Saints Report #17 - January 9, 2022

"You’ve got to be kidding me.  This is what we get with a 17 game season.  The Saints?  So, let me get this straight, if we had stuck to the 16 game schedule, the 49’ers would be in already? "

"Roger, let’s not panic yet.  There’s still a half to play and although they’re down 17-3, we know the Rams aren’t a second half team and they’ll probably choke.  As for the Saints, we thought for sure after that Hurricane, down to their 4^th Quarterback, and all that covid, they were goners.  You gotta give them credit."

"No, no credit.  But I’ll say this.  You guys sure did a good job getting the National Media to ignore them until now.  If the 49’ers do lose, I want that blackout of Saints info to continue." 

"Roger, we’ve got Colin, Stephan, and Mike in our back pocket.  They haven’t mentioned the Saints all year.  The only one we can’t get to shut up is Kay Adams, and she’s on our own network." 

"Can we bring someone else in?" 

"Roger, she’s so popular it would be suspicious."

 "Ok, it's halftime.  Let's get to work.  Mary Ann, contact the replay booth and tell them which way to lean.  Also, reach out to the clock operator and tell him what to do." 

"If the Saints make the playoffs despite our efforts, put together a “preserve-our-ratings” task force.  First, start with sending Fauci down to personally sit with the opposing quarterback, I guess Matthew Stafford, for the week so he doesn’t get sick.  Isolate him.  Keep him away from his kids."

"Second, I want that Officiating Crew from LA that we sent to the Superdome to keep the Saints out of the Super Bowl, I want that same crew doing the Saints playoff game."

"Third, I want a deep dive into the Saints observation of protocols.  Surely, we can suspend someone.  Maybe Tom Benson?"

"Roger, Tom died years ago."

"Oops.  If the Saints don’t make the playoffs, let’s get the “Coach of the Year” criteria changed to “must go to a coach of a playoff team,” just to be sure Payton can’t win.  And why are the Saints allowed so many quarterbacks?"

"Roger, good news.  The Rams choked and it’s going to overtime." 

"Ok, make sure the Niners win the toss.  I want that crew on high alert for pass interference."

Ultimately, the Saints season of adversity ended with a Matthew Stafford interception in overtime, and the 49’ers got the playoff spot.  Stafford has the footwork of Stephen Adams (Slowfoot) who played for the Pelicans last year.  Should they meet again in the playoffs, the 49’ers will grind them into the ground with their running game.

The Saints finale was mostly satisfying.  Their 30-20 win over Matt “Turnover” Ryan and the hapless Falcons was good until the last drop, and then the shoe dropped when the Rams spit the bit.

Taysom Hill was nearly perfect until he got hurt.  If he really has a lisfranc foot fracture, he’ll be under the knife tomorrow. 

Trevor Siemian took over and was safe and flawless, helped substantially by the defensive takeaways.  The announcers were even impressed by the fact that the Falcons had three one play drives.  It wasn’t just Roger Goodell who didn’t want the Saints in the playoffs.  That defense and the Saints ability to play field position is enough to frighten every team.  Let’s hope that somehow the defense can stay together for next year.  They’ll be some salary wrangling to do.

I watched with admiration this year as Sean Payton unveiled his game plan for each game.  He took a team with a couple of quarterbacks who had no mobility, and one that had too much, and a rookie, and basically manipulated this team to competitiveness.  Yes, there were games that slipped away. (Giants, Titans, Falcons).  Kicking problems were embarrassing at times.  But, for obstacles overcome, adversity dealt with, and juggling of personnel, hats off to Sean Payton.  A 9-8 record is nothing to covid sneeze at.

Saints Report #15 - December 27, 2021

The Saints fell to the Dolphins 20-3 in the annual Attrition Bowl Monday Night.  It wasn’t that close.  It was never going to be that close.

The Saints had no choice but to trot out QB Ian Book, their 4^th round draft choice, who by all accounts had never taken a practice snap with the first team.  He looked as bad as you would expect, as he couldn’t even throw the ball away when headed out of bounds faced with a loss.  It looked like he had never played the position before, at least at times.

Not his fault.  He never expected to have to play this year, and I’m a little concerned at the lack of development here, but I guess the Saints have had other things on their mind, like fighting the war of attrition, which they are losing as surely as the world is losing the war on covid.  And to ask him to play behind that make-shift offensive line with only two starters and three who should’ve been in street clothes was like putting a matador in the ring with a bull and blindfolding him.  It was treacherous.  Remember the replacement teams?

The Greed Football League expanded the schedule to 17 games this year in the year they should have dropped it to about 12, with teams getting 3 byes.  Many teams have had to send out players that don’t belong in the NFL.  It’s not the product we are used to.  The Saints looked so inept on offense, by far their worst game in the Payton era, that’s it no wonder they reached out to Brees last week.  Bobby Hebert was probably sitting by his phone.  They coulda been killed.  Glad Brees stayed the course on his retirement, on the course.

The Saints have fallen to 7-8 and I just don’t think they can get up.  I’d just as soon they start Book the last 2 games and see if he improves any.  Look, I read all the Saints chatterboxes doing the Hill/Winston argument and let me say this.  The Saints don’t have any NFL Playoff Caliber Quarterback on their roster. 

Winston has a good arm, but can’t read defenses quickly enough, Hill will never make it through a season, Siemian is a known quantity, and it’s average at best, and Book – well would any other team have drafted him?

What’s sad is that this year, and I emphasize “this year,” the defense may be the best the Saints have ever had.  The injuries have been excessive, and it is rather disconcerting that covid has swept through the team in the last couple of weeks.  Doesn’t exactly make me want to browse Wal-Mart. 

Other than last night’s embarrassment, and the weird propensity to beat great teams and lose to bad ones, I actually like the way the Saints have competed, given all the injuries.  Sean Payton has kept them in the games.  I have questioned his play calling at times, like we all do, but he has put together a great team which is lacking at one position, where he has saddled himself with some Ansel Elgot’s.  If it can happen to Speilberg, it can happen to anyone.  Casting your leading man is extremely important.  The off-season will be interesting.  In the NFL, there are about 10 Quarterbacks who can win a Super Bowl.  If the goal is the Super Bowl, time to find an eleventh.      

Saints Report #8 - November 7, 2021

Any Saints loss to the Atlanta Falcons is heart-breaking, end of the world sorrowful, but this one was a throwback to the 70’s, with a last minute dagger that felled the Saints 27-25. 

The Saints played a pretty lackluster first 3 quarters, allowing Matt Ryan to chop up their vaunted defense with mostly short passes, with an occasional embarrassing long one thrown in.  The Falcons led 24-6 with 8 minutes left, and it all seemed a formality.  The Saints were going to squander their chance to take the division lead.

There are a lot of tried and true ways to lose in the NFL.  Here are a few:

• Sleep walk through 3 quarters and let the other team jump out to a big lead
• Drop about 7 passes
• Fail miserably on a couple of critical two point conversions
• Lose a fumble in the pocket in the middle of the comeback.
• Waste a stirring comeback by leaving the veteran opposing quarterback too much time to mount a comeback of his own.
• Put a rookie man to man on the best receiver with the game on the line.

Consider all those boxes checked.

The Saints trailed by 18 with 8 minutes left and mounted a thrilling comeback, as Siemian and Taysom Hill began to sling the ball all over the field.  It was the most remarkable comeback since the Brees-led one over the then-Skins of Red back in 2017.  When Kenny Stills caught a touchdown pass with 1 minute left, Saints fans were ecstatic, but also knew that was a lot of time for Matt Ryan.  He needed about 10 seconds of it.  His 64 yard pass to Cordarrelle Patterson over rookie Paulson Adebo took the wind out of the Superdome faster than a bomb cyclone, whatever that is. The Falcons won it on a short field goal.

The Saints are a puzzling lot.  They’ve lost to three teams, the Giants, Falcons, and Panthers that now have worse records than the Saints.  They beat the two teams, the Bucs and Packers that are the favorites to play in the NFC Championship. 

They broke their improbable 3 game winning streak.  Instead of a remarkable 6-2 record, they stumble to 5-3, making their playoff odds significantly longer.  Three of their next 4 opponents, Tennessee, Dallas, and Buffalo lead their divisions, and the one that doesn’t, Philly, is in 2^nd place.  Cakewalk it ain’t.  These 3 losses to teams they should have beaten would have provided a margin for error they don’t have now.  Going into December at or under .500 is a very real possibility.  Meanwhile, their home field advantage seems to have evaporated and escaped through that fire on the roof a few months back.

They’ve hidden their major deficiency – wide receiver, until today.  Against the Falcons, drops were plentiful, and separation was not in evidence until late in the game.  My personal opinion is that OBJ is a head case, but he’d easily be the #1 receiver on this team.  Not that I’m advocating.

Tight End Adam Trautman contributed a couple of critical drops, but came alive in the 4^th quarter.  They say he’s a good blocker.  Whatever.

Mark ingram looked good in the first quarter, then he disappeared, into the “minimal use” bucket.

Atlanta receivers, on the other glove, were wide open all day.  If this is evidence of game-planning by their first-year coach, Arthur Smith, the Saints recent superiority may be in jeopardy.  While Atlanta upped their series lead to 54-51, the Saints are 21-10 since Payton arrived, including 6 out of the last 7 until today.  It would be nice for recent momentum to continue.

Taysom Hill embarrassed the Birds last year, and zinged two completions right before Siemian’s game-changing fumble.  Payton may not have been convinced Hill was ready after his concussion, and Siemian played pretty well, but I’m thinking the decision will be tougher next week.  The loss was certainly not Trevor’s fault, but could he win a Super Bowl?  I don’t know.  Could Nick Foles?  Brad Johnson?  Jeff Hostetler?  Trent Dilfer?  How much has the game changed?  I just don’t know.  No one is talking about his big arm, that’s for sure.

Today reminded me of the Minneapolis Miracle.  The Vikings jumped out to a big lead.  Brees piloted a brilliant comeback, one that should have made it a signature win.  It all went out the window on an improbable bomb to Stefon Diggs, whose part was played today by Patterson.  After what the Saints did to Brady last week with under a minute left, this outcome was particularly surprising.  The defense was a step slow all day, and Patterson one-on-one with any rookie is a full load, although they did contain rookie phenom tight end Kyle Pitts.

So, a puzzling day in the NFL all around.  In future opponents, Jacksonville embarrassed Buffalo, and Denver surprised Dallas, so they’ll be more focused.  Let’s hope the Saints are. 

Saints Report #7 - October 31, 2021

Sean Payton loves us.  He loves us not.

His stellar game plan led to a 36 – 27 Saints victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But his clock management put a game in jeopardy, for the second time this year.  Fortunately, it was Halloween in New Orleans, so a repeat of the Giants debacle was not going to happen. 

The Bucs took a 27-26 lead with 5:44 minutes left.  Jameis Winston had exited the game in the first half with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.  The Saints were counting on backup Trevor Siemian for a game winning drive.  With two minutes remaining, the Bucs were down to one timeout and the Saints had a first down within the 10 yard line.  Good clock management would dictate 3 runs and kick a field goal, leaving Brady about 40 seconds and no timeouts.  So, of course, Payton, in a strategy reminiscent of the Saints playoff loss to the Rams a few years ago, called 3 pass plays that had no chance.  The Saints kicked the field goal to lead 29 – 27, and Brady would get the ball back with 1:41 plus a timeout.  It looked like a layup for the GOAT.

But Dennis Allen’s defense bailed Payton out.  PJ Williams intercepted Brady and ran it in to the end zone, and a shell-shocked Brady only had two sacks ahead of him.   Brady had a three turnover day.  I enjoy them when I’m hungry, but not great for a quarterback.

The Saints deserved to win.  They had dominated early, scoring 23 straight points to lead 23 – 7. Then Brady orchestrated his comeback, although the failure on a 2 point conversion was key.  Winston got hurt when he scrambled out of the pocket and was tackled by the shoulder pad in a tackle that illustrated why horse collar tackles are illegal.  At this point Winston had continued to surprise defenses with his running ability, having run for several first downs.  Unfortunately, the scrambling did him in.

The Saints stubbornly, and admirably, stuck to running the ball.  There wasn’t much yardage there, but their commitment to the run helped the unexpected passer – Siemian.  Here’s a scouting report – I always liked him when he was with the Broncos.  He doesn’t have a big arm, but he’s smart and accurate, and is close to Brees in tools.  Looks like he’s about to get another shot at an NFL starting job.

He ended this game 16-27 for 159 yards.

So the Saints beat the Bucs for the 6^th straight time in the regular season.  Of course an argument could be made, and Bruce Arians would probably make it, that the Bucs beat themselves with one crucial penalty after another, often extending Saints drives.  Sometimes they were even petty.  But, the Saints often play the bully roll, and pay for it.  In the end, the last Saints drive of the day gave the Saints a lead Brady couldn’t touch. 

So the surprising Saints are 5-2 and yet have only played two home games.  With 4 of the next 5 at home just imagine if the Saints flex that dome field advantage.  It could be like Halloween every night.  

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 #1 - September 12, 2021

The Saints opened their season with a football nation-stunning 38-3 victory over the highly regarded Green Bay Packers.  Leave it to the Saints to provide a shot of adrenaline to the hurricane-beleagured who-dat nation.

Who could have seen this coming?  Well I did, because when your supremely talented but aging MVP Quarterback spends the offseason trying to beat out Blossom to host a game show, while courting his latest movie star girlfriend and complaining about his rapport with his bosses, that’s a recipe called “too much on your plate that doesn’t included training.”  As amazing as Aaron Rodgers is, he’s 37, and he looked it today, mostly because of the Saints smothering defense.

Dennis Allen is in his 7^th year as defensive coordinator and is it is a luxury to have someone this good for so long.  Usually they get hired away, but the maturity, schemes, and disguises he employs allows him to overcome the occasional shortage of personnel.  Saints fans have been worried all year about the cornerback position, but 3^rd round pick Paulson Adebo picked off Aaron Rodgers In his first NFL start.  Someday he’ll be telling his grandchildren about that play as a career highlight, or the first of many interceptions.  Next week the Saints will be joined by another top flight cornerback they just traded for, Bradley Roby.  Don’t look now, but the Saints looked like the best defense in the NFL on opening weekend.

On offense, they were just as good.  Hopefully all year, the Saints will execute the run-first, time chewing, ball control offense they used this day.  Limited possessions, keeping high powered offensive superstars watching from the bench with growing impatience, as they methodically worked the ball down the field.  It’s a great formula.  Early in the game when Jameis Winston was unexpectedly running for first downs, and the Saints running back tandem was grinding away, I knew Sean Payton had landed on one of his formidable game plans.  He did it each time Brees was sidelined the last 2 years.  He did it to Tampa Bay twice last year.  The Coach can flat out put a game plan together.

So, how will you know if things are going the Saints’ way?  If the Quarterback is perfectly set up for success the way Jameis Winston was today.  Five Touchdown passes with only 148 yards passing is simply unheard of.  The statistical edge the Saints had in all areas was amazing today, and I could recite them, but will just let them speak for themselves.  The Saints theme for the year should be "no shootouts."  It will put every opponent in Jeopardy.

When a Hurricane like Ida just ravages its way through the land you love, leaving varying degrees of devastation in its wake it is a helpless feeling, like there’s nothing you can do up against a superior force. 

The Green Bay Packers just got a taste of that feeling.

 

Drew

The rain doesn’t fall in New Orleans.  It materializes out of the summer humidity.  It is one of the most humid places in the world, so much so that when someone has lived it the heaviness never leaves them.  We just laugh when visiting a northern city and we hear the declaration that “it’s humid today” at 40%. We would kill for 40%.

How many cities in the world sit below sea level?  Well, there’s Atlantis.  And there’s New Orleans, a city where the levees rise in the hopes that they can hold the surrounding waters at bay while the antiquated pumping stations struggle to expel.  Yearly there’s a massive rain event that gets memorialized.  The May 3^rd flood.  The April 13^th flood.  Betsy.  Katrina.  According to reports, there have been 42 flood events in the last 20 years, turning New Orleans into Venice.  The Cajun Navy deploys to rescue people who should have known better by now.  When you average 62 inches of rain a year and you are below sea level, you will have to deal with it.

New Orleans has given us great music and food and corruption.  Bourbon Street is a singular tourist destination that just got the street dug up and paved properly so that a well lubricated tourist can now walk it without fear of breaking an ankle.  It only took 300 years.  The well-worn phrase “let the good times roll” is only the beginning.  The populace takes Mardi Gras and Lent seriously, with a lot of confessions in between. 

Then there’s this 54 year old professional football team that New Orleans has.  The New Orleans Saints were often associated with ineptitude and irrelevance.  But that’s not really fair.  The first 20 years were indeed terrible.  Then around 1986 Jim Mora and Rickey Jackson came to town and they were competitive for 10 years, as they were later for the 5 Jim Haslett years (although they were divided by a disastrous Ditka interim.)  Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, and they had to play out of a moving van for a year while their scarred home, the Superdome, underwent repairs.  And it was one ugly, disheartening year that ended the Haslett era.  Saints management took a chance on a very young coach Sean Payton, and he took a chance on an injured quarterback named Drew Brees.  We had no way to know how things were about to change as rebuilding took center stage.

With their arrival began a 15-year run of upper-echelon football.  The Saints had always been important to the region, but their consistency ushered in an era of ever-increasing enthusiasm for the team.  Many cities are bitterly divided.  New Orleans is not.  Yes crime is an issue, but the love for their football team is so universal that the greatest defusal phrase in the world may just be “who dat.”

All this can be traced to Drew Brees.  He came to play.  His moving van was packed with heart, dedication, work ethic, smarts, talent, and a willingness to get involved in the suffering community.   

It wasn’t just that he wanted to win.  He hated to lose.  I have an enduring image of him.  It was the glare.  When he threw an interception he would come to the sidelines.  He would stand there, often keeping his helmet on, not talking to anyone, making no excuses, like he had just committed an unpardonable sin.  He lead so many clutch drives in the fourth quarter, that we were spoiled.  I remember in particular one game where the Saints were down to the Redskins 31-16 with 4 minutes to play.  Redskins fans were whooping and hollering all around us, and I just had this feeling.  You don’t know Drew Brees.  The Saints had been flat all day, but suddenly it was like Brees was Zeus and lightening went through the team.  They tied it and won in overtime. 

That was the thing.  We were in every game.  We always had a chance.  Brees walked up to the line of scrimmage and began directing traffic as only a great student could, less flamboyantly than Peyton Manning, but just as effectively.  I have a theory that the great ones like Brees, Brady, and Manning win pre-snap by reading the defenses, which only comes with hours of preparation.  It was fun to watch.  Every time we walked from our car to the dome, we knew we were going to get our money’s worth.

I know that Brees will now go on to be successful in his business ventures and his broadcasting career, but I had always hoped he would run for public office in Louisiana and apply that same preparation and decision-making skills to running a city or a state.  That too would be fun to watch.

I’ve had a few favorite athletes in my life.  First there was Bill Mazeroski, a magician at 2^nd base.  Then Roberto Clemente.  You can watch his highlights but here’s what you probably won’t see.  He hit in each of the 14 World Series games he played in, and yet there was a key play in each series where he beat out balls he hit back to the pitcher.  He ran hard on every play.

Drew Brees was like that.  He never took a play or a game off.  He had two serious injuries in his last two years, and he almost certainly came back too early from them.  But he couldn’t stand to watch any more than he could stand to lose.  You can’t win them all.  Not when there’s another team on the field, not to mention officiaIs, weather, and momentum to contend with.  I know of only one athlete that retired undefeated and that’s Rocky Marciano, but he wasn’t playing a team sport.  Team sports are different.  They are more rewarding, and more devastating. The Saints losses in recent years were way more devastating than the days that the crowd wore bags over their heads and the conclusion was forgone.

Drew Brees came to New Orleans about the time that I was able to utilize the season tickets my family has had since 1982. I saw him play in person close to 100 times.  I started writing this game-by-game blog on every single game for the last 15 years.  I gave an often uninformed but emotional reaction to every game.  Now I’m hoping I can print each page out and somehow bind it and get it into his hands.  If he ever chooses to read it, he will get a reactionary Who Dat view of each game.  I grew up wanting to be a sportswriter, changed course in my career, but reverted to it as a hobby in this blog.  I really don’t know if I will be as committed going forward. 

So not only did Drew Brees bring out the sports fan in me, he reinvigorated my writing, albeit it just-for-fun, and for a miniscule audience.  Anyone who watched him for the last 15 years has to admire those traits in him that he brought to New Orleans.  He will probably move away now, but he will be leaving with a bigger family, as well as a slew of former teammates that revere him, and a fan base that considers him a legend.

In coming centuries there may come a time when New Orleans joins Atlantis.  It seems inevitable. But, the story of Drew Brees will be passed down from generation to generation.  A statue will go up, and a pilgrimage will be made to Canton in 5 years.  I hope I get to go.  Look, sports is just entertainment.  It generates huge revenues and as a result athletes are paid a lot of money.  The Drew Brees effect on New Orleans transcended sports and money.  They say luck is where preparation meets opportunity.  True, but Drew Brees is where preparation met opportunity and thrived when a region needed it most. 

We needed a Drew Brees and we got him.  We will never let him go.