They are the defending Super Bowl champions. But, somehow, the New Orleans Saints seem like a forgotten team.

The national attention appears to be focused on NFC South rival Atlanta, the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears in the NFC. Have we missed something?

The Saints are 6-3. In the NFC, only the Falcons and Bears have more wins. They each have seven. In the AFC, the Jets and Patriots are the only teams with seven wins.

It’s not as though the Saints have gone the same route as so many other recent Super Bowl champions, completely falling apart and out of the playoff picture the season after winning the title. In fact, you can make a case that the Saints are poised to join the Patriots as the only team since the turn of the century to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

Coming off a bye and a first nine games where they weren’t as dominant as last year, the Saints might be set up perfectly for another deep playoff run. Starting with Sunday’s home game with Seattle, the Saints have four straight games that look very winnable. They host Seattle (5-4) on Sunday and then play Dallas, Cincinnati and St. Louis.

They don’t play a team that looks all that strong until they travel to Baltimore on Dec. 19, and they do have to play Atlanta and Tampa Bay after that. But, by all rights, the Saints should have 10 wins before they get to the tough part of the schedule.

So why does it seem like no one outside New Orleans is talking about the Saints, who are on a two-game winning streak, including a victory over a Pittsburgh team that was supposed to be the class of the AFC?

Well, you can point to losses to Cleveland and Arizona. Both were ugly, and even some of the games the Saints have won were not pretty in the way that so many of last year’s victories were.

Drew Brees and the offense haven’t been nearly as dominant as they were when the Saints were winning their first 13 games last season, and the defense hasn’t been nearly as opportunistic. You could even point to the quick turnaround after the Seattle game and see the Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas as a possible stumbling block.

Even though the Cowboys have struggled, they’re still talented, and they were the team that broke New Orleans’ winning streak last year. A short week can be enough to throw any team off track.

But I’m not buying into that because the Saints have been here before. Part of the reason the Saints won a championship was that coach Sean Payton and circumstances have prepared the Saints for anything.

They’re masters of dealing with what life hands them, both positive and negative. They dealt with a London trip in 2008 and have had to pack up and practice elsewhere several times through the years as they’ve evacuated ahead of approaching hurricanes.

A quick turnaround isn’t going to make a lot of difference for the Saints, and maybe it’s better that they’ve sort of been forgotten. That could clear the way for the Saints to go on a nice run.....

Read the entire article  Saints getting ready to hit peak - NFC South Blog - ESPN