Another win is in the books for the 4-1 Saints. So let’s get to your non-Saints fan take on the game.
I said in week one that the Saints remind me of those early 2000’s Colts teams. The offense is frighteningly potent, which is a good thing because the defense is going to be giving up around 25 points a game. A team like that will make it to the playoffs, but, sorry Saints fans, it is not going to win the Superbowl.
Week five reinforced that theory. There were times when the defense looked good. Patrick Robinson must have been tired of people making fun of him because not only did he intercept Cam Newton’s first pass, but he didn’t embarrass himself on the runback. However, they seem to give up too many big plays. The secondary has some solid players, but if I’m an opposing QB I’m excited when I see double coverage. More after the jump…Sunday, the Panthers averaged 7.05 yards per play. By contrast, the Saints have been averaging 6.4 on the season*. The defense has just been giving up too many big plays–especially through the air. But, hey, this week they got it done and held Newton to just 51.6% passing and his second lowest amount of yards. And in the end, just like last week, the win is all that matters. Hopefully though, this form doesn’t carry over against a team that is capable of beating the Saints.
*I have no idea if that is a real or useful stat, but it is certainly interesting to look at. I took the total total yard of the Panthers and divided it by the number of plays run. For the Saints, I just used the season stats.
I’m sure most Saints fans will agree with me on this: I was very happy to see Jeremy Shockey do absolutely nothing. He was generally a fan favorite in New Orleans and to hear him trash the team in the lead up to Sunday was disappointing. Yes, he is a talented player, but I always thought he was overrated. He didn’t play during the Giants Superbowl run, then he landed in a great situation with the Saints when they jettisoned him. Now Jimmy Graham is making him seem like he never mattered. He’s just a very replaceable player.
As for Graham, can we come up with a nickname for him? The guy is too good not to have a cool nickname. Personally, I would go with The Graham Reaper. Let us know in the comments below and if we get a couple of good ones, we’ll run a poll to decide on our Saints247 nickname for Jimmy Graham.
