Saints Report #17 - January 7, 2018

What does it take to defeat the same tough team three times in one year?  99 points on the wall, as it turns out.  The Saints beat the Panthers 31-26, but it was anything but routine.  Saints games never are.

With the Panthers determined to stop the Saints running game which had embarrassed them in two previous losses, Drew Brees had to turn it loose, and turn it loose he did.  Michael Thomas snatched one clutch catch after another, and Josh Hill had his best game as a Saint.  Brandon Coleman caught 4 passes, and only fumbled one (Ingram recovered) and Ted Ginn caught an 80 yard bomb, as the Saints were able to offset the damage being done by Panther Tight End Greg Olsen, whom the Saints have never been able to cover.  

The Saints defense bent, bent, bent, bent their way to giving up a slew of field goals, but late in the game the Panthers were within striking distance after a couple of touchdowns.  The Saints needed to run out the clock to preserve the victory and with 2 minutes left and the ball at mid-field Riverboat Sean Payton made his biggest gamble ever, making “ambush” look routine, when he decided to go for a 4^th and 2.  Brees threw it up for grabs and the Carolina defensive back was dumb enough to grab it for a 4^th down interception.  It was the equivalent of a 20 yard punt and that would prove to be just enough as the Saints defense preserved the win, with the help of a Cam Newton intentional grounding, which was as bad a call as the one they called on Brees earlier.  The Saints benefited from a 10 second runoff, the NFL version of time travel.  Vonn Bell, who had been all over the field all day, sacked Newton with 5 seconds to go and the Dome crowd that had been a huge factor all day, almost blew the Dome top off with the biggest sigh of relief ever recorded. 

Unfortunately, the Saints lost guard Andrus Peat to a broken leg, and the defense is so depleted that some guy named Freeney made a big tackle on Newton, and I thought, “wow, when did they sign Dwight Freeney?”  It was a different Freeney, a Jonathan.  So it goes in the playoffs.  New heroes, old heroes.  The Saints will need a few more to continue this run.  Now they go back to Minnesota where they were embarrassed in the season opener on a Monday Night.  At the time they looked like a team going nowhere, instead of a team trying to play 2 more games in Minneapolis.  The Vikings will be rested and the fans will be determined to dome-scream there way into revenge for their 2010 loss in the NFC championship game in our dome.  Only thing I know is it will be anything but routine.