Random strangers are greeting each other with “Who Dat?!”
“You can definitely feel the buzz,” quarterback Derek Carr said.
It all should make for an amplified atmosphere for the Saints’ showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles at the Caesars Superdome. Tickets for the game rank among the hottest in the NFL.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen this kind of excitement for a Saints game. The Saints are aiming for their first 3-0 start in more than a decade (2013). The Eagles, meanwhile, are considered one of the NFC’s elite teams. If the Saints can knock them off one week after routing the Cowboys, it will go a long way toward establishing their credentials as a bona fide NFC playoff contender.
You’ve got to go back to early 2021, when the Saints started 4-2 and Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion Bucs came to town, to find a game with this much anticipation and build-up.
“Our fans are really excited,” Carr said. “I think it’s going to be an electric atmosphere.”
The reception from the home crowd should be quite different than it was nine months ago, when Carr and the Saints were booed roundly during an ugly home loss to the Detroit Lions.
Since then, Carr has worked diligently to repair his reputation with fans and exhibit his love for the city. Winning, of course, is the great elixir.
After the hot start, there’s nothing but love for Carr and Co. While he and his family were out of town this past weekend, Carr returned home to discover that neighbors had wrapped a parcel of delivery packages on their porch to protect it from the rain. This for a guy who was mocked by Mardi Gras crews in February.
“There was some rough times at the beginning and in the middle (of last season), but that last half of the year I did feel that love and that appreciation (from the fans),” Carr said. “… Right now, we're the greatest thing ever. We can't get too high.”
Indeed, the paradigm has shifted almost overnight. Two weeks ago, no one seemingly cared about the Saints. They were being completely overlooked and underrated. Now, they’re the talk of the league. And everyone wants a piece of them.
Players and coaches conducted more national media appearances this week than they did in the entire offseason. It was difficult to turn on your TV or scroll through your social media timeline without seeing some form of praise for the Saints. Analysts raved about offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s offense and hailing his play-calling wizardry. Carr, Rashid Shaheed and Alvin Kamara are the toasts of the talk shows.
Managing success has now become a talking point on Airline Drive. Saints head coach Dennis Allen even addressed it during a team meeting this week. The message: Don’t believe the hype. Keep your head down and stay focused.
“That's the league that we're in,” he said. “You have to manage adversity, and you have to manage prosperity. … We’ve got to focus on the task at hand.”
Easier said than done. As Bill Parcells used to say, “Every week in the NFL is either a crisis or a carnival.” Nowhere is that truer than New Orleans, where fans are starving for a winner and always looking for a reason to party.
FanDuel Sportsbook reported that the Saints received more bets to win the Super Bowl this week than any team in the league. You have to think most of those wagers were coming from New Orleanians. Consequently, the Saints’ odds to win the Super Bowl plummeted from 100-1 to 30-1.
“We always talk about (how) we got to win for our city, we got to win for (the fans) to be happy,” Carr said. “To do what we want to do, we are going to need that stadium rocking, and we have to play good football for that to happen.”
Rest assured, the Superdome will be in rare form Sunday. New Orleans has been waiting for a weekend like this. The rest is up to the Saints.
