After another boring but typical 2020 week that included Hurricane Zeta, destruction of all the fences around us, 3 trees down in our yard, enough debris to cover a year’s worth of Ferdi’s, several hot baths, knees barking for advil, a roof expelling shingles into the wind, and fear of insurance adjusters, what we needed was a nice, easy, relaxing Saints game to coast into Sunday evening.
I can dream, can’t I? The last thing that was needed was another overtime to pace the floor through. But nothing seems to phase these Saints, as they won 26-23 and moved to 5-2 to keep pace, at least for 24 hours with the Brady Bucs.
The Saints traded jabs with the Bears in a tight first half, pulled ahead when
the Bears offense went cold, but couldn’t hold a 10 point lead with under 4
minutes to play, and the Bears, whom for some reason are never asked to travel
south down Superdome way, put together two drives to tie the Saints and send it
into overtime. The teams traded punts
until the Saints put together a nice drive and Lutz kicked the game winner, as he is often asked to do.
How to describe these Saints? Drew Brees
is still a master at the line of scrimmage and with 3 of his top receivers
injured, he did just enough to win, utilizing mostly Alvin Kamara, but also
someone named Juwan Johnson (whom I had never heard of), Austin Carr, who has
bounced on and off the practice squad for 2 years, Tre’Quan Smith, TommyLee Lewis,
who has been on vacation for a year, and Deonte Harris. TommyLee and Deonte look like miniature
pinballs amongst the giants. Then there
was tight end Jared Cook, who was effective all day, and Taysom Hill, who lurks the sideline like Morgus the Magnificent waiting for the commercial break so he can come on and wreak havoc. At one point a hockey game broke out when the Bears sent in an enforcer, and the Wims vs Chauncey-Gardner encounter would have been more interesting on skates.
Yes, the Saints short passing game will drive
you crazy at times, especially when they play a game of what I call "hoping for YAC," hoping mostly
Kamara will add yards after catch. And
as usual Kamara was spectacular. He has to be in the MVP conversation at this point, but he also is the player most looking forward to a Michael Thomas sighting to divert a little attention from him.
Now, comes what could be the Saints game of the Year as they
travel to Tampa for a Sunday night ratings exercise. Brady vs. Brees. Round one went to Brees. Now he will bring his “just win baby”
propensity to Tampa. Relax and enjoy. I know. Gronk is warming up, the Bucs defense looks vicious, and the Saints can't muster a pass rush to take any pressure off an increasingly suspect defensive backfield (I called that one in my pre-season edition.) Keep in mind that the 3 toughest things in sports in my opinion are 1) hitting a baseball squarely with a round bat, 2) hitting a golf ball with any consistency, and 3) covering a wide receiver. So, let's not punch any of our defensive backs.
No need to worry about any of this as there is another storm forming in the gulf to be named Kappa Donna Expresso (which is the last possible name for a storm and it means "you didn't think 2020 was over yet, did you, fool?) So, remember it could always be worse. Like if your candidate loses.
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