National Football League

The NFC South now goes through New Orleans

Published Nov. 3, 2014 8:18 p.m. ET

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There still isn't an NFC South team above the .500 mark, but the New Orleans Saints definitely look like a team that's well on its way.

The Saints demolished the Panthers on Thursday night to move to 4-4, and didn't rely solely on the arm of quarterback Drew Brees. Mark Ingram pounded out 100 yards on 30 carries to give New Orleans a balanced offensive attack.

Just as important as the offense was to New Orleans, was the way the pass rush functioned in Charlotte. The Saints sacked Cam Newton four times, and hurried the Panthers' passer 18 times. New Orleans hasn't shown a game-changing defense this year often, but if the guys up front can continue getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks, a return to somewhere close to 2013 levels of play on defense isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Thursday's win was the Saints' first regular-season road victory of the season, and first since Nov. 21 of last season. In their last 13 games away from the Superdome, New Orleans is 4-9.

On the flip side, New Orleans is 3-0 at home this season, and has won its last 11 games in front of Who Dat Nation. Now that the Saints have two convincing wins in a row (they beat Green Bay by 19 and Carolina by 18), they have the luxury of playing at home for three consecutive contests.

For a team that's slowly getting back on track, having three games in a building where it hasn't lost since 2012 is huge.

The Falcons and Bucs are already two and three games behind the Saints, respectively. If the Panthers can't take care of business on the road in Philadelphia, and at home against Atlanta over the next two weeks, New Orleans could have a sizable lead in the division by Week 13.

Tampa Bay was up by one point at halftime against the Browns on Sunday, and had a lead in the fourth quarter as well. That was until Cleveland took the lead for good when Brian Hoyer threw a 34-yards touchdown pass with nine minutes to play.

The Bucs also had a 13-10 lead with two minutes to play against Minnesota in Week 8, only to lose in overtime.

Late leads aren't unusual for this team. Winning is.

With a one-point lead in Week 2 over the Rams (Tampa Bay lost 19-17) and an 11-point lead over New Orleans in Week 5 (the Bucs lost 37-31 in overtime), if you count Tampa Bay's lone win, the Bucs have held five fourth-quarter leads in eight games.

Call it not being able to close out games, but also consider that these Bucs have been close in all but two contests. Take away Tampa Bay's 42-point loss to Atlanta and its 31-point loss to Baltimore, and Bucs' other five losses were by a combined 24 points (4.8 points per game), and none was by more than six points.

With a tweak here or there, it's conceivable that Tampa Bay could quickly turn things around. But that's not the feel after watching this team play.

Mike Glennon only completed 51.5 percent of his passes against Cleveland, and threw a season-high two interceptions. It doesn't look like a few tweaks will fix Tampa Bay's quarterback.

It's also imperative to ask about the realism of Bobby Rainey's 87 rushing yards on Sunday. The Bucs rank 29th in the league in rushing, and hadn't had a running back gain 50 yards or more in a game since Week 2. While Rainey's explosion seems like a step in the right direction, it also could have come because Cleveland has one of the worst run defenses (139.6 yards per game -- 30th) in the NFL.

Atlanta's four-win season from a year ago was supposed to be an anomaly. Now, at 2-6 midway through the 2014 campaign, there is a question as to whether the Falcons can make it back to four wins.

The Falcons have a winnable game on Sunday in Tampa against the Bucs. But don't put too much weight on that 42-point win over Tampa Bay in Week 3. Atlanta is just 3-3 under head coach Mike Smith when the team travels to play the Bucs.

In addition to Tampa Bay, Atlanta has two games on the schedule against Carolina and one more against New Orleans to round out the divisional schedule. None of those are gimmies.

Outside of the NFC South, the Falcons sill must face Cleveland, Arizona, Green Bay and Pittsburgh. All four of those teams are well above .500, with a combined record of 23-10.

With eight games to go, it's difficult to imagine Atlanta getting shut out of the win column and finishing the season at 2-14. But the road ahead is treacherous.

Some offensive lines have problems in pass protection. Some have issues opening holes for the running game.

Carolina's offensive line has four undrafted players as starters.

Center Ryan Kalil was a second-round pick in 2007 and has started 93 games (and all nine this season) in his career. The combination of left tackle David Foucault, left guard Andrew Norwell, right guard Fernando Velasco and right tackle Nate Chandler have 57 combined starts over their careers.

Foucault got his first career start Thursday against the Saints. He allowed two sacks and six quarterback hurries.

The only player along Carolina's offensive line that didn't allow quarterback Cam Newton to get pressured was Kalil. The others combined to allow four sacks and 16 hurries.

On a positive note, each of the five starters played all 57 offensive snaps. Foucault, Velasco and Norwell even pitched in on special teams.

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