Jackson Free Press

Normally at 1-3 heading into their bye week, you would think the New Orleans Saints’ season would be over. Since the playoff format changed in 1990, only 14 percent of 1-3 teams have made the playoffs. That number works out to 183 teams. Last season, the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs made the playoffs after a 1-3 start.

Remember, I said normally. This season, 13 teams in the league currently have a 1-3 record. That is nearly half the league, and if you add teams that are 2-2, that number balloons to 18 teams.

Currently only 14 have a winning record, and only three are still undefeated. Except for the 3-1 Atlanta Falcons, every team in the NFC South has a 1-3 record like the Saints.

New Orleans still has seven 1-3 teams left on the schedule, including the both, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice. The Saints also play the .500 Kansas City Chiefs for eight games against teams .500 or under at this point in the season.

That leaves four teams with a winning record on the schedule. Those teams are the undefeated Denver Broncos and three teams at 3-1 in the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams and Atlanta Falcons.

If the Saints beat all the teams at .500 or below left on their schedule, they would finish 9-7 on the season. Right now in the NFC, nine teams that have a .500 record are worse.

Unless the 3-1 Falcons run away with the NFC South, chances are, the Saints are still alive in their division. The Carolina Panthers, last year’s Super Bowl loser who are also at 1-3, could come back, as well, to take the NFC South.

I know what you're thinking: How can the Saints still have any playoff chance with their defense? It’s true that New Orleans has the 32nd ranked defense with 32.5 points per game.

But the rest of the NFC South isn’t much better. Tampa Bay is 31st with 32 points per game, Atlanta is 29th with 31 points per game, and Carolina is 28th with 29.5 points per game.

The Saints have the fourth-ranked offense with 28.5 points per game. Atlanta has the best offense in the league at 38 points per game, Carolina is sixth with 27.3 points per game, and Tampa Bay is 25th with 19.3 points per game.

Let’s look at this as a glass-half-full situation. New Orleans has been this bad on defense with an extreme number of injuries. The Saints, in theory, should get better on defense as the season goes along, and they begin to see defensive player return.

There is hope for the defense if it can get players back and play like it did in the second half against the Chargers. New Orleans outscored San Diego 21-10 in the second half and forced timely turnovers.

Right now, New Orleans …

Sunday Night Football should see an increase in ratings this week when the Dallas Cowboys host the Philadelphia Eagles. The rating should be helped with the Cowboys alone, who produce a strong reaction in nearly every NFL fan.

The game should also get a boost from two rookie quarterbacks: Dak Prescott, who is still at the helm for the Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles feature quarterback Carson Wentz.

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo didn’t return to practice today, but he was on the field throwing the ball to teammates. Romo won’t be back this week, but Dallas is going to have to answer the question sooner or later about the team’s quarterback situation.

Head coach Jason Garrett knows which way the locker room is leaning, and that should help guide him to his decision. There is no reason to announce to the rest of the league what will happen when Romo is fully healthy, but he needs to have a plan in place to avoid a quarterback controversy.

But the Romo-Prescott problem is for another week. This week, it’s the quarterback drafted second overall against a fourth-round quarterback.

Before the preseason, it seemed highly unlikely that Wentz and Prescott would be starting for their respective teams. Even more unlikely is that both quarterbacks have a combined 9-3 record.

Rookie quarterbacks aren’t supposed to be this successful this fast. Instead, Prescott has the 5-1 Cowboys on a five-game winning streak coming off their bye week. Wentz has the Eagles at 4-2, and the team beating the Vikings last week ended a two game losing streak.

Both quarterbacks have very similar numbers, but Prescott has been better. He has thrown for 1,486 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception. Wentz has thrown for 1,324 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions.

Prescott is completing 68.7 percent of his passes with a 103.9 passer rating, and Wentz is competing 63.8 percent of his passes with a 92.7 passer rating. Prescott is averaging 8.2 yards per pass, and Wentz is averaging 7.2 yards per pass.

Even when needing to use their legs, Prescott has been better. The Cowboys rookie has 20 rushes for 67 yards and three touchdowns, but Wentz has 43 yards on 18 carries and zero touchdowns rushing.

Both quarterbacks must work on protecting the ball in the pocket and rushing. Prescott has four fumbles, and Wentz has six this season. Wentz has been sacked 12 times for a loss of 60 yards, and Prescott has been sacked nine times for a loss of 44 yards.

In fact, the Cowboys’ fourth-round draft pick has out-played most of the quarterbacks in the NFL.

Prescott is second in the NFL in completion percentage at 68.7 percent and trails only Tom Brady. He is fifth in yards per pass attempt at 8.7 yards, with Brady, Matt Ryan, Andy Dalton and Philip Rivers ahead of him.

Among quarterbacks …

Only a few weeks after Big Freedia resolved her battle with Hattiesburg over a wrongly cancelled performance, which is now back on, the New Orleans hip-hop artist has become embroiled in a battle of a different kind.

On Wednesday, March 16, Freedia pleaded guilty to the theft of about $35,000 in Section 8 low-income housing vouchers from 2010 to 2014, New Orleans TV station WWL reports. Officials released her on a $25,000 bond, with her sentencing scheduled for Thursday, June 16. Freedia now faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine in addition to the value of the vouchers.

According to WWL reporter David Hammer, federal prosecutors repeatedly referred to Freedia, a prominent member of the LGBTQ community who identifies as a woman, in masculine terms, as her legal name is Freddie Ross Jr.

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, on the other hand, first asked Freedia how the court should address her and chose to refer to her as "Ms. Ross" despite her statement that she had no preference.

Freedia admitted to the court that from February 2011 to December 2014, she received $695 per month in federal housing vouchers by claiming only $12,000 to $14,400 in assets annually, well below the $21,700 to receive Section 8 assistance.

When Africk asked if Freedia understood that her crime went far beyond financial oversight, she said that she did and accepted full responsibility.

As of press time, Big Freedia hasn't made any statement to suggest that her legal situation will affect her performances at Martin's Restaurant & Bar in Jackson on Thursday, March 24, and at the Dollar Box Showroom in Hattiesburg on Friday, March 25.

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It could be a NFL Draft red herring but the Dallas Cowboys have shown an incredible amount of interest in Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott. According to the Dallas-Morning News, Cowboys Quarterback Coach Wade Wilson is in Starkville, Miss today to workout the former Bulldogs single caller.

This will mark the third time that Wilson has meet with before this April's draft. Wilson, along with Dallas Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan, spent time with Prescott at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala and then met with him again at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in late February.

Multiple reports (here and here) have the Cowboys linked to Prescott in this year's NFL Draft. And why not, Dallas has to start thinking about like after Tony Romo at some point.

Last season, Romo spent more time injured than on the field and he has had back issues the last few seasons. The Cowboys have to figure that time is running out on Romo and taking a quarterback in the draft to develop for future is the smart idea.

Prescott has been projected to be drafted as high as the second round but most projections have him being selected in the third to fourth round of this year's draft. Most draft scouts see Prescott as a bit of a work in progress but could turn into a solid starter with time to develop into a NFL starter.

The Dallas Cowboys have nine picks in the draft. Dallas has the 34th pick in the 2nd round, 67th pick in the third round, 101st pick in the fourth round and 135th pick (a compensatory pick) in the fourth round. Other picks include the 189th, 212th, 216th, and 217th pick in the sixth round.

Every pick in the sixth round but the 189th is a compensatory pick. One thing to remember about the draft is that compensatory picks can not be traded and must be used by the team that was awarded the pick. That means the Cowboys don't have a lot of picks to trade if they must move around to get Prescott.

While Prescott has mainly stayed in the news for his on the field work or for being a good guy off the field, he has been in the news for the wrong thing. Last year, Prescott was seen on video being jumped in Panama City, Florida, but the quarterback handled that situation nearly perfectly.

Last week, Prescott was in the news for the wrong reason, when he was arrested for driving under the influence. While his draft stock will take a bit of a hit, because he was arrested so close to the draft, it is not the enough to send up red flags to teams who want to draft the quarterback.

Dallas currently hasn't signed a quarterback in free agency and have Kellen Moore as the only other quarterback on the roster besides Romo. The …