First, the food:
I love 3:00 pm home games. You get to eat 2 meals – lunch before and dinner afterwards. I had just seen “Parasol’s” on the food channel, (Divers, Diners, and Dives – cool show) .so figured it was time to revisit and see if the roast beef poboys were still superb. They were. Too bad this bar takes the “dive” a little too seriously. I have to say that the bathroom experience was one of the worst of my adult life. To call this bathroom legendarily inappropriate is still understating the case. When I asked one of the guys in the kitchen for a roll of toilet paper (sometimes you’ve just got to) he looked at me like I was stealing a child. But, this is still one of the must places to eat in New Orleans. If you like a seedy bar, you’ll never do better.
Along those same lines, also got to visit the legendary Willie Mae’s Scotch House in New Orleans last week. Excellent Fried Chicken – but not as good as Annie’s (Bay St. Louis) used to be. I’m not a Fried Chicken Nut, love that chicken from Popeye’s, but Annie’s was the best I ever had. Dinner in Slidell on the way home was less interesting, other than posing that eternal question – How do Mexican restaurants get the food out so fast? Are they afraid we’re going to eat more chips?
Now, for some cheese.
So, you ask, what about the Saints? At this point in the season, I have to admit, they’re even better than I thought they were going to be. It wasn’t a great all-around performance, but what we’re learning about this team is that they’ve got some virtues we’re not used to, starting with balance. On a given day the defense can beat you (this was that day,) the special teams play, mostly our new punter Thomas Morhstad, is superb, and Pierre Thomas is an NFL running back. If fact, it’s beginning to look like our weakest link is a certain #1 draft pick who continues to make costly mistakes, like laying the ball on the turf.
GM Micky Loomis has to get some credit. He filled the holes we had in the off-season, particularly in the defensive backfield. With his signing of Darren Sharper (so that’s what a safety looks like) he must feel like he bought a stock that immediately tripled in value. All Sharper has done is pickoff 3 passes and return 2 of them as long, and longer than anyone in Saints history has.. Nice way to start your tenure. Can we go ahead and put him up on the ring of honor? Jabari Greer has been excellent, Tracy Porter has built on the promise he showed last year, and even our outside linebackers, which I consider the weakest area of the team, are proving they can make an impact in the right scheme.
Our defense apparently didn't like all the press on the Jets defense. They proved they can make a rookie quarterback look like a rookie quarterback. The Jets took their 24-10 thumping like men and headed back to the Big Apple with a little appreciation of what’s going on down on da bayou. While Drew Brees was steady, he saw a lot tighter coverage than what he’s used to, and the defensive blue print on how teams are going to attack the Saints is emerging. Spread out your defense, try to stop the pass, and see if the Saints can run the ball.
(They can.)
I saw an ESPN feature calling the Saints the best team in the NFL through 4 weeks. Sean Payton is constantly telling his team, “Don’t eat the cheese,” meaning “don’t believe the hype.”
Me, I’m chomping on some gouda. After all these years, we’re entitled to enjoy it. This is only the 3rd 4-0 start in franchise history and trust me when I say this one isn’t flukey. It also doesn’t mean anything in the long run. The Super Bowl strategy of the past few years is to survive the season, and get hot around New Year’s day. The biggest significance of winning the first lap of the season is that it puts us in line for home field advantage in the playoffs, something that for this team would be a real advantage with this offense.
So, let’s enjoy the bye week. Relax, decompress, enjoy, savor, and even eat some cheese. We’re the fans – we’re allowed.
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