Paris Pressure: Saints Must Block Out the Chaos and Finish Their Business Against the Steelers

The New Orleans Saints came to Paris to play football. After spending nearly the entire week in France preparing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, that mission has not changed, even if the atmosphere surrounding Sunday's game certainly has.

The NFL closed its "NFL House" in Paris on Saturday as the city prepared for street protests, with a heavy police presence and storefronts boarded up. The league cited "potential accessibility issues" in announcing the closure. The NFL's city-center pop-up shop was also closed Saturday, while the Saints postponed their "Saints House" event until Sunday.

That's a lot happening around a football game. But for the Saints, this is where spending the full week in Paris might actually become an advantage.

International games can already be difficult. You're dealing with travel, time-zone changes, unfamiliar practice surroundings and an entirely different game-week routine.

New Orleans made the decision to embrace Paris rather than simply fly in, play football and leave.

Now that decision could pay off.

While everything happening outside the Saints' football bubble has changed the feel of the weekend, the team has had several days to establish a routine. They've practiced, held meetings and had time to get their bodies adjusted.

That's important because Sunday's game can't become about what is happening throughout Paris. Once the Saints step onto the field, it needs to become another NFL Sunday.

The NFL has maintained that the game will go forward as scheduled, and Commissioner Roger Goodell said preparations had been coordinated with French and U.S. authorities. The U.S. State Department has also advised Americans attending the game to exercise caution because of the demonstrations.

For Kellen Moore and his team, however, the football message should be simple: Control what you can control.

This might quietly become one of the more interesting coaching challenges Moore has faced.

Not because he needs some brilliant new offensive scheme due to what's happening around Paris, but because his job is to keep 53 football players focused when the environment outside the stadium is anything but normal.

The Saints can't spend Sunday morning thinking about canceled events, transportation problems, police activity or what is happening elsewhere in the city.

New Orleans enters this game coming off a 34-27 victory over the New York Giants that snapped a three-game losing streak. Pittsburgh arrives at 4-2 after a 26-19 overtime win over Tampa Bay.

That means this isn't some European vacation with a football game attached. The Saints really need this one.

At 2-4, New Orleans doesn't have much room to waste opportunities. Beating Pittsburgh would give the Saints consecutive victories and potentially change the entire feeling surrounding their season.

There's something fitting about Sunday's game now.

The NFL came to Paris hoping to create a celebration around the league's first regular-season game in France. Instead, some of the festivities surrounding the matchup have been disrupted by circumstances far bigger than football.

But the game remains. For roughly three hours Sunday, the Saints have an opportunity to make the conversation about football again.

And from a Saints perspective, there's only one Paris headline that really needs to matter when this weekend is finished:

New Orleans found a way to win.

The Saints didn't travel across the Atlantic to become tourists. They came to Paris needing a football win.

Everything happening around this game makes the situation unusual, but New Orleans has been in France long enough to get comfortable and establish its routine. That needs to become an advantage Sunday.

Block out the noise. Protect the football. Play disciplined defense. Let Kellen Moore manage the game instead of chasing it.

Paris might not look exactly like the NFL celebration everyone imagined this weekend, but the Saints still have an opportunity to leave France with something much more important than photographs and memories.

They can leave Paris with another win, and perhaps some real momentum heading into the second half of the season.