The New Orleans Saints play the Carolina Panthers on Thursday. Kickoff is at 8:25 p.m. ET. Listen to the live radio broadcast via the links provided below.
New Orleans (3-4) surprised many with last week's 44-23 blowout of the Green Bay Packers. Drew Brees passed for 311 yards and a trio of touchdowns, and the Saints' running game dominated behind Mark Ingram and his 172 yards on the ground. Not even above .500 yet, the Saints locker room knows they still face an uphill battle - especially on the road, where they're 0-4.
"The important thing to understand and realize is that winning a game is not arriving," said Saints tackle Zach Strief, via ESPN.
Despite the horrible record on the road, Strief believes it's something they can overcome.
"You look at how we've lost three of those four road games and you say, 'We made some critical errors at the end,'" he said. "It's not that we were getting dominated on the road."
If New Orleans can win Thursday night, though, it'd go a ways toward helping restore the team's confidence on the road. It'd also put New Orleans at the top of the division, something coach Sean Payton isn't overly concerned about at the moment.
"Certainly there's all sorts of goals and there's big picture, small picture and I think what we've tried to do is really focus on the smallest picture - and that's our own team getting better," said Payton.
Carolina, meanwhile, sits with a 3-4-1 record. They're on the heels of a two-game losing streak, with their last loss coming on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. Despite not having won in three weeks, Carolina is still neck-in-neck in their division with a chance to keep the No. 1 spot after Thursday's game.
"If you said at the start of training camp or OTAs, 'Hey, you have a chance in Week 9 to be playing for first place, would you take it?' Yeah, I'd take it," Panthers offensive coordinator Mike Shula told the team website. "That's the mindset. You have to keep moving forward and forget about what's happened."
Listen to the live radio broadcast HERE (NO) and HERE (CAR).
