Last Saints Blog - January 14, 2012

The New Orleans Saints still have never won a road playoff game as they lost a 36-32 thriller to the hated San Francisco 49’ers Saturday. A Saints team which could have gone down as their best ever ended their season with a premature burial when 49’er QB Alex Smith hit Vernon Davis with a touchdown pass with 9 seconds left. After a week of listening to how the Saints don’t like playing outside, or playing on grass, blah, blah, blah, we finally found out exactly what it is that they don’t like about being away from the dome – the football – it appears to be a might more slippery outside of Louisiana.

One of the things I’ve learned over the last few years is that sometimes it’s the early things that count. The Saints really lost this playoff round when they lost inexplicably to the winless Rams early in the season. Thus, they didn’t get a first round bye. Thus another west coast trip. Thus the 49’ers had a week off to heal and prepare while the Saints were in a dogfight with the Lions. Both Saturday games were won by the teams that had first round byes, miracle quarterbacks not withstanding, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happens Sunday. Despite these disadvantages, hats off to the Saints for making it a barnburner.

Early Things. Last year, in a very early-season game, Garrett Hartley missed a field goal that would have beaten the Falcons. It ultimately cost the Saints the division and a first round bye, and sent them to Seattle for a playoff game, which we’d rather forget.

Moving to Saturday, no score yet, the Saints driving, and Pierre Thomas is running towards the goal line when he gets a head crushing blow at the 2 yard line and was probably out cold before he coughed up the ball. The dominoes began to fall. Instead of a 7-0 lead the Saints began stumbling and fumbling and soon found themselves down 17-0. Worse the Saints suddenly found themselves a running back short and it began to look like last year’s Seattle debacle all over again.

Without Pierre Thomas, the offense becomes predictable. Ivory goes in, he’s running the ball most of the time. Sproles in, the Saints are probably passing it. (He set a playoff record with 15 catches.) It doesn’t take a genius to figure these tendencies out, and from there on, other than maybe 37 yards rushing, it was on Brees, just like last year. He’s chunking it, and he’s chunking it under duress. In both games he did all he could do, but throwing 60+ passes rarely results in a victory. Equally apparent is that Pierre’s blocking would have reduced the duress – another domino.

With Thomas sidelined, the Saints were afraid to use Sproles on kick returns, so in goes the next domino, Courtney Roby, who hasn’t returned a kick all year, and he promptly fumbles one away. Sproles, who was otherwise electrifying, fumbles a punt himself, his first turnover of the year. Add Brees two interceptions, and you have 5 turnovers, Got to give it to the Saints, they sure don’t punt much.

Despite all these dominos, the Saints are still in it. The defense is blitzing Alex Smith, sacking him, rushing him, and holding their own while the Saints claw their way back in to the game. They hold them, kicks get fumbled, and they hold them again.

Miraculously, the Saints take their first lead 24-23 on a 44 yard Sproles catch and run for a touchdown, with just 4 minutes left. Now all the Saints defense has to do is play as well as they have all day. Except they don’t. Within two minutes the 49’ers transverse the field and take a lead 29 – 24, capped by an improbable 28 yard run by Alex Smith. That score came too quickly.

Can the Saints score again in 2 minutes? No, they score in about 30 seconds, too quickly as it turns out, when Graham makes a 66 yard circus catch and run, the Saints make a 2 point conversion and now up 3, the defense gets a second chance.
They squander it quickly when they let the 49’ers tight end Vernon Davis torch them twice, the last time with 9 seconds left for the TD that we’ll see many more times in our lifetime.

Nine seconds is not enough for even Brees to go 80 yards, and the Saints burial of a most promising season is complete.

Thus, the Saints squander the most productive offense in the history of football. Guess you need four running backs. With Ingram healthy, the Saints are better. Not because he’s a better runner than Ivory, but because he’s a better blocker and pass catcher, and the Saints are less predictable when he’s in the game. Our four headed monster if fantastic, but telegraphic in its intent. That usually doesn’t matter, but against a great defense it does.

But, the offense isn’t the problem. Brees, like last year, almost pulled off a west coast miracle. His 435 passing yards while under this duress is amazing. Like last year, the defense couldn’t come up with the stops.

The defense’s problem can be summed up in 2 words. Roman Harper. He’s a great player, but he led the team in sacks. When you can’t get pressure, or sacks, or turnovers forced, from your front seven (see 49’ers, Giants) you may have occasional success with blitzes, but in the end you’ll get burned by a Vernon Davis, or a Calvin Johnson. When your sack leader is a safety, you get an A for creativity, but a C for defense. When your defense gives up almost 300 yards passing to Alex Smith, you’ve got problems that can’t be masked anymore.

The best pass defense is a pass rush. Pass Rushing Ends, and faster linebackers are the priority going into the offseason. This is the critical time for a coaching staff. It’s time to replace some pieces that aren’t working anymore. Will they remain loyal to fading players, or cut the cord? It will tell you a lot about next year.

While we drown our sorrows for the next few months, we’ll be watching this and:
The Brees and Colston negotiations
The future of Gregg Williams
to see if there’s a Julius Peppers out there somewhere

We’ll wait til next year. Again. This time the unfulfilled promise just hurts a little more.

Saints Report # 17 - January 8, 2011

If there is one thing Saints fans weren't accustomed to it was January fun.

Last year they got spoiled during the Saints' magical season
This year they had a mystical season and it came to an end abruptly when they traveled to Seattle and got trounced by what many thought was the worst NFL playoff team ever. The Seahawks 41 – 36 victory was a shocker to many, but not to those who watched this Saints team struggle all year to find last year’s formula.

Other than the fact that Reggie Bush failed to show up when the Saints needed him most, the offense held up its end of the bargain. Scoring 36 points when you’re essentially down to your eighth running back of the year and he just got off the bus should be enough to win. Drew Brees made a valiant effort, throwing a ridiculous 60 passes, completing 39 for 404 yards. Some strange play calls on short yardage short circuited the point production, but the bottom line is that when your quarterback sets a post season record for completions, you should win.

Which brings us to the defense. They didn’t make the trip.

Start with the play of the two safeties. Roman Harper had a horrible game. He was out of position most of the time. Darren Sharper was two steps slow the whole game and never provided the help that was needed. Retirement, and hopefully the Hall of Fame await Darren after an awesome career.

From the moment Malcolm Jenkins went out with a knee injury early in the Tampa loss in the last regular season game, the Saints tackling turned to mush. Marshawn Lynch’s classic 4th quarter run was symptomatic of the way the Saints played for the last eight quarters of the season. The defense had been stellar for the most part all year until it disappeared in January.

Covering people in the NFL is difficult for even the best defensive backs. But there was little coverage in evidence Saturday. Receivers were so wide open that they could have called for a fair catch on some of Matt Hasselback’s throws.

Is Malcolm Jenkins really that good?
We knew going in the Saints would miss Chris Ivory and Pierre Thomas, but Brees compensated for them. No such luck on defense. The Saints didn’t blitz and didn’t appear to have the right game plan to slow down the Seahawks. Worse, they never seemed to adjust.

Is Courtney Roby really that good?
Did the Saints ever make it to the 20 with a kick return? Other than after the first kick went out of bounds, Brees never got much in the way of field position. News flash – Devery Henderson and Robert Meachum aren’t kick returners. They looked scared to death.

So, the Saints go down to an embarrassing defeat. Let the shopping begin.
There are many priorities going into the off-season, but here are just a few.

1. Pass Rush – The Saints rely on the blitz to pressure quarterbacks, and pressure from the front four would be nice for a change. Most teams have defensive ends with 12.5 sacks – ours have 4. A pass-rushing end would be huge.

2. Running Backs – Versatile Pierre Thomas will be a free agent. Chris Ivory hasn’t proven he can stay on the field. Reggie Bush will be released if he won’t renegotiate. The Saints desperately need, and have needed for years, a big bruising short yardage back like a Brandon Jacobs. It’s obvious that you can’t have enough running backs and the proposed 18 game schedule is only going to make things worse.

3. Outside Linebackers – The Saints missed Scott Fujita more than they ever would have dreamed. Speed needed desperately. The Saints couldn’t cover tight ends and backs (just like most teams). Could we order up a superstar outside linebacker please?

4. Defensive Backs – Just like running backs, you can’t have too many, not in the pass-happy NFL. Greer and Porter were victimized by big, physical receivers, so a little height in the secondary would be welcome.

The good news for the Saints is that they have one thing only about 10 teams have – a proven quarterback. They need to go all out to reload around him. The window of opportunity will close in a few years, and only one trip to the Super Bowl with a QB the caliber of Brees would be a shame.

So no wasted draft picks this year. (Sean Canfield?). Shore up the defense and special teams and make another run next year. The division is going to get even tougher, as Tampa Bay improves and Carolina picks a quarterback.

Saints fans want January to be fun again.