Saints Report #11

Random Thoughts as I watched the Saints on Monday Night Football.

Can’t believe all these pundits are picking the Saints to win this game.  I know none of them watch the Saints, but surely they’ve heard how bad we are.

When Ray Lewis is the one talking sense on the panel, it’s time to re-load your panel.  Who’s retiring this year?
Suzy Kolber has lightened her hair color.
I haven’t looked at www.kissingsuzykolber.com for a long time.  Wonder if it’s still up.
The Saints will receive the kick.  I think they know they will need all the possessions they can get.
So glad to see Joe Morgan on the field finally. 
Not that I wanted to see Meachum get hurt, but let’s see what Morgan to do.
Wow, 2 big plays.  Wonder how many targets he’ll get now.  (Answer – he would ultimately get 13 snaps)  Payton must be worried about his stamina.  Why play someone who’s shown game breaking ability?
The Saints can’t run the ball at all, which will make for a long night.
First and goal from the 2 and we don’t score.
Well as I always say, if you can’t run it for a yard, you don’t deserve to win.
Thus – the last 2 weeks.
Normally I want us to run the ball, but this mismatch is rather obvious.  We can’t.
But it is good to see Pierre Thomas breaking tackles.  As bad as we tackle he must score on every play in practice.
Speaking of Pierre’s, I was really surprised to see Pierre Warren cut in training camp.  He seemed to be a playmaker.  And there he is making a takeaway. 
The only thing Marcus Ball has taken so far is his salary, but he beat Warren out?
Speaking of questionable personnel decisions....
Wait, is that a Nick Toon sighting?  By the end of the night he will make his 7^th catch in 3 years.  Quite a return for a 4^th round pick.  I think he has dropped that many passes as well.  A wasted “bloodline” draft pick.
If that was a logical draft pick, based on his dad being Nick Toon, then someone needs to offer me a job as an electrical engineer.
I’ve missed two straight episodes of “The Good Wife” and maybe this is a good time to catch up.
Obama is about to grant a 3 year stay to 5 million immigrants.  Surely, there’s one that can cover Steve Smith.
Sure am glad I don’t live in Baltimore right now.  I’d have to take tomorrow off to hide.
Speaking of Obama, I wonder if he could pardon our defense.
Starting with David Hawthorne who drops an interception served up on a silver platter.  I don’t care what anyone says, are Linebackers are AWOT.  Absent without tackle.
Why does no one ever drop a potential Brees interception?  They gobble them up and run them back like they haven’t eaten for a week.
Does anyone else notice that Brees keeps his helmet on after he throws an interception?
I’m really starting to like Taylor Swift
Texts are coming in from across the country.  Rubbing it in.  Haters gonna hate.
How many hours is it til we can eat turkey?
This Edibaldi guy really hustles.  He seems to catch people from behind.  Of course, he gets lots of opportunities to do that.
Has Rob Ryan ever blitzed just one person?  Does he have to send everybody when he blitzes?  Have we touched Flaco tonight?
Does anyone else see the similarities between Bill Cosby and Darren Sharper?
Other than the fact that either could start for our defense?
Wondering if I should give Homeland another try?  Heard it’s getting better.

Brees finishes an amazing 35 for 45 with 420 yards and 3 TD’s, with no running game support and no defense, but that one interception as he was getting hit is what we will remember.  Wonder where we would be without him?  Wonder where we would be if we had the Raven’s defense. Wonder who wrote the book of love.

Tomorrow everyone will be talking about all the teams in the AFC North being 3 games over .500 and all of the NFC South being 3 games under .500.  Duh, they play each other.  No one in our division matches up with that big brawny division.  Don’t get all excited.  They aren’t that good and we aren’t that bad.  For example, bet we’d match up pretty well with Division I. 

Whew, glad that homestand is over.  Now we can get back on the road where we play so well.  Here’s reality – if we win out against our division, I’m going to have to spring for playoff tickets.  I’m going to have to think about that.

Oh well, there’s Turkey in my future.  Lots of it.

Saints Report #10

The Saints have lost several games this year that could have gone either way, with just a play or two being the difference

This was not one of those games.

In a game that was only briefly in doubt, the Saints got rolled by another AFC North Team.  This time the Cincinnati Bengals came to town and delivered 2 pieces of bad news.  First, a 27 – 10 total domination the likes of which the Superdome hasn’t seen in the Payton era.  Secondly, the Ravens and Steelers are next.

What went wrong on the floor of the dome?  Just about everything.  The Bengals ran the ball at will.  The Saints couldn’t.  The Bengal receivers couldn’t be covered.  The Saints receivers were held in check.  The Bengals offense made several big plays.  The Bengals defense made several big plays.  The Saints offense only made a few.  The Saints defense made none that I can think of.

Bengal big plays?  Well if the Saints had any chance it evaporated on their 2^nd possession of the game after both teams had lengthy drives.  The Bengals put together a goal line stand early in the 2^nd quarter from their own 2 yard line.   A pass on first down fell incomplete.  The Saints commitment to running the ball apparently doesn’t come into play with a first down on the 2.   Two runs then went nowhere, then a 4^th down pass was completed but short of the end zone.

This was just the beginning of a game-long lesson in tackling by the Bengals.  While the Saints were floundering in tackling and coverage, the Bengals kept the Saints receivers in front of them all day, and controlled the line of scrimmage.  It was old-fashioned control-the-clock football, something the Saints, with all their talent on offense can only pretend to, especially when long drives go unfinished.

Meanwhile, the defense was overmatched all day, and when the Bengals needed a big play, QB Andy Dalton just looked to AJ Green, who is going to be a perennial all-pro.  The Saints strategy was to cover him one on one (big mistake) and usually with a rookie (bigger mistake).  The Saints glaring weaknesses at the cornerback position were on full display all day.  If the Saints have 7 draft picks next year, 6 need to be defensive backs.  When your only reliable defender, Keenan Lewis, is injured, choices are few.  Safety Rafael Bush was late in coverage all day, then suffered a broken leg, so he is done for the year, joining rookie safety Vinnie Sunseri on Injured Reserve.  Hopefully Pierre Warren, who was spectacular in pre-season and got cut, has been working out.

By the end of the day all the lessons the Saints had learned were made worse by the fact that they had been caught by the Falcons at the top of the division standings.  Terrific.  A depleted, error-making team is 4-6 with no room for error.  

Saints Report #9

The hit song “Land Down Under” has a famous reference to a Vegamite Sandwich.

The Saints moved down under .500 with another sandwich of their own.  They started weak, and finished weaker, even if the meat of the sandwich was pretty good.  The stale bread was a Drew Brees interception that helped put the Saints in a 14-0 first quarter hole, then a Brees fumble in overtime that led to an immediate field goal for a 27-24 win by the San Francisco 49’ers.

Besides the turnovers that continue to burn the Saints, there were two other plays that will be remembered in this disappointing loss that moved the Saints to 4-5.

The Saints had battled back from a 14-0 first quarter deficit to take a 24-21 lead late into the 4^th quarter.  It was the kind of grind it out comeback lead by the passing of Brees, big catches by Colston, Graham, and Cooks, and pounding running by Ingram that coulda, shoulda served as a signature win for this struggling team. 

But if you thought they were going to hold that lead, you don’t know these Saints.

The defense had played magnificently and had the 49’ers in a 4^th and 10.  Hold them and the game is yours.  But no, just when you think the defense has turned the corner and is ready to seal the deal, they give us another Golden Tate-like moment.  This time it was a 51 yard completion from Colin Kapernick to Michael Crabtree, who somehow got open enough to pitch a tent.  Their field goal sent it to overtime.

But not before Brees threw a perfect Hail Mary to the end zone at the end of regulation that Jimmy Graham caught rather easily.  Too easily as it turned out, when the referees nullified the catch with a rare offensive interference call on Graham for pushing off a defender, who was either a great actor or a pretty weak defensive back.  Traditionally the Hail Mary has featured everyone pushing and shoving in the end zone, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen pass interference called, but if they are going to start calling it, this was probably a good place to start.

A couple of stalled series in the OT led up to Brees getting the ball knocked out of his hand and the Saints 2014 tradition of mistakes at the worst possible moment continued.  They could be 8 – 1 with a little luck at the end of games, but Luck plays for the Colts, and the Saints keep making lousy sandwiches.

The home winning streak is over and the Saints either start a new streak next week against the Bengals or continue to try to give away the division that no one wants.

At the Cinema - October 2014

Gone Girl – 8

Everyone’s talking about this movie and here’s what they’re saying, “It’s just like the book, It’s as good as the book,  It's not as good as the book. It’s different from the book, they changed the ending, they didn’t change the ending, they left some stuff out, blah, blah, blah.”

I didn’t read the book, so I don’t care about all that.  If you are blissfully ignorant, as I am and always want to be upon entering the theater, this movie stands on its own pretty well.

I’m a big fan of Director David Fincher, and while I think this movie doesn’t rise to the level of either The Social Network, or The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, two of my favorite recent movies, it’s still worth seeing.  I actually got the feeling Fincher went out of his way to please the book fans, probably leaving a few flourishes on the table.

The movie starts on the morning of the 5^th anniversary of Nick Dunne and his wife Amy.  It is the morning that Amy disappears.  Soon Nick is under investigation for her murder as the search for Amy attracts nation-wide attention, because Amy is kind of famous.  Would anyone have cared so much if she wasn't "Amazing Amy?'

Ben Affleck is the perfect oaf as Nick.  He quickly loses any sympathy as suspicion grows.  The movie is a history lesson of their relationship.  But as Amy’s story is told in flashback with her own voiceover discussing their marital woes, the mystery deepens and becomes more complex with each twist.  Rosamund Pike is stunning as she tells the story of her marriage.  What happened to Amy turns out to be less important than why it happened.

The supporting cast like Kim Dickens (whom I love from Treme) and Carrie Coon (whom I love from The Leftovers) are all terrific.  The movie is good, but it never soars to the level I guess all those readers expected.

Nightcrawler – 8

This is a movie that will make you feel like you’ve been slimed and that’s exactly the way the filmmakers want it.  If you go see a horror movie today, you know you’re watching fantasy.  This movie slithers along with just enough reality to make you want to go take a shower. 

There are two distinct themes at work.  The first is a character study of a slick psychotic who will assert his will to get whatever he wants.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Louis, a hustler with the moral compass of Charles Manson.  He also comes armed with a talkative charm filled with internet sound bites.  When he stumbles upon a potential profession racing to crime scenes, filming the gore, and selling it to a TV station where “if it bleeds, it leads,” he seems to have found his calling.  Gyllenhaal’s performance is terrific as Louis.  You can’t compromise your ethics if you don’t have any, but he shows that you can actually go ever lower and lower in a quest for prominence. 

The second theme is a satirical look at the deteriorating level of what passes for journalism in this TMZ era.  Renee Russo is the second rate news producer of the last place news show.  She becomes a willing purchaser of his exclusive footage, and they each manipulate each other, him trying to create a career, and her trying to salvage one. 

The film culminates in a thrilling car chase that Louis and his reluctant assistant Rick initiate, then are right in the middle of.  It’s a masterpiece of filmmaking by first time director Dan Gilroy.  This won’t be his last film, not the way he captures this.  We’re in for more sliming.

The Judge – 7

You’ll like this movie if you like charaismatic acting and a smorgasboard plot.

Robert Duvall is the judge and Robert Downey Jr. is the estranged son who must defend him from a murder charge.  That’s the essence of this very typical movie as constructed by the people who make movies today.  The stars, including Vincent D’onofrio, Vera Farmiglia, Billy Bob Thornton, and Leighton Meester (hotter than a firecracker) are terrific, the plots are all over the place, and the movie is about 20 minutes too long

There’s feel good.  There’s feel bad.  And there’s everything in between as The Judge struggles to maintain his long legacy of public service despite the fact that he may have run an ex-con over with his old car. 

Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall are such magical screen presences here that they hold your attention through all the wildness as the script gyrates them all over the place.  It’s kind of like rolling several TV movies together. Just try to keep up. 

Here's the amazing Carrie Coon of The Leftover and Gone Girl: