Saints Report #6 - October 25, 2020

Dear Diary,

I went back to New Orleans today.  I had hoped it would be a triumphant return, but I ran into an obstacle, my old buddy Drew Brees.  We lost 27-24, and the Saints moved to 4-2.   I wasn’t buying into the narrative that Brees has lost his fastball, and sure enough he was zipping it all over the field today.  It looked like to me he was dropping back a little deeper than usual and we couldn’t put much heat on him.  But, what was really frustrating was that I felt like we had walked into a sandlot and Drew picked 4 guys I didn’t even know and started drawing up plays and completing passes to them.  Someone named Marquez Callaway caught 8 passes.  He’s an undrafted free agent from Tennessee.   He only caught 30 passes as a senior.  How the hell did the Saints find him, and in the same place they found Alvin Kamara?  Don’t the other teams visit Tennessee?  Even perennial practice squader Austin Carr caught a pass today.  I’m surprised they didn’t pull Colston out of retirement.

Anyway, we hung in there pretty well all day.  I played against that defense last year in practice, and while I have a lot of respect for them, I didn’t think it would be hard to move the ball against them and it really wasn’t.  The Saints really got lucky at the end of the game.  We were already in field goal range to tie the game at 27, but I messed up and got sacked by Marcus Davenport.  Not only that but he sacked me in the exact spot where it would be a NFL record 65 yard field goal attempt.  Unfortunately, our kicker Joey Slye kicked it right down the pipe, good from 64, but a yard short.  Heartbreaking. 

The Saints converted an amazing 12 out of 14 third downs.  It was textbook.  Thomas Morestead took the day off.  Brees completed his 7000^th pass.  I can’t even imagine that.  He and Brady both have 558 touchdown passes.  I wonder which one will blink first and retire. 

It was great to be back in the Superdome, even though it was sparsely populated.  I missed them chanting “Teddy, Teddy,” but I look forward to playing the Saints again in Charlotte.  Of course, I think the rest of the league is a little concerned about the Saints passing game when Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders come back and join Callaway and Tre-quan Smith on the field.  Not to mention that the Saints ran the ball really well today and controlled the clock.  They’ve got a pretty good formula on offense right now.  I don’t know if it’s enough to get them to the Superbowl, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Guess Brees isn’t done yet.   I never thought he was.