Saints Sideline Blog

CUTTING IT CLOSE

Monday, October 4th, 2010      Email Print

DATELINE: New Orleans, LA/ October 4th, 2010 (1st Qtr of the season, hardly a Brees)

 

Drew Brees says with a smile on his face, the Saints are saving the blowouts for later in the season. Good line, but the Who Dat Nation is waiting and wondering when last year's gun slinging offense will come out of hibernation. Last season Brees and company put up numbers which lit up scoreboards, a year later they are just flickering of few of its light bulbs. Check out the scoring output in the 1st quarter of last season compared to this year:  

 

SAINTS SCORING TOTALS:

2009        2010

45             14

48             25

27             24

24             16

 

So far the 09 Saints have outscored the 2010 Saints by a margin of 144-79----if you're scoring at home that's a 65 point differential. To cut the defending champs a break there are a few reasons for that, beginning with injuries. Unlike last season when the Saints did what most Super teams did and avoided the bumps and bruises for the most part all year long, this time around it hasn't been as easy. On offense the backfield has lost Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas which has seemed to have contributed to the team's inability to open up the offense downfield. Brees' longest connection on Sunday versus the Panthers was a 20 yard completion to Jeremy Shockey, the lack of a deep ball has stood out like well like LSU's clock management skills versus Tennessee. Brees is still spreading the wealth finding 8 different targets but the deep threat has been absent in part to overthrows and several drops which have made it tough to keep up with the bar which was set so astronomically high last season. With the lack of big names in the backfield, the play action has taken a hit as well.

 

Turnovers haven't helped either. Brees told me Sunday's game had 30 plus points written all over it and its hard to argue. Never a QB to throw any of his teammates under the bus, Brees knows if Lance Moore doesn't fumble at the goal line and if Chris Ivory doesn't fumble following an impressive open field run, you could likely tack on 14 more points on the scoreboard versus those Carolina Cats. That's the promising part of the equation, you get the feeling its not what opposing defenses are doing to the Saints, its what the Saints are doing to the Saints that's keeping these games too close for any kind of comfort. Brees made some uncharacteristic throws against the Falcons in week three, the receivers are making mistakes they didn't make a year ago and at times versus the Panthers the best offensive line in the NFL last season isn't opening the holes it did during its Super season.

 

A big school of thought is that teams are playing the Saints tougher because they are the NFL's King Bee and there's some truth to that.Many of the players say they expect a different kind of effort from the opponent this year but Brees told me afterwards that all of these close calls will make the team better in the end. Think of it this way, the Saints peaked early last year only to see the offense fall late in the regular season, maybe the opposite will hold true this time around? Sure injuries are a part of the game but to be honest Betts and Ivory did a admirable job stepping into the cleats of Bush and Thomas Sunday--still this offense knows a lot of these games in the 1st Qtr of the season especially against the Panthers should never be this close .The good news is they remain 3-1. Close calls are nerve racking but watching this team you get the feeling they maybe "close" to turning it around.

 

WHO DAT HITS

THE "SAFETY" DANCE: Will Smith told me that Payton preached to his guys in camp that this was the deepest Saints team he's been around. That depth was tested at the strong safety position. How about this chain of events---Roman Harper sits out, his backup Pierson Prioleau gets hurt-his replacement Chris Reis is then injured-Usama Young steps in and comes up big with some crucial plays down the stretch. Usama wound up leading the team with 5 tackles.

 

YOU BETTER YOU BETTER YOU "BETTS": The Saints are proving to be plenty deep at Running Back. How about the effort of veteran Ladell Betts who is coming off major knee surgery but ran extremely hard running and catching the football. He's this year's answer to Mike Bell saying he felt great after the Panthers game.

 

JOHNNY BE GOOD: He's the same age as his head coach but John Carney didn't act it on Sunday. Garrett Hartley told me in training camp that he often talked to his mentor over the phone in San Diego where he continued to work out. Well the Saints ageless kicker looked in great shape versus Carolina, getting it done by kicking three more field goals, including the game winner in his first action of the season.

 

ELLIS' ISLAND: The Saints defense came up big down the stretch but the one constant this year has been the steady play of defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis. An early pick to make the pro bowl, Ellis got in rookie Jimmy Clausen's face all day with a sack and two pass deflections. He's clearly having his best season as a Saint.

 

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT: The Saints were super good last year but they got their share of bounces, the same so far can be said of those Atlanta Falcons. Last week, they get a break with Hartley's 29 yard miss and then on Sunday they recover a fumble off what looked to be a game clinching interception from the Niners. There has never been a repeat winner in the NFC South, if the Saints are gonna be the first, they need the Falcons karma to end....soon!

 

UNTIL NEXT BLOG,

Mike Nabors

CST

By: Mike Nabors

An Emmy award winning sports reporter who covers a wide variety of events for CST. Primarily, Mike serves as the network's reporter for Saints coverage.

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