Saints Report # 5 - October 16, 2016

No Lead is Safe.

There is no one sentence that better describes a New Orleans Saints game.

When Drew Brees is your quarterback, the Saints are never out of a game.

Unfortunately, the same can be said for the Saints defense.  No lead is safe.

The good news from the Saints 41-38 fireworks display Sunday in the shootout dome?

Watching the Saints offense is like watching pinball with Drew Brees in the part of the Pinball Wizard.  He threw for 465 yards.  He has thrown for over 50,000 yards with the Saints.  Remember two years ago, when they were questioning his diminished arm strength?  Ha.  If not for a 4^th quarter interception, this may have been his most impressive game yet.

The Saints receiving corps looks spectacular.  The Saints have so many weapons on offense that they are as stacked as a college football run and shoot team.

They have added another weapon with TommyLee Lewis who although he dropped a critical pass, had a spectacular punt return.  The Saints may have finally found the replacement for Darren Sproles.

By the same token, it looks like rookie Michael Thomas is the Marques Colston replacement he was touted to be.

When Will Lutz nailed a 52 yard field goal with 10 seconds left, it confirmed Payton’s faith in him.  The Saints have their kicker.

The bad news?  The Saints still don’t have the running game they need, thus the pinball.  They can’t protect a lead by pounding the ball and chewing up clock.  So in this game the defense was on the field for a mind boggling 76 plays.  That’s a recipe for exhaustion. 

The Saints defense committed more interference than Russian Hackers and couldn’t stop the Panthers out patterns that the Panthers went to repeatedly in the clutch

Mental errors threatened to derail this game, and the Saints penalties were exorbitant.

But, here’s the real bad news for the whole NFL.  Sunday we got a glimpse of Cam Newton 2.0 – the pocket passer.  He can flick the ball 30 yards effortlessly, accurately, and instantaneously, and the fact that they hung up 38 points with him only running one option play is just plain scary.  The Panthers may have started 1 – 4, but as their new secondary gains experience, they could go on a run.  Recognizing the physical pounding a quarterback takes, it looks like Newton will, and should, emulate Ben Rothlisberger instead of Randall Cunningham in order to have a nice long career.

On the other hand it looks like the Saints run has begun.  They have a chance to pull to .500 next week with a win at Arrowhead stadium which is not an indoor pinball facility.  It’s an outdoor stadium and the Saints should do well there.  It’s no October surprise that the Saints do well in the mild months.  It’s what they’ll do in cold December that is at question with an offense that can’t run the ball.  For now, let’s hope for another October winning streak. 

No Lead is Safe when the digit counters fall.