The first three games of the NFL’s divisional weekend positively proved the value of winning a playoff bye—the Chiefs, Rams and Patriots burst from the postseason gate like Secretariat, American Pharoah and Justify. And then, in the last of what had been a relatively sleepy set of games, the pitfall of the bye week seemed to come just as clear.
The Saints hadn’t really put their foot on the gas since that slugfest with the Steelers two days before Christmas. Accordingly, that was showing.
“We just had to settle down and play how we play,” corner Marshon Lattimore said from the locker room postgame, in conceding that the bye had a temporarily negative effect on New Orleans.