NEW ORLEANS — You can add the defending Super Bowl champions to the list.

The New Orleans Saints vanquished yet another playoff team from last year with Sunday afternoon’s beatdown of the visiting Philadelphia Eagles — a game that wasn’t even as close as the final 48-7 score indicated. 

The Saints took the Eagles to the wood shed, or rather voodoo shed, as Drew Brees and company piled up more than 500 yards of offense, made Eagles star quarterback Carson Wentz look pedestrian (156 yards, three interceptions) and obliterated the record for largest margin of victory between the two franchises which was previously 26 by Saints and 27 by the Eagles.

The chants of “Who Dat! Who Dat! Who Dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?” started to echo throughout the Mercedes-Benz Superdome after Brees found Alvin Kamara for a 38-yard touchdown pass that pushed the score to 45-7 early in the fourth quarter. 

To be honest, those chants could have easily begun during pre-game warm-ups.

The energy inside the Dome Sunday was high voltage as the crowd was amped for the entire 60 minutes of game play. The players were just as pumped up as the paint-faced and costumed Who Dats in the crowd, as the team played with a level of swag that was noticeable even during the down time in between plays as wide receiver Michael Thomas danced to Mystikal while Kamara later did his thing to Lil’ Wayne, both which were shown on the video boards to fans’ delight. 

That confidence is deserved as there is no team in the NFL that is playing better than the Saints as Week 10 comes to a close. 

Yes, the Kansas City Chiefs may have an offense that is even more explosive than the Saints but their defense is trash. The so-called best teams in the NFC have already proven to be no match for the Saints.

After starting the season by losing a shootout to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (48-40), at home for that matter, New Orleans has reeled off nine straight wins. 

That streak includes besting NFC South division rival Atlanta on the road (43-37 OT), enacting a little revenge against the team that defeated them in heartbreaking fashion in the divisional round a season ago in Minnesota (30-20), handing the previously unbeaten and widely-hyped Los Angeles Rams (45-35) for the Rams’ first loss two weeks ago, and now throttling the team that hoisted the Lombardi Trophy last season.

That means that New Orleans has now defeated the NFC East, NFC North and NFC West division winners from a year ago, as well as an NFC Wild Card team. 

The Saints can add to that impressive list when it closes the season with a pair of games against their division rival, the Carolina Panthers, who were the NFC Wild Card team a year ago, a team the Saints beat three times in 2017. 

In between those rivalry games, New Orleans welcomes AFC perennial contender the Pittsburgh Steelers, who — you guessed it — are the reigning AFC North champions.

Before that, though, the Saints will welcome in the Dirty Birds on Thanksgiving night and if Drew Brees and company play like they did today, or for that matter the last three games in which they have scored at least 45 points, it could be the kind of holiday that leaves permanent emotional scars for the Falcons.

That would also mean that Atlanta would be added to that ever-growing list for the second time this season — and I am pretty sure for the Saints and the Who Dats feel that would be the perfect way to wrap up Turkey Day. 

 

RAYMOND PARTSCH IIIis managing editor of The Daily Iberian.