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Saints 30 @ Chiefs 20: Saints Start 7 Game Win Streak

I have to admit I am feeling less than fulfilled after the Saints victory today. A win is a win and it's nice to get one but I didn't think it was the Saints greatest performance by any means. However, in my attempt to be ever the optimist I am calling this the first win in a seven game streak.

On the whole this defense played a little bit better than it has in the past. We finally saw some good aggressive plays from the secondary and some pressure from the defensive line. They definitely gave up some frustrating big plays here and there but tightened up multiple times on the goal line to force field goals over touchdowns and staying true to their "bend but don't break" philosophy on defense.

Here are my notes on the game and initial observations.

  • Saints were wearing the all black pants. No stripe.
  • I am starting to like Courtney Roby. He has come up with some pretty big kick returns in his short time and he looks so fast.
  • Right off the bat Randall Gay looked better than he has been of late. He made some nice stops and break ups today. Jason David even had a nice break up of his own. Very weird to actually watch. You know it's going to be a long day if Jason David is breaking up your passes.
  • The field looked wet and/or sloppy. On Drew's interception it was Devery who slipped on a comeback route and allowing the Titan defender to make the play untouched.
  • I noticed Hollis Thomas is back.
  • The Chiefs first score comes on a jump ball to Dwayne Bowe in the corner of the end zone with Usama Young on the coverage. The Chiefs would score on the exact same play later in the game as well.
  •  We finally saw a screw up from backup center Matt Lehr with that botched snap.
  • We also saw Will Smith actually get a sack, picking up the garbage after Scott Shanle missed his own opportunity on the play.
  • My boy Pierre had a big day today. The best day for a Saints running back so far this season in fact. But alas it was the Chiefs so I am not going to rant and rave. 88 yards on 16 carries and 56 yards from 4 receptions. It was also nice to see Payton use him late in the 4th quarter to pick up some yardage and eat up  some clock.
  • Not to be outdone Deuce got himself a touchdown and is now tied for the lead on the Saints all-time touchdown list.
  • How about the new kicker? Garrett Hartley is still perfect and he had to kick a big one late in the 4th quarter. I think it's safe to say we've found our man.
  • The new punter Pakulak is looking pretty good so far too. 2 punts for an average of 48.5 yards.
  • Where did Jeff Charleston come from? He looked like our best DE today by notching two sacks on Thigpen. It's nice to get big performances our of younger guys who are filling in for injured starters. That is something a team needs to win a Superbowl.
  • Lance Moore had a nice day today as well. Even if you don't like the fact that Lance Moore doesn't get much after the catch he is still an awesome weapon to have on our team. And every now and then he surprises you with something amazing.
  • The announcers mentioned more than once that Deuce was not 100%. He's not? When will he be? I was under the impression Deuce was back.
  • I didn't like what I saw from Colston and Shockey. Something just seems to be missing when it comes to the Brees/Shockey relationship. They just can't seem to get on the same page. And Colston just continues to not look like his old self. He dropped at least two gauranteed catches. Marques is definitely overthinking or forgetting the basics or something. I really hope he gets this worked out quickly.

Hopefully we will have some field reports from some of our loyal CSC readers who were on location at the game today.

Here is the roll call for the open thread.

Total Users: 11
Total Posts: 368
Total Threads: 1

Name# of Posts
xen-cuts 128
pukenbowl 57
Saintsational 50
Steve the fan 48
SpindianSaints 33
dicecar18 21
SaintBevo 11
dell00 7
Dave the Falconer 6
asaint 4
Chris 3
Poll
Who was the player of the game?
Pierre Thomas
30 votes
Lance Moore
16 votes
Drew Brees
2 votes
Garrett Hartley
4 votes
Randall Gay
6 votes
Jeff Charleston
8 votes
Roman Harper
0 votes

66 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 17 comments | Digg!

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Comments

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So Dave

If you’re driving the Pierre Thomas bandwagon, can I call shotgun?

by Dave the Falconer on Nov 16, 2008 10:38 PM CST   0 recs

Dave The F loves Da Chronic

Dave The F, do your guys know you’re over here?

"Coach Payton REALLY needs to string together some wins."

by stujo4 on Nov 16, 2008 11:04 PM CST to parent up   0 recs

Hey, I'm everywhere

Just because I happen to like it here doesn’t mean I don’t hate the Saints with every fiber of my being.

It just means I like Pierre Thomas.

by Dave the Falconer on Nov 16, 2008 11:50 PM CST to parent up   0 recs

More DTF drunk postings!!!!!

"Coach Payton REALLY needs to string together some wins."

by stujo4 on Nov 17, 2008 11:37 AM CST to parent up   0 recs

back of the wagon

You cant have shotgun! I called that long ago.

But since you seem like a nice person we might have room somewhere in the back.

MT

by MT_always on Nov 17, 2008 12:56 PM CST to parent up   0 recs

Points I forgot

I can’t remember the punter’s name either.

It rained Sat, but not that much. Field looked very wet and sloppy, which is surprising since they have a sophisticated drainage system. I saw divots flying several times.

I forgot to mention Lance did look good today. He is becoming a reliable, go-to guy. If he wasn’t one already. Pretty tough, too.

"Coach Payton REALLY needs to string together some wins."

by stujo4 on Nov 16, 2008 11:07 PM CST   0 recs

PT cannot be depended on

I still love Deuce way more and I wish we’d have gotten Forte. Now I’m obsessing over drafting somebody new.

by xen-cuts on Nov 17, 2008 9:41 AM CST   0 recs

pfft

PT has done all he has been asked to do. He is learning to fall forward, something one of our other backs has not managed to learn yet.

The Oline is actually helping instead of hindering these days so expect PT to get some nice games in.

I still love Duece, dont get me wrong, but if the coach wont play him then I would rather have PT running inside then that other back.

I still think Deuce and Bush on the field together is the best use of both. Again, if the Coach wont play Duece put PT and Bush out there.

MT

by MT_always on Nov 17, 2008 12:55 PM CST to parent up   0 recs

PT lost us at least one game when he couldn't fall for the 1st down in the 4th q.

at least one game, probably more.

He did well yesterday…but it was KANSAS CITY!!! They have 1 win. ONE. They suck ass. Their main defender is a rookie. PT has to perform better in other games, too, before I’m going to believe in him.

I would’ve played Deuce in the 4th and yesterday I might have been wrong, IDK.

by xen-cuts on Nov 17, 2008 2:45 PM CST to parent up   0 recs

I have come to an epiphany about the DEUCE

Forgive me if someone has voiced this earlier and I just can’t recall it, I do not want to try and claim credit for someone else’s idea, but as I watched Deuce barely get any carries and heard the announcers talk about him still being injured and not 100% (someone else pointed this out already, too), I realized that MAYBE what’s going on with DMc’s lack of playing time is this:

1) Early in the year, Payton said that he was easing Deuce back into the playing scheme and just hadn’t really planned for him in the big picture of the offense b/c of his injury.

B) Then, Deuce was doing better and seemed OK, BUT Payton and the Saints already knew about his failed drug test and possible suspension, so Payton has refused to inject him into the game plan, because he doesn’t want to get used to having him in the scheme and rely on him for bulk of carries and then have to “lose” him and suffer Deuce withdrawal pains when the suspension gets handed down. BUT, he also doesn’t want opposing teams to think Deuce is not in the game plan, so he keeps mum about it to fake them all out.

3) My head hurts from all this thinking and wondering about why Deuce isn’t getting more carries.

4) I hope we are just getting started on a 7-game streak of wins, and I can’t wait to watch the pre-Thanksgiving MNF SPECTACULAR against the Pack next week.

5) Trivia nugget: The Saints earned their first-ever MNF win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-24, in a Nov. 19 pre-Thanksgiving MNF game in 1984. I remember because I was there as a geeky 13-year old, and had to wake up early the next morning and go to a dentist appointment. But it didn’t matter, because I was there for the Saints first MNF win!! I’ll never forget it.

by HansDat on Nov 17, 2008 6:36 PM CST   1 recs

Payton and the Saints already knew about his failed drug test and possible suspension, so Payton has refused to inject him into the game plan, because he doesn’t want to get used to having him in the scheme and rely on him for bulk of carries

I hadn’t thought of this and it makes sense. Probably at least some truth to it.

"Coach Payton REALLY needs to string together some wins."

by stujo4 on Nov 17, 2008 10:39 PM CST   0 recs

so...

you are all working under the assumption that Payton would choose losing games with a capable player on the bench rather than get whatever he could out of Deuce and maybe help the team in the short term?

Wanna say something? Sign up! It's free!

by Saintsational on Nov 17, 2008 10:57 PM CST to parent up   0 recs

When you put it that way...

I have to give it a second thought. Thanks for pointing that out Dave

1…2….ok, I’m ready now.

You’re right. He doesn’t want to lose. But, it seems that he just cannot devise a grind-it-out running game plan. Another week against a terrible run defense, and we rush 28 times (for a 3.7 yard average, and barely more than 100 rushing yards total) and throw 36? I guess that’s almost balanced, but are you kidding me? They give up an average of 111 yards on the ground per game. I know we’ve got Brees who is AWESOME, but I think we should have run the ball more often against that porous defense. (OK, I just read that again, and it’s not as powerful as when I first thought it. But what is powerful is that we suck at running the ball, and we get pushed around by bigger teams, and our vaunted passing attack wilts under pressure, and our defense can’t be counted on to win us games. But, we beat the CHEFS and we have no reason to believe things can’t go better for us over the next 6 games – keep hope alive and send the positive energy to our boys on the field.)

But I will note this from a “big picture” karmic universe type scenario: Whoever keeps saying that thing about it all going SOUTH for us after that Philly win in the Divisional playoffs (when we rode Deuce for almost the entire fourth quarter) and then vs. the Bears, he barely got any touches is DEAD RIGHT. I think that is the crux of it all. When the chips were down, in the most important game of our history, Payton abandoned the run against Chicago, and has never been able to get back to it with any real commitment since then. We’ll have to see how long this trend continues, and how long Payton stays on our team. It could be his ultimate downfall.

by HansDat on Nov 18, 2008 7:11 PM CST to parent up   0 recs

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