Duncan Commentary: Dome-field advantage buries the Titans

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - For a franchise record fifth consecutive year, the Saints opened their season Sunday with a win.

But they likely wouldn’t be unbeaten today, if they’d played the Tennessee Titans anywhere other than New Orleans.

The Dome-field advantage proved the difference in a tense contest between evenly matched teams.

The emotion and energy from the sellout Superdome crowd … buoyed the Saints – and buried the Titans.

Tennessee tried its best to prepare for the atmosphere. They practiced all week with piped-in crowd noise and used hand signals to communicate on the field. None of it helped. The Titans committed four false start penalties and had to burn two timeouts to prevent delay of game flags. For most of the day, they looked distressed, distracted and disoriented.

The hostile conditions were a big reason Tennessee converted just two of 12 third downs and failed to score a touchdown in three trips to the red zone.

The Saints entered the game, having lost 10 of their last 16 home games. So it was nice to see the supersonic conditions return to the Superdome. For four quarters on Sunday, it was rowdy, it was raucous, and it was rollicking.

It was the boost this Saints team needed to start the season on a winning note.

The 12th Man is alive and well at the Superdome again. And on Sunday, he was wearing black and gold.

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