Saints secondary will have their hands full with Cincinnati’s dynamic trio at receiver

Will Tyrann Mathieu and the secondary get the better of Ja’Marr Chase & company on their home soil?

This past Sunday, the New Orleans Saints secondary looked the worst it has all season against Seattle. They were gashed deep a number of times allowing multiple 30+ yard gains including three deep scores of 35+ each. The team won’t get a break anytime soon either, as they face the trio in Cincy of LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd this Sunday in the Superdome. This has been a heavily awaited match up amongst Louisiana natives as there are many players on both sides who have ties to either the city, the state of Louisiana and even the Saints organization. The energy in the Superdome should be electric especially coming off of a win.

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Onto the game itself, we’ll start with the Cincinnati passing offense who haven’t really been consistent over the course of their first five games. As a team they have only put up more than 20 points twice. They are 0-3 when held under that mark. However, this is not the team to underestimate at all as we saw them explode after a slow start last season, bringing them all the way to the big game. They still have the same crew on offense which means they are capable of doing everything they’ve done previously. Although they aren’t scoring a ton of points, something I found interesting is the even distribution of ball via Joe Burr(eaux). The team currently has five players with over 15 catches. Four of those five players have secured two touchdowns each. Of course, Chase is the most dynamic of the group, but Burrow is getting everyone else the ball as well. It is always difficult for a defense to find the offenses tendencies/keys when the team does a great job of keeping you honest.

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On the Saints side of things, the biggest talking point of the week is will Marshon Lattimore be able to go on Sunday. The team will already have its hands full with the Bengals weaponry but without Marshon, it can truly get ugly. Another player that must get healthy and was needed very badly last week was Marcus Maye. Maye is still nursing an injury but seemed close to going last Sunday which should indicate he will be available for this one. They will need all hands-on deck if they want to have success against this unit. As far as matchups, the Saints have the personnel to matchup with a team like this, similarly to the Bucs. I wouldn’t expect much traveling from anyone except for Marshon Lattimore if he can go. Ja’Marr Chase on anyone else would be an absolute mismatch that the Saints cannot afford in a game like this.

Both the Saints and Bengals are 2-3 trying to get to fresh starts at 3-3 which means you can expect both squads to be very gritty and desperate to get a W. I expect a very competitive game from both sides with emotions running at an all-time high with all the familiarity to the geographical location of the game. Can’t wait for this one.

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