Wellllllll...let's hypothesise.
Bucs are horrible. Really, really horrible right now. At the rate they're going, they'll be lucky to make .500
Carolina is 0-2, have lost a key member of their offensive line, and it's not clear when their best player will be back, nor even if/when he'll be 100% due to the nature of his injury.
Atlanta are off to a good start but they have a tendancy to fall off as the season wears on, Dunn especially. If they can't run, Vick has to throw. If Vick has to throw, they're in trouble. Their D might be enough to cover for it, but I'd be cautious right now.
Saints remaining schedule is like this:
Atlanta
@ Carolina
Tampa Bay
Philadelphia
Baltimore
@ Tampa Bay
@ Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
@ Atlanta
San Francisco
@ Dallas
Washington
@ NY Giants
Carolina
I've bolded the games I think they can
potentially win. Obviously a lot will change between now and then. But at this point, even though their D is not especially good, they seem to be gelling as a shootout team, which suits most of their players on offence really.
If they win those games they're 9-7. Normally I'd say 9-7 won't get it done, but nobody in the West aside from Seattle will win 9, the teams in the East will beat each other so much 9-7 will probably win that division, and it remains to be seen how good Minnesota will be.
So they
could sneak it.
Maybe.
But probably not
