National Football League

UPDATE: Payton's Popeyes gameplan cures Saints' road woes

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:11 p.m. ET

Andre Vergara

UPDATE: Looks like Robert Meachem was right: The Saints, hungry for a road win, just needed to put Popeyes on the menu.

This was the scene in the Saints locker room on Friday:

The entire #Saints locker room is eating Popeyes . @Fox8Nola pic.twitter.com/9uB9BsjFWf
— Garland Gillen (@garlandgillen) January 3, 2014

On Saturday they went out and edged the Eagles for the franchise's first road playoff win. That led Popeyes to tweet out this:

Worried about winning on the road? Just bring along a piece of home. #BringTheChicken pic.twitter.com/npWeiGl1Ms
— Popeyes Chicken (@PopeyesChicken) January 5, 2014

Saints coach Sean Payton is reaching deep into his playbook to fix New Orleans' road woes heading into Saturday's NFC wild-card game at Philadelphia.

He's changing the flavor of the team's Gatorade.

And getting the players new sweatsuits.

Funny, I don't remember coaching football being this easy. But apparently the players are buying in, after the team went just 3-5 on the road this season.

“It is all about the new sweatsuits, the beefy mac and the Gatorade flavor,” quarterback Drew Brees told reporters this week. “We feel really good about what we have going this week with that. I can’t wait to see those new sweatsuits and hopefully that will change our luck.”

Under Payton, the Saints are 0-3 in playoff games on the road. Wideout Robert Meachum wants to bring back a road trip staple from the Saints' Super Bowl-winning season of 2009.

“Coach has got to give us Popeyes in the plane again,” Meachem said this week. “Everybody’s talking about that. Every road trip in ’09 we had Popeyes. Coach needs to bring back the Popeyes. Wherever we play, whoever we play, when we get on the plane – have the Popeyes ready.”

Popeyes, Gatorade and new sweatsuits? Rob Ryan must think it's Christmas again.