Saints Sideline Blog

LUCKY “13TH”

Sunday, December 13th, 2009      Email Print

LUCKY "13TH"
 
DATELINE: Atlanta, GA / December (13TH), 2009 (HELLO first round BYE!)
 
Sean Payton seemed to be feeling lucky and good afterwards.The Saints Head Coach was busy high fiving everyone in sight and who could blame him? Everything he has touched this season has turned to gold. The latest black and "golden" moment was calling for a fake field goal with just over two minutes left,a mere three point lead and not having it cost him the game. Payton admitted "the defense bailed me out" and they sure did. The players love the aggressive nature of their head coach, but the call nearly kissed away the perfect season where the second guessers were in their three point stances ready to fire away.
 
The Saints defense is banged up and have played like it the past few weeks. With Darren Sharper stealing many of the headlines, the national media may not realize how important the absence of Jabari Greer has been but its proved costly for a unit which allowed 303 passing yards to CHRIS REDMAN! Greer's loss is one thing and you couple that with Tracy Porter's injury and Saints fans are starting to feel about the secondary much like they have the past three seasons. I think Malcolm Jenkins is going to be a great player in this league but he is a rookie and still learning. Randall Gay has been banged up and Mike McKenzie is still getting used to Gregg WIlliams' scheme which has spelled trouble in recent weeks, save the Patriots game.
 
The good news for the Who Dat Nation, unlike past years under Gary GIbbs, this defense knows when to step up at the end of games. Last year they lost some heartbreakers due to their defensive play (see Chicago,Minnesota etc). This Atlanta game was a great example of how this unit is tougher where in this case Jonathan Vilma stepped up in the final four minutes with a key interception to thwart one Falcons' drive and another big play on 4th and 2 to put the Dirty Birds on ice. This team may bend but they don't completely break apart, a trait which has kept the Saints perfect and a threat to make it to Miami.
 
We've seen everything in this fantastic Saints season. We've seen New Orleans score 22 points in the fourth quarter to beat the Dolphins, we've seen the Redskins miss a chip shot to keep hope alive, now we've seen Sean Payton play with fire and survive unscathed. If you are going to be successful, sometimes you have to be aggressive, in this case the Head Saints lived to tell about it!
 
WHO DAT HITS
 
REGGIE REGGIE: Reggie Bush had his best all-around game of the year. He scored two touchdowns on 6 catches and 6 carries where he overcame a fumble on one play to score a TD on the next. Sean Payton was seen chewinig out Bush on the sidelines last week in Washington but made note afterwards that he yells at all of his players and when Bush gets yelled at it always seems magnified.
 
FRANCHISE FIRSTS: Its clear this is the best regular season Saints team ever. A win over the Falcons gives New Orleans its highest total in team history and with 26 points, they also have the highest point total in history. This just in--they still have three games left.
 
FAKE FALLOUT: Mark Brunell tells me afterwards that he wasn't surprised the fake field goal was called and admitted the play was designed for him to run the football instead of throwing to Darnell Dinkins.
 
BREES ON LENO: Drew Brees tells me he enjoyed his experience on the Jay Leno show via satellite from Saints Headquarters this week. Drew was asked routine requests like singing the Purdue fight song and name as many New Orleans foods in 10 seconds as he could.
 
BUSH LIKES INGRAM: Reggie Bush is a Heisman Trophy winner and thus has a Heisman vote. He tells me he voted for Mark Ingram but his runner up was Clemson's CJ Spiller and then Stanford's Toby Gerhart. So much for West Coast Bias!
 
UNTIL NEXT BLOG,
Mike Nabors

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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