The New Orleans Saints will be facing off with the Arizona Cardinals in their final exhibition match of the preseason. This is likely going to be the game that both teams figure out who their starters are going to be for the regular season. We may even get the chance to see starters for more than one drive if their head coaches are feeling like getting them warmed up ahead of the regular season. The Saints split their first two preseason matchups, though their last game was a solid win over the Jacksonville Jaguars 23-20. The Cardinals are in the exact same boat, sitting at 1-1 on the preseason. Their last game was a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 17-10.
This is going to be a huge game for the Saints organization. This is going to determine who is the starting quarterback for their season opener in a week. Jameis Winston played outstanding against Jacksonville, a game in which he started. He completed nine out of ten pass attempts for 123 yards and two deep touchdowns that were perfectly thrown. Taysom Hill relieved him in the second quarter and completed 11 of his 20 pass attempts for 138 yards and a touchdown. On paper, it looks like these two quarterbacks are neck and neck in the starting quarterback race, but Jameis seems to be pulling ahead. There were reports the other day that the rest of the team was starting to treat Winston as the starting quarterback already ahead of this date with the Cardinals. If he does end up winning the job, we are primed to see a ton of Marquez Callaway in the upcoming weeks. However, if Hill wins the job, we will be getting a heavy dose of Lil’Jordan Humphery. Both quarterbacks have seemingly found their primary targets with Michael Thomas still rehabbing from surgery.
While I mentioned that we might get to see some starters in this contest, we won’t see much offensively when it comes to the Cardinals. The team has already announced that Kyler Murray along with a few other starters won’t be participating at all here. Their backups haven’t looked nearly as good as the Saints have in recent weeks but that doesn’t mean this is an easy win by any means. Preseason matchups are hard to predict, especially when you understand that these guys are fighting for their jobs out there. I feel like the Saints win this game by a small margin.
I also got some time to check out the upcoming Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. They match up with the Houston Texans in their final showing before the regular season. Fans are just dying to get into the games that count because their depth is simply not performing like they want. They were crushed last week against the Tennessee Titans by a score of 34-3 and lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 19-14 to open the preseason. The Buccaneers have far better starters, but chances are none of them hit the field once again. Meanwhile, the Texans picked up a ton of depth during the offseason and are 2-0 right now. In the regular season, there is no way Houston wins this ball game. Though I believe they have much better depth than Tampa Bay does right now and should win unless the Buccaneers choose to play their starters for at least the opening quarter.
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