Saints at the Bye

This is the Saints bye week report.  Sorry, I did not write about the last 2 games until now, as I was on the disabled list getting a new knee.  Unfortunately, I was joining Michael Thomas, Wil Lutz, Erik McCoy, Terron Armstead, Deonte Harris, Taysom Hill, Tony Jones Jr, Marcus Davenport, Chase Hanson, Kwon Alexander, Ken Crawley, Nick Vannett, Tre’Quan Smith, and others on the sideline. 

Put them together with those from last year who aren’t here:  Drew Brees, Latavius Murray, Thomas Morestead, JT Gray, Trey Hendrickson, Sheldon Rankins, Malcolm Brown, Josh Hill, Jared Cook, Alex Anzalone, Emmanuel Sanders, Michael Burton, and Janoris Jenkins totals 26 absent.  All but Brees are contributing on other teams. 

And the Saints are 3-2 at the bye. 

Imagine if it was your company and you experienced that kind of turnover and absenteeism.You’d take 3-2 all day long.  And you’re just a bad quarter away from being 4-1.

Yes, the Saints last 2 games were experiments in what to do with 11-point fourth quarter leads. In the first, they just blew it to the Giants. 

If you’ve ever been a manager, you’ve had a bad day at the office.  You went against your instincts and hired the wrong person.  You chewed someone out for something that wasn’t their fault.  You made the wrong choice and it backfired.  You just made a stupid decision and it was costly.

Sean Payton simply had a bad day at the office against the Giants, something we’re not used to (except in the playoffs.)  Except for a three straight touchdown stretch in the second and third quarter, the Saints bungled decision after decision. They held a 21-10 lead with 8 minutes left, and then the Giants did to us what we are used to seeing the Saints do to teams over the last 15 years.

Squandered a time-out and a challenge with one of the most meaningless challenges of a spot I can ever remember seeing. 

Having a kicker that is obviously mediocre try a 58 yarder but not a 43 yarder.

Having only one running play that Taysom Hill can run.  His previous 2 spectacular runs were kind of a tip for the Giants to move the Titanic into that particular hole.

Having Taysom Hill throw a bomb which he didn’t have the arm for, thus an interception.

Not Throwing one pass to Alvin Kamara, who carried a career high 26 times.

Defense was no better

The annual Joe Montana create-a-star award goes to Daniel Jones who racked up over 400 yards passing and looked all world.  For one week.

Paulson Adebo, who appears to have the physical tools, got picked on all day, and the Saints lost in overtime 27-21.

Almost all those strategic errors got rectified the next week when the Saints when to DC and beat the nameless team 33-22.  As good as Ron Rivera appears to be as a coach, he rarely can handle Payton.  Blake Gillikin had the best game I’ve ever seen a punter have, as he seems to be on a mission to revive the coffin corner.  He deposited three punts of 53 yards or more inside the 5-yard line, completely changing the game.  Likewise, Marshon Lattimore seemed to take every ball in the air as a personal insult.

There are 3 things that I think are the most difficult in sports:  1) hit a round baseball moving very fast with a round bat, 2) hit a golf ball where you want it to go, and 3) cover a wide receiver.  I looked at the Saints secondary as their weakest link, but Lattimore may be the best in the game right now, Adebo has improved and looks like the steal of the draft, and if he’s not, linebacker Pete Werner is.

Being 3-2 at this point is a testament to organizational stability.  The first three draft choices are contributing.  Other than the place kicker, the Saints have been able to reload, restock, reboot, and stay competitive. 

Then there’s Jameis Winston, who has held his own.  While throwing to an all-new receiving corps, he has cut down his mistakes, but not eliminated them.  He’s thrown some good, bad, and ugly passes.  But, it ain’t a beauty contest and the reality of it is that the Saints are a middle tier team right now.  The question is, when some starters come back, can they make the jump?   

At the bye, all things considered, I’ll take 3-2. 

Saints Report # 4 - September 30, 2018

Workmanlike.  The Saints reached the quarter pole of the season with a workmanlike 33-18 victory over the New York Giants in New Jersey.  On paper, the Giants triumvirate of Eli Manning, Saquon Barkley, and Odell Beckham should have matched up with the Saints trio of Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, and Michael Thomas.  But they didn’t.  Brees and Thomas did not have their usual massive statistics, but ball control is a wonderful thing.  Alvin Kamara is beginning to look like an Offensive Player of the Year candidate, if not MVP.  He ran for 3 TD’s on the way to 134 yards rushing, and now leads the NFL in yards from scrimmage, with 611.  Third string quarterback Taysom Hill is playing more and more because of his versatility, and may have had the key play in the first half when he got a first down on a fourth down pass on a fake punt. 

The Saints started slowly as several drives resulted in field goals.  But, suddenly the defense got in a decent September performance, holding Odell to insignificance and Barkley to crumbs.  The Giants had a good drive to begin the game, and a good last possession, but in between they did little. 

So, we are now one fourth of the way through a season of high hopes.  The Saints have rebounded from that horrible first game to move to the top of the division with a 3-1 record.  Brees has not thrown an interception yet, and is completing 75% of his passes.  Michael Thomas is averaging 10 catches a game.  Kamara is all-world.  Ingram returns from suspension this week, but while he’ll get some carries, it may be that the Saints have to keep getting Kamara the touches.  He’s more than most defenses can handle.  The defense is looking better and appears to be able to handle any team with one great receiver.  They don’t match up well against a team with two superstar receivers (Atlanta.) 

Fortunately, they can shoot-out with anyone, and are beginning to rush the passer.  Don’t buy your Super Bowl tickets yet, but in the words of Cass Elliott, “It’s getting better.”

Super Bowl Thoughts

What I saw was another routine NFL display of phenomenal Quarterback play. The history book will say that Eli Manning outplayed Tom Brady in the 21-17 Giants victory. Not so sure about that, but there was no doubt that the Giants receiving corps outplayed the Patriots. Remember how bad the Super Bowls used to be? Not any longer – not in the Quarterback era.

Here are the last 16 Super Bowl Quarterback Matchup results:

Eli Manning over Tom Brady
Aaron Rodgers over Ben Roethlisberger
Drew Brees over Peyton Manning
Ben Roethlisberger over Kurt Warner
Eli Manning over Tom Brady
Peyton Manning over Rex Grossman
Ben Roethlisberger over Matt Hasselback
Tom Brady over Donovan McNabb
Tom Brady over Jake Delhomme
Brad Johnson over Rich Gannon
Tom Brady over Kurt Warner
Trent Dilfer over Kerry Collins
Kurt Warner over Steve McNair
John Elway over Chris Chandler
John Elway over Brett Favre
Brett Favre over Drew Bledsoe

Only twice (Brad Johnson backed up by a tremendous Tampa defense and Trent Dilfer backed up by a tremendous Raven’s defense) has a non-elite QB won a Super Bowl in this pass-happy era. Only a few more non-elites have even played in this game.

So after all the gnashing of teeth throughout the season, your team’s not getting to this game if you don’t have a QB from this group:
Brady, Manning, Manning, Brees, Rodgers, Roethlisberger

If you have one of the QB’s that are close, you may get there but everything else has to go right, (and I’m really not convinced): Matt Schaub, Joe Flaco, Matt Ryan, Phillip Rivers, Alex Smith

And forget about it if Tony Romo, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Matt Cassell, Jay Cutler, a rookie, or a journeyman is your man.

Given this reasoning we can assume that next year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans will be the Giants, Saints, Falcons, 49ers, or Packers against either the Steelers, Chargers, Ravens, Texans, or Colts (or whatever team Peyton is playing for).

Taking this a step further, how good are the coaches, really?

Holmgren without Favre?
Belichick without Brady?
Coughlin without Eli?
Dungy without Peyton?
Shanahan without Elway?
Payton without Brees?
McCarthey without Rodgers?

Just wondering.

Exhibit A: Look at the revolving coach’s door in Miami since Marino retired. Is it because they have no QB, or no coach?
Exhibit B: Joe Gibbs who incredibly won with 3 different Quarterbacks, but couldn’t do it in this era.

Back to the game.
Thought Madonna was great.
Tom Brady needed some help.
The NFL is a war of attrition and Rob Gronkowski was the “Pierre Thomas effect” in this one. Injuries seem to determine the outcome so often and Gronk wasn’t a factor.
The Patriots need a deep threat and I suspect they’ll go after Robert Meachem if the Saints can’t re-sign him.
Eli has now been the beneficiary of two of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history and Brady has been the victim both times. Karma?
Speaking of Karma I heard one report that Brady and Belicheck, after starting 10-0 in the playoffs, are 6-6 since Spygate.
Speaking of Karma, Belichick actually cut a player last night. Imagine how that guy feels.
Actually, it’s the Belichick magic that’s missing on defense, especially the best way to defend, which is with a pass rush.

One thing I learned in my short career as an amateur coach – if you have a weakness it will get exposed in the big game. Always.

I just want to forget it all because I think the Saints were better than both these teams.

So, now it’s the offseason and I can get off the potato chips for 7 months, although I expect one night I’ll sit down to wallow in what might have been by eating 5 turnovers just to see what it feels like.
Popeye’s anyone?