5 Reasons Why The Saints Will Lose To The Lions

The New Orleans Saints return to action on Sunday afternoon, taking on the Detroit Lions, and it’s time to take a look at five reasons why they will lose.

Actually, that should probably read “why they might lose".

Truthfully, I think the game is a toss up, and that the Saints have a pretty good shot at running their win streak to three games. They're coming off a byeweek, and the Lions are banged up. But it is my week to have them come up short.

In another segment, Greg Larnerd lists five reasons why the Saints will win.

Kickoff time is scheduled for noon.

Why the Saints will lose to the Lions:

1)---Turnovers---The Saints haven't turned the ball over yet this year, so that is a good thing, right? Well, it's a great thing, for the first four games, but could be a bad thing for this game, alone. Look, the Saints are the only team in the NFL not to turnover the ball one single time, so they're way overdue. I mean, it's not like they're going to go the entire year without throwing an interception or fumbling it over. Going 5-straight games without turning the ball over is almost unheard of, especially considering the Saints are a passing team. Meanwhile, the Lions have forced 11 turnovers, the third most in the league. Last year, in a 28-13 loss to the Lions, the Saints turned over the ball three times, while failing to force one themselves. Not only am I fearful of a turnover on Sunday, but I'm expecting it, and in a game that I think will go down to the last 2:00, a turnover could be the difference in the game.

2)---Golden Tate---The guy is just a Saints killer. Over the last three years, while with the Lions, Tate has caught 24 passes for 344 yards and 4 touchdowns against New Orleans. That's an average of 8 catches for 115 yards. Even going back to his days with the Seahawks, Tate seems to just always light up the Saints' secondary.

3)---Matthew Stafford---I'm assuming he'll play, but he did sustain an ankle injury last week. Remember what I mentioned earlier, about turnovers? Stafford protects the football. This season, he's thrown only one interception. And that's par for the course for him. Over the past 5 seasons, Stafford has thrown 116 touchdown passes, compared to only 55 interceptions. Even more, he's done extremely well against the Saints over the last three years, throwing for 895 yards and 7 touchdowns, while getting picked off only twice.

4)---Lions Rush Defense---The Lions are allowing only 74.6 yards rushing a contest, which ranks third in the league. They allowed on 28 yards on 28 carries to the Panthers last wee, after allowing only 87 yards rushing to the Vikings the week prior. Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata may not play, and that would hurt Detroit, but yards on the ground against that defense are hard to come by. And while they've given up their far share of passing yards, especially to tight ends, they still have compiled 13 sacks, which ranks in the top ten, along with 7 interceptions, which rank 4th. The Detroit defense beat up the Saints last year, and pretty much all of their defenders return this year.

5)---3 Game Win Streaks Are Unlikely---It's not like the Saints have never had a 3-game win streak. They had one just two years ago, in 2015. In 2013, they had another 3-game win streak, after opening up the season by winning their first 5 games. It's also not like 3-game win streaks are rare around the league. The Chiefs, Jets, Packers, and Eagles all have 3-game win streaks heading into the weekend. That being said, 3-game win streaks are hard to come by, so the odds are against the Saints.