New Orleans Saints' Offensive Player Grades @ Rams
by Andrew Juge on Nov 16, 2009 12:00 PM CST
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PrintBelow are the offensive player grades for the flawed victory at St. Louis. The grade represents the player's performance for the game and the GPA behind it in parentheses represents the player's cumulative effort for all games combined.
Saints vs Rams boxscore
Drew Brees: C (2.96) Is anyone getting tired of Brees' turnover penchant? Yes, he's the franchise's savior, yes, he's an mvp candidate, and yes, we should all be thankful he's the quarterback of the Saints. But he really hasn't looked all that great in recent games. He's played good enough to win, but he hasn't played mistake free football. I've given him lenient grading up until now, but this time it's going to be a little harsher. He finished 18 for 26 for 223yds, 2 TD's and 2 INT's. His second interception in particular was a horribly overthrown pass intended for Shockey. I will admit that his touchdown pass to Meachem was one of the prettiest passes he's thrown all season, so give him credit for that. The main disappointment for me, though, was that the offense had the opportunity to kill the game TWICE and Brees misfired on two third down attempts to keep the chains moving. Normally you can at least count on Brees, even on an abnormally pedestrian day this season, to come through in the clutch. Today, he didn't, and his grade suffered because of it. I was also frustrated by the constant reliance on the security valve throw underneath and what I perceived as sometimes questionable clock management (spiking on 3rd down before halftime with 6 seconds left).
Marques Colston: D+ (2.74) Colston finished with just 2 catches for 17 yards, and was almost never targeted. Perhaps he was feeling the ill effects (no pun intended) of the flu he was battling earlier in the week. He also rushed once for 6 yards, though I can't for the life of me understand why he'd get a reverse over Meachem or Henderson. Colston, despite his massive size, decided to try the Reggie Bush leap over the end zone which resulted in a big fumble. The Rams stopped the Saints inches from scoring, and that kept the game close. That's back to back horrendous games from Colston, so hopefully he can bounce back. His GPA is falling fast. He does deserve credit, though, for throwing a terrific block on Reggie Bush's first touchdown run.
Jermon Bushrod: B (2.84) Bushrod was mostly fine. He got Brees hit once and sacked once by Chris Long, but on both plays Brees could have had better pocket awareness and gotten rid of the ball sooner. His run blocking wasn't great, but it was pretty good.
Kyle Eckel: C (1.84) He was ok in run blocking. The Saints overall had more success running with David Thomas as the fullback. Give him credit for converting a 3rd and short with a nice 7 yard run. That got him another opportunity on 4th and 2, but he got stacked for a loss. That was a critical point in the game, but I blame bad play calling for that play more so than Eckel.
My Offensive Player of the Game: Reggie Bush
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Brees first interception should have been caught
it bounced off of Shockey and went 10 yards to a defender. The stat will go down as an INT, but that one was on Shockey really, not Brees. When Brees throws it to a DB or a DB jumps the route, that’s a true int. Brees threw some phenomenal passes, got some great reads, probablyu audibled out in some key situations. And we won the game. If that’s what a C grade is, then fine I’ll take a C grade every week as we keep winning. Beats an A grade and a loss!!
"Indecision may or may not be my biggest problem" - Jimmy Buffett
I watched a bit of the game over last night
I thought the defender made a great play and hit Shockey RIGHT as he was supposed to catch it. I wouldn’t have expected him to make that catch. Just bad luck that it deflected upward.
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by Dave Cariello on Nov 16, 2009 12:15 PM CST up reply actions
i thought it was a bad read by Brees
the linebacker was dropping into coverage, so he didn’t see him roaming over as he released the ball thinking Shockey was wide open
by Andrew Juge on Nov 16, 2009 12:37 PM CST up reply actions
The back shoulder pass
I think opposing teams have seen enough film to know they have to guard against the back shoulder pass from Brees. The Saints torched the Giants with it as Colston seemed to be spinning around a lot during that game and hauling in key passes. The Panthers got a pic on one last week to Colston. I haven’t rewatched the Rams game yet, so I don’t know if one of those pics yesterday was on a similar play. Brees is very confident in his accuracy and ability to throw it where only Shockey can get to it. That sure-thing chemistry between those two didn’t work yesterday. I blame Shockey more than Brees. He didn’t look on his game against the Rams.
"I said this early on that this was a good football team, they just maybe had to have a stick put in certain parts of their body to play a little harder in certain places to where we’re able to take interceptions and score touchdowns."--Gregg Williams
by David "Satch" Kelly on Nov 16, 2009 3:23 PM CST up reply actions
a really good play by the defender if you ask me, not that anyone did
by sernycrusher on Nov 16, 2009 12:37 PM CST up reply actions
Good defensive play.
The defender hit Shockey as the ball hit him, knocking the ball loose. Brees threw a good ball, Shockey was making a good catch. Neither did anything bad or wrong. The defender just made a really good play on the ball. Sh*t happens.
I
think your giving our offensive line too much credit they just dont seem to be gelling like they were earlier this year.
Brees seems to be getting pressured alot lately.
by mississippisaintsfan on Nov 16, 2009 12:36 PM CST reply actions
surprised reggie didnt get more than 8 touches
considering his effectiveness. and none in the last few minutes, which led me to fear he tweaked a knee on the punt return where he took a cheap hit as he was going directly out of bounds. guess we will see when injury reports come out wednesday.
Being a Saints fan will take years off your life
I think that fact
has a lot of people up in arms
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by Dave Cariello on Nov 16, 2009 1:47 PM CST up reply actions
yeah
definetly a good bit
Superbowl bound!!!...I know! do you?! Go Saints!!
by skinnykinney on Nov 16, 2009 4:12 PM CST up reply actions
I thought he overextended his knee
when someone rolled over him as he was diving to recover Colston’s fumble in the endzone. Nothing made of it, though.
"I don’t know if there’s a good time to play the New Orleans Saints this year to be quite honest with you."-Steve Spagnuolo
agree with your grades this week
and i want to second the props to henderson for becoming a legit receiver and not just a speedy deep threat. he’s been great over this stretch of games where colston has been struggling, and i’m really glad to see that (been a fan of his since that catch against kentucky).
also i want to beat this dead horse a little more— bushrod is AWESOME. i mean, he’s not like perfect or an elite LT by any means, but my biggest worry this year was that our season would tank with brown on IR. bushrod has waaaaay exceeded my expectations.
Agree on Bushrod
One of his bad plays a couple of weeks ago(vs. Atlanta?) was a telling play of his, I thought. He got beat by his man, who was going to cream Brees on a third and long, so he very blatantly held him, to protect his qb. He immediately pointed at himself, and took the blame. Of course, he shouldn’t have gotten beat, and a holding call doesn’t help anything, but I’ll take that over a sack. Also, it just seemed like quick thinking on his part. He doesn’t get beat a lot, but on that one, he knew the situation, and he understood if he already lost his battle, it’s better to take the penalty and lose the play than let his man crush the qb. Even if we get some big name LT in the next offseason(or get Brown back), he’s proven without a doubt that he can be trusted with the blindside. He’ll either stay heavy in rotation, or start somewhere else, I would imagine.
"I don’t know if there’s a good time to play the New Orleans Saints this year to be quite honest with you."-Steve Spagnuolo
Both Brees INTs were on passes to Shockey
But at least he didn’t have a sack/fumble again…
"In the end, the bread was in the pudding." -- Bobby McCray
Brees = C-
he was mediocre out there today. The receivers were mediocre. It wasn’t a good day for us. Feels like another loss…
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