Don't even go there.
True, the New Orleans Saints (5-10) have been relegated to playing games that will have no playoff implications, the next one being Sunday at noon in the Caesars Superdome against the Raiders (3-12).
And, true, the Saints likely will be without center Erik McCoy, running back Alvin Kamara and quarterback Derek Carr, the most recent among a litany of starters who've been sidelined by injuries this season.
And, also true, New Orleans is coming off its worst performance of the season in a 34-0 road loss to Green Bay on Monday night, during which the Saints were outplayed in all phases.
But the bag-packing is on standby while there remains work to be done and games to be played. There's business to be attended to.
"We're still going to approach them with the mind-set that we've had all along," interim head coach Darren Rizzi said Thursday. "Things looked pretty grim when we were 2-7 and we were able to put that aside and battle back and put some good stuff on film and have a lot of positive things.
"We're going to see how we respond from that, for sure. We went on the road, we played against a playoff team at their place, that's got very few holes on their team. We didn't help ourselves whatsoever by our performance, so it was a little bit of a perfect storm.
"I think the challenge this week is, No. 1, it's a short week, No. 2, it's a holiday week and then, No. 3, we're coming off a game where we got shut out. So my big thing this week is, let's see how we can respond. And we're going to find out a lot about a lot of people."
Players, especially, are cognizant of the need to put forward their best cleat even now.
"This is the same game that we've been playing – me, personally, since I was 8 or 9 years old," defensive tackle Khalen Saunders said. "Ain't much to it. Just go out there, guys have got two more opportunities to play in a football game and you never take those for granted.
"Those could be the last two football games that I play in my entire life. So there's no doubt or question of what we are going to go do in the last two games. We're going to go out there and play football.
"Obviously, this is an opportunity for a lot of guys, your film is your resume. We've got two more opportunities to build our resumes and I'm always about opportunity. That's something that I've been echoing my entire career and will continue to echo until I'm done, is that I always try and take advantage of my opportunities. We're going to have to go out there and finish this year out strong, and I know I'm planning to do that."
There's a continuation of the evaluation process that rewinds to the offseason but took on a different spin once Rizzi became interim head coach Nov. 4.
"I think we've been doing that for the last month or so, we've been evaluating a lot of guys that were back up or younger-type players," Rizzi said. "We've been dealing with that for the better part of the last six to eight weeks.
"There's probably a few guys that we're going to take a step back here and decide whether we want to – maybe some guys that haven't played a ton. It won't be a lot, but there might be a couple of guys these last couple of weeks that we want to get a look at.
"Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, we've had a chance to evaluate a lot of guys here, specifically on offense (because of injuries). It might be a guy or two that maybe gets elevated off the practice squad or maybe some guys that have been inactive for multiple weeks, that maybe haven't played as much, that we'll talk about here as the week goes on."
INJURY REPORT: Spencer Rattler took the reps at quarterback with the starters Thursday; Rizzi said the team will look to have a game simulation with Carr before the week ends to gauge whether Carr can play. The best chance for Kamara (groin) to play likely will be in the regular-season finale against Tampa Bay, while McCoy (elbow) probably will miss the final two games.
