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With New Orleans' big win over the Eagles in Philly tonight, the Seahawks now know their Divisional Round opponent. The NFL re-seeds every week during the playoffs (as opposed to sticking to Playoff brackets), so because the Saints are the #6 seed in the NFC, they will travel to #1 seed Seattle next Saturday.
This will be the 2nd matchup between the two teams this year; New Orleans traveled to Seattle to play the Seahawks on Monday Night Football in Week 13 and the Seahawks won 34-7. In that game, Drew Brees finished 23 of 38 for 147 yards passing with a touchdown to Jimmy Graham, but Seattle held the vaunted Saints offense to 3.4 yards per play (just over half their season average). Russell Wilson had a good night, went 22 of 30 for 310 yards, three touchdowns and a rating of 139.6.
All that said, it's the Playoffs, where anything can happen, and Brees and New Orleans just beat arguably the hottest team in the NFL over the 2nd half of the year in Philadelphia.
For example, from earlier in the week:
@xKpierce12 The Eagles were 8th in DVOA, 3rd in weighted DVOA. Yeah, they're hot.
— Aaron Schatz (@FO_ASchatz) December 31, 2013
And the Saints did this on the road, in the cold.
Philly had gone into the game 7-1 in the 2nd half of the season and possessed the #2 ranked offense per DVOA. This Saints squad, though a bit beat up in their secondary, are dangerous, and it should be a great challenge for Seattle to win a 2nd matchup in a row at the CLink.
Said Drew Brees on December 3rd, the day after the loss to the Seahawks:
"We know they are a team we are going to have to deal with in the future. We are going to have to find a way to play better against these guys when that time comes."
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Noteworthy: Seattle gains a day of preparation by figuring out their upcoming opponent a day early. They can start their scouting tonight.
