Saints Report # 17 - January 10, 2021

It could have been déjà vu.  For the fourth time in the last five Saints playoff games, the opponent scored on the last play of the game.  This time it was ex-Saint Jimmy Graham who did the deed with a spectacular one-handed grab in the end zone.  But, this time, it was not a heart-breaking, heart-wrenching, heart-shattering loss.  It was just a slight tarnish on the Saints 21-9 victory.  We’ll let Jimmy have that.  No touchdowns for 59 minutes and 59 seconds is a landmark accomplishment.

It was easily the best defensive performance ever in the playoffs by New Orleans.  The Bears helped by starting someone at quarterback who has frustrated Bears fans for years with his bobbing performances.  The Bears didn’t convert a third down until that last, meaningless drive, and Mitchell Trubinsky looked like he just left the draft room on draft day, still stunned that he was taken ahead of Patrick Mahomes.

The Bears are good on one side of the ball, a feeling Saints fans know all too well.  But, not this year.  This year the Saints defense is one of the best in the NFL.  I wish I could have seen them in person.

On offense, the Saints star offensive trio, the Supreme Brees, Thomas, and Kamara, got to do their “Someday, We’ll be Together” act, as the reunited offense moved the ball just enough to score three touchdowns, although they should have had four.  I knew that Brees' ball extension over the goal line schtick was not going to work one day, but I figured it would be because some superstar linebacker smacked the ball out of his hands, not because the lunge came up short, like it did on the Saints last drive of the game.  But, forget the Supremes for just a minute.  It was Deonte Harris, who strolled off a 6 week vacation on injured reserve onto the field and sang, “What’s Going On?” to the tune of 7 receptions for 83 yards.  The Bears couldn’t match his quickness.  It was his best game yet as a receiver. 

The Saints offense was efficient and secure, except for Taysom Hill’s weekly turnover, and were content to move the ball down the field and play for field position.  Early in the game the Saints were dodging bullets like it was a bad action movie.  The Bears dropped a sure touchdown pass and showed they could get penalized just when the Saints needed it.  The Saints offense stalled and sputtered at times, as they couldn’t do much on the ground until late in the game.  Brees didn’t play like someone on the verge of retirement, as he sliced up a very good defense just enough to win.

The Saints led 7-3 at halftime on the strength of a Michael Thomas touchdown, and it was too close for comfort for the squirmy nation of Who Dats.  The one bad sign going into round two is that Wil Lutz continues to slump, as he missed his only field goal attempt.  Lutzamatic has been missing in action.

But, ultimately, the Bears couldn’t move the ball, and that was enough.  It will be hard for the Saints to lose a game if they only give up 9 points a game. 

This time, there was tension but no anguish for Saints Fans. 

Now, the Saints get a third swipe at the Tampa Brady Bucs.  Brady has never lost to a team three times in one season.  The Bucs look much improved over the team the Saints schooled and shellacked in previous games.  You can bet it will be closer this time.  Brady has two effective tight ends, and that means Malcolm Jenkins and the human torch, CJ Gardner-Johnson, will have to be at their best.  CJGJ, who has been swung at more this year than Mike Tyson, continues to get under the skin of wide receivers.  I wish the NFL had the guts to mike him up for a game.  He must be some irritating. 

And just like a boxing match, we are on to round two.  Get ready for more tension.  Nothing comes easy for the Saints.

 

Saints Report #7 - November 1, 2020

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.
 

Saints Report # 7 - October 20 2019

The Saints traveled to Chicago, and the pundit consensus was that the Bears were going to do to the Saints what they had done to Leonardo DeCaprio.

Afterall,
Drew Bress was still out
Alvin Kamara was not going to play due to injury
Tight End Jared Cook was not going to play due to injury.
Slot coverman PJ Williams is taking a banned substance sabbatical.
Trey Hendrickson is still out.
The Bears were coming off their bye week.
The Bears were getting back Mitch Trubinski, their first round quarterback. 
All signs pointed to a low-scoring, competitive game. 

It wasn’t.  The Saints dominated 36-25, moving to an improbable 6-1 record.
It's becoming obvious, for all to see.

The Saints are built like a Brick. House.  Mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.

Consider this:

The Saints blocked a punt that resulted in a safety, and could’ve easily been a touchdown.
The Saints got a piece of a second punt.
The Saints had a touchdown called back on a fumble recovery return that looked like a premature whistle. (They still capitalized on the turnover for their first td.)
The Saints had a punt return touchdown called back due to a holding call
The Saints kicker, Wil Lutz, missed two field goals.

But, Latavius Murray rushed for 119 yards, to control the clock, and Michael Thomas contined his record pace with 9 catches for 131 yards.  
Thomas now has 62 catches in 6 games, which is a pace around 160 catches for the year.  The NFL record is 143.
Ryan Ramczyk neutralized all-world Defensive End Khalil Mack.  I had a discussion with a friend this week where I made the case that Michael Thomas may already be second only to Brees as the greatest Saint of all-time, and he suggested maybe Ramczyk is.  
CJ Gardner Johnson filled in for Williams, and held up well.

The Bears only good play in the first 40 minutes was running back a kickoff for a touchdown.  They drove for a field goal to take a temporary lead of 10-9, then went into hibernation.  The Saints took the lead back at 12-10 to end the half.  They scored on their first possession of the second half, then continued to pound the Bears with their ground game.  When the Bears got the ball with 12:45 left in the 4^th quarter the Saints had a yardage domination of 364 to 85. 

The Saints led 36 – 10 with 4 and a half minutes left.  This may have been the Saints most dominant performance of the year.  To pound a physical team into submission like this was as exciting as any game I’ve seen recently.  .

Unfortunately, the Saints gave up a couple of garbage touchdowns as the 4^th quarter wound down, even messing up an onside kick to contribute to the Bears scoring enough to fool one who hadn’t watched this game. 

Fortunately, like in Seattle they had built up a big enough lead.
Make no mistake, the Saints are well put together.
Everybody knows.

Saints Report #14

Roger Goodell hates the New Orleans Saints, so every year he sends them to the Windy, wet, cold City of Chicago.  What’s up with that?

Fortunately, the good Saints, let’s say the Saints of 2011, showed up and trounced the Bears with a methodical performance on offense and an inspired one on defense, winning 31-15.  Now all we need is a little 6 game winning streak and The Lombardi Trophy will be ours!

How did they win?  Two obvious things.

1)      The Saints out-Pierred them   I’m not a personnel evaluator, but it seemed to me in the exhibition games that Free Safety Pierre Warren was the real deal.  He out-played the other Safeties and showed a nose for the ball.  He got cut, and someone named Marcus Ball was kept.

In desperation, after season ending injuries to Rafael Bush and Jarius Byrd they were lucky enough to get him back.  All he did last night was intercept 2 passes which hasn’t been done by a Saint Safety not now in jail since about 1970, I’m guessing.  Meanwhile the Senior Pierre, Thomas, was running amuck with screen passes and reminding everyone what he can do when healthy.

2)      The Saints out-quarterbacked them.  I hope all the Talk Show/Internet loud mouths who have been complaining about Drew Brees got a look at the game last night for two reasons.  First, how good Brees is.  I don’t see a quarterback in decline, like everyone is yakking about.  I sometimes see a quarterback who a) tries to do too much, and b) has injured or under performing weapons around him, and c) occasionally has a bad game (like every other quarterback who has ever played – did you see Aaron Rodgers this week?) 
Secondly I hope everyone got a good luck at Jay Cutler for contrast, because the Saints history book is loaded with Quarterbacks even worse than him.  AND HE MAKES MORE THAN BREES.

Brees’ salary seems to irk some.  It shouldn’t.  It’s called the entertainment dollar.  It distorts things and we can’t relate.  The $20 million a year neighborhood is where the top quarterbacks play.  Sorry.  If you think he should take less to win and spread the wealth, you’re kidding yourself.  Would you say “don’t pay me $20 an hour, pay me $10 an hour and give it to my coworkers?  Sure.

Sorry, occasionally I have to live up to the name of the column and rant a little.  The most encouraging thing about the game was that the Saints defense looked better, even though it was a sub-par offense they were playing.  New defensive backs were flying around like it was their first NFL game because, well it was.  Kenny Vaccaro’s reduced role held him to only one unnecessary roughness penalty.  I’ve got to give a little credit to Rob Ryan for bringing it together, since he has been torched in the press all year.  His blitzes actually worked and the Saints harassed Cutler all night.

The Saints have a core.  It’s Bress – Colston – Thomas on offense.  They’re getting older.  It’s a fact.  Give ‘em some football Geritol and let’s keep them as long as we can.

Now the biggest game in years, and it would just have to be against THEM.  With a short week to prepare (because Goodell hates us) the despised dirty birds come to the dome and we used to know what was going to happen there.  This year all bets are off.  Who knows which Saints team or Falcons team will show up?  I certainly don’t.  But my entertainment dollar has already been spent, so I’ll be there to find out.