For Jacksonville Jaguars, is there motivation left for 2015?

And Hightower hopes his late-season performance as the Saints’ lead back – he has 309 yards and three touchdowns for New Orleans – will extend his comeback into 2016, whether it’s with the Saints or another National Football League team. Look for Artis-Payne to again have a prominent role and he goes against an Atlanta defense that has allowed 18 rushing TDs this season (tied for most in the NFL). Instead, Forbath missed a 52-yard kick and had another blocked in garbage time.

If this was supposed to be a track meet between two teams struggling on defense, the Jaguars offense was still sitting in the starting blocks. That said, there were a few mishaps from Blake Bortles and his unit.

If the 36-year-old veteran is unable to play in Sunday’s game taking on the Jaguars, Flynn, Grayson, or both of them will be seeing action. He’d return to that game shortly after having exited, as the training staff just taped the injury twice and then sent him back out. But he made up for it with a combination of adrenaline and the right tape job (he tried out some orthotics but didn’t like the way they felt). The lack of a pass rush made it easy for Brees.

In short, the Saints will quickly find themselves next season with as much as $30 million more in dead money.

“I know this wasn’t a clean or flawless game, but I thought we played well early on”, Saints coach Sean Payton said.

It took them just seven plays to answer, capped off by a 44-yard touchdown pass to Travaris Cadet. And for just the second time this season, the Saints had a running back go for more than 100 yards as Tim Hightower finished with 122.

The Saints punted only once on their first nine series, by which time they led 38-19.

The Saints scored 10 points off two Bortles interceptions in the first half, and they outgained the Jaguars 294-105.

With the Colts just 6-8 and Chuck Pagano seemingly on the way out, it would appear that Irsay could have significant interest in Payton as his team’s next head coach-should he actually become available.

The Jaguars still need to make improvements on the roster, particularly on defense, but the coaching staff also needs to start taking some of the heat.

The Jaguars’ offense has been solid this year with Bortles, Allen Hurns, and Allen Robinson. Brandon Coleman was a big part of the offense’s efficiency with four catches for 45 yards, including two big ones on third down. He’s also 7th in receiving yards with 1,141. Posluszny is making his case to stick around longer than some fans may be happy with. The tight end position as a group was pretty quiet on Sunday. The injury was another blow to the Black and Gold after the team learned they were eliminated from playoff contention a day before the game against the Lions. I’ve seen four different defensive coordinators. Will the team shift younger guys to the top of the lineup so they can get a peak at the future? He’s been a pivotal player in each of New Orleans’ last two victories.