Sports Illustrated '2011 NFL Preview' Issue Hits The Stands

by Hans Petersen on Sep 4, 2011 11:00 AM CDT

With the NFL's Week One on the horizon, I started looking for SI's NFL Preview 2011 issue (see sample cover here), and there it was, on the rack at my Kroger yesterday morning as Mrs. Hans and I completed our weekly shopping trip.

This is another one of my favorite football rituals (go here for my Lindy's Lovefest from earlier this summer) - getting this issue on Labor Day weekend and spending the next few days poring over it (see what I did there, Jeff Duncan and Doug Tatum?) as the season draws ever closer.

I scooped that bad boy up right away, before the last 21 copies of it could be taken right out from under me, and I am excited to bring you my coverage of it, focusing mainly on the Saints-related aspects.

More after the jump.

First of all, you must know that it was a bit difficult to stomach that hated rival Atlanta Falcons LB Curtis Lofton made the cover in this region. I was kind of surprised by this, as we usually don't get southern representation up here, and figured we'd get Green Bay's stud Clay Matthews, or maybe James Harrison of the Steelers, but it was Lofton, nonetheless. Plus the entire photo has this red sheen/tint to it, so the field looks like the bastard child of the Boise State eyesore - ugh.

Once I literally and figuratively got past that (the cover), I flipped right to the NFL Preview section to see what was what.

This year's emphasis is on the state of defenses, and there are two feature articles: one by Peter King that analyzes the new attacking defenses of the NFL that utilize a variety of fronts and looks to disguise the pressure that they will bring or not bring on the quarterback on any given play, and the second is a piece by Tim Layden about textbook tackling technique being a lost art.

King's article prominently spotlights a sit-down session the MMQB auteur had with our own Sean Payton during training camp, so that was kinda fun to read.

I found both these stories to be decently interesting and informative.

Next, it's on to the Scouting Reports, which begin with King's regular season record and playoff predictions.

He has the Saints winning the division at 10-6, and finishing with the #2 record in the NFC, earning a first-round bye. After defeating the Eagles 23-17 in the divisional round, King thinks the Falcons (who finished 2nd in the NFC South with a 10-6 record) will beat the Saints 26-17 in the NFCCG, and then go on to SB XLVI, where they will top the Chargers, 24-20.

I'd sure hate to see the Saints lose at home to Atlanta for the NFC Championship, but I do like winning the division and getting a bye. Just note that his predictions are worth as much as mine are right now - NOTHING.

His coverage of the Saints "in detail" gives a positive spin to the team rebounding from the painful loss to Seattle. He points to the team's acquisition of Darren Sproles (who gets featured in the "Spotlight" text box), INGRAMANIA!!!, and a healthy Pierre Thomas as reasons to believe the running game can return to 2009 form.

King also sees a formidable defense strengthened further by the presence of new veterans Shaun Rogers (who is mistakenly listed as Shaun Moore in the projected starting lineup sidebar - ha!) and Aubrayo Franklin (it still takes me multiple attempts to get that first name spelled correctly), as well as the addition of DE Cameron Jordan.

Given that this issue was "in press" last week, and is only current through King's visit with the team in Oxnard (where epiphanies abound!), the projected starting lineup contains a couple of other mistakes in addition to what I wrote above, namely including Alex Brown (that chump was cut) and Garrett Hartley (GAAA!!!) as starters, and there is no mention of Will Smith's suspension in the article. I'm not sure how these new wrinkles might have effected his outlook on the team, and we'll just have to live with that.

So, there you have it. The regular season can now begin.

Feel free to fire away at PK and Sports Illustrated (and even me) in the comment section. I'll be sure to join you!

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Comments

First I would like to say

that I havn’t had time to think of an intelligent comment. Not that that generally stops me.

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds" -Bob Marley

by PanheadCatahoula on Sep 4, 2011 11:05 AM CDT reply actions

never let that stop you from hitting "post"

hell, we probably wouldn’t have half the lively threads we have around here if people thought before they typed…

and that was a nice way to work in “first” without making it look like you were showing off that you got here first

WIN NOW
WINGRAMANIA!!!!

by Hans Petersen on Sep 4, 2011 11:23 AM CDT up reply actions

we probably wouldn’t have half the lively threads we have around here if people thought before they typed…

Wha choo trying to say?

This comment was written by a reader and member of Canal Street Chronicles. It does not necessarily reflect the views of CSC and its staff or editors.

by cscmember on Sep 6, 2011 7:57 AM CDT up reply actions

I took offense to that as well…which must mean we are frequent offenders ;)

by snowboard_kat on Sep 6, 2011 7:59 AM CDT up reply actions

You know it.

This comment was written by a reader and member of Canal Street Chronicles. It does not necessarily reflect the views of CSC and its staff or editors.

by cscmember on Sep 6, 2011 8:14 AM CDT up reply actions

not really a reply to our catahoula ambassador..

just wanted to get near the top.. oh.. & peter kings still $ucks ba!!s..

by the 9th plague on Sep 4, 2011 7:24 PM CDT up reply actions

I have a Catahoula mixed breed and it’s the most stubborn dog I ever owned.

by Valmo on Sep 4, 2011 8:13 PM CDT up reply actions

anyone wants to join a fantasy league on yahoo, the id is 730064. Yahoo made publishing era, and draft is today at 2pm. Its an 8 team league with big big rosters, big scores. I had to make league much bigger than 8 teams to publish because of glitch.

Glitch is if you invited last years teams to join, no one else can join unless they are removed. Yet yahoo won’t list last years teams for removal to open up slots for new comers, so I had to make amount of teams bigger. oNce it gets to 8 teams, I will lock it up.

If you can’t make the 2pm, I have two more leagues with drafts at 4pm and 6pm. You can join all 3 if you wish. the other id #’s are 730102 and 730132.

I hate trying to get Saints fans to join, because my sleeper Saints like Graham and Ingram tend to get scooped up quickly, lol. Anyways, thanks to any and all who join.

Stop wearing a wishbone where your backbone ought to be. Would you be convicted in court of being a Christian? Happiness is shared, and comes from sharing.

by Preston J. Gary, Jr. on Sep 4, 2011 12:48 PM CDT reply actions

Do you play two QBs in an 8-player league? I did that last year in mine when I couldn’t find enough people for a “normal” league… and it was actually kinda fun. But I’m glad I’ve got 10 this year and don’t have to do that again.

by FriarBob on Sep 4, 2011 1:39 PM CDT up reply actions

two qbs, three rbs, three wrs, two te’s, two d’s, two k’s, multiple mulptiple position slots, 10 players on your bench. all leagues are filled now, had to remove a team named yup. sorry. have to keep teams at 8 with rosters this big.

Stop wearing a wishbone where your backbone ought to be. Would you be convicted in court of being a Christian? Happiness is shared, and comes from sharing.

by Preston J. Gary, Jr. on Sep 4, 2011 3:26 PM CDT up reply actions

OK, I’m sure stujo is going to list me for this, but I don’t care. I will go on ahead and admit I don’t think the Foulclowns will even make the playoffs this year. They’re following our old pattern too closely, they keep trying to improve on offense and they are ignoring their defense… or making bad moves that aren’t going to help as much as they think, like signing an injured Ray Edwards who posted a big fat ZERO — no tackles, no sacks, no hurries, no nothing — in the “dress rehearsal” of the third preseason game. Now granted this was his first game back, but it was also against the pathetic Stooler OL, so he should have managed to do SOMETHING. And he couldn’t.

Until and unless the defense improves, the foulclowns are going nowhere. They got lucky on at least 5-6 games last year, even if they lose only three more games that brings them down to 10-6 and puts them on the edge of playoff qualification. They lose 4 or 5 of those games they should have lost last year and they don’t even make the playoffs and are at risk of not even having a winning record. And without defensive improvement, Julio Jones — or Matty Ice Melt — can’t do it all, anymore than a far superior QB we all know as “Drew” could before we got G-dub and some other defensive improvements around here. Even if Matty looks like a superstar and throws for 5000 yards (which I don’t think he’ll do either), they’ll keep losing games in the end because their defense isn’t enough to get the job done.

Of course, I did say much of that last year too. And the regular season sure made me look wrong. But in the end I was actually mostly right. They were fairly good, yes, but they were mostly LUCKY, not truly great, in the regular season. And they absolutely sucked it up in the playoffs and were exposed for the lucky frauds that they were when they finally faced a truly good team. We helped start the process in week 16, and three weeks later the Pack kicked their butts so hard it STILL hurts to sit down on the pot.

by FriarBob on Sep 4, 2011 1:49 PM CDT reply actions

I might start calling Ryan

Patty Melt mmmmmm Patty Melt (I love sauteed onions)

WIN NOW
WINGRAMANIA!!!!

by Hans Petersen on Sep 4, 2011 1:52 PM CDT up reply actions

Hans, you’re already on the List concerning this topic.

Some will rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen.

by stujo4 on Sep 4, 2011 2:07 PM CDT up reply actions

thanks for the reminder

I sling so much verbosity around this site that I forget what all of it is sometimes…

WIN NOW
WINGRAMANIA!!!!

by Hans Petersen on Sep 4, 2011 4:22 PM CDT up reply actions

Yeah…you’re definitely slinging “something”.

That doesn’t mean that it’s not topically relevant or sometimes hysterically funny, which you also definitely are most of the time.

I've got two words for ya.....Whit Bissell

by BewareofDog on Sep 4, 2011 5:23 PM CDT up reply actions

I believe I'm listed on the Failcons impending doom, as well...

….and if I’m not, I demand to be, post haste!

The only reason I won’t pick them to be dead last is because the Panters are in the same division.

Irony: an atheist Saints fan

by GSO Saints Fan on Sep 4, 2011 7:58 PM CDT up reply actions

I prefer "Crushed Ice"

by HB-NOLA on Sep 4, 2011 3:50 PM CDT up reply actions 2 recs

rec’d

In Breesus' name we play

by Breesus Christ Superstar on Sep 4, 2011 4:27 PM CDT up reply actions

I don’t think the Foulclowns will even make the playoffs this year.

Except where Lito Sheppard is concerned, don’t let your emotions guide your predictions. Bucs could take the wild card from the Falcons, but if coldpizza is correct, there could be 2 wildcard teams in the NFC South. Any any case, Listed.

Some will rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen.

by stujo4 on Sep 4, 2011 2:06 PM CDT up reply actions

It’s not emotions. If I was letting my emotions dictate my prediction, I’d predict them to go 0-16 for the next century.

I don’t think they deserved to make the playoffs LAST year, and I don’t think they’ve improved enough to change things this year. I think they got insanely lucky — yeah, sure they made some of that luck, but it was still luck not “greatness” — and between luck and bad calls they should have lost to us, San Fran, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Tampa, Baltimore, Green Bay, and Tampa again. Oops, I guess I was wrong, they should have lost 7 more games than they did. Even if they had only actually lost three of them, that would have been enough to put them as a wild-card and us in the mix for the #2 seed. Lose 4 and Tampa made the playoffs instead of them.

And I don’t think they’ve improved where they truly NEED to improve. Oh sure, improving the offense isn’t BAD. We all like a good offense. But until they have a better defense, they aren’t winning the superbowl. Especially not against somebody like the Chargers, the Steelers, the Patriots, or other similarly explosive offenses that can march down the field and score a last-second game-winner on them.

And if the refs and luck don’t hold their hand all season this year, I think they WILL lose at least 4 more games. At 9-7, that’s not enough to guarantee a playoff spot in anything except the NFC West, which we all know is not the division they play in (more the pity, I would settle for letting them make the playoffs every year just to get rid of the bastards). The schedule is approximately the same in difficulty, but they face less snakebitten franchises this year. Instead of Cleveland, San Fran, Arizona, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Seattle — all of whom are unfortunately quite good at beating themselves when you let them instead of handing them the game on a silver platter of sucky play on your own part — they’ll face only Buffalo, Miami, Jacksonville and Tennessee. Only four teams they have no business losing too, instead of six (even if three of them they very nearly DID lose to, and should have). I don’t expect them to beat the Jets or the Patriots or the Colts, and that’s at least two more losses to good teams than Steelers Ravens (especially once the refs beat the Ravens for them). (Remember they face Indy in week 9 — even if Manning starts the year slow, he’ll be good enough to handle them by then.) Also, I wouldn’t be surprised for them to lose to Houston either. That’s three. And that’s even BEFORE you consider the possibility that we or Tampa might get an extra game off them. Or somebody else.

Yes I hate them. But there’s logic to my madness. Unless their defense is much better than it has any right to be based on current appearances, or unless they are just as insanely lucky (or even more so) with opponents beating themselves and refs handing them games on a platter than they were last year, they aren’t making the playoffs this year. Not with both us AND Tampa nipping at their heels.

The division crown is coming down to us and Tampa this year. And unless the foulclowns are MUCH better on defense and just as lucky as last year, they’re maxing out at 9-7 and missing the playoffs. Maybe by only a hair, but still missing it.

by FriarBob on Sep 4, 2011 2:33 PM CDT up reply actions

Doh, got my divisions mixed up, I did AFC-E instead of NFC-N. OK, rethink here a bit.

But instead of the six snakebitten franchises from last year, they’ll face Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Houston, all of whom could be considered snakebitten even if two of them are still at least “decent” and the third was pretty good not all that long ago so they could surprise people. And instead of a full division of suckiness like the NFC-W, there’s NFC-N, where only Detroit can truly be called snakebitten and even they are improving. So still only three “likely” wins instead of six. Then on the “good teams” they aren’t likely to beat the Colts or the Pack, they’ll at least get a run for their money from the Bears and the WhineQueens, and I could see them losing to Houston if Wade Phillips manages nothing more than to make the Texans merely decent on defense. Especially in week 13, when Wade will have quite a few battle-tested vets in his system. Then they still have Philly and Seattle in “division placement” battles and only Seattle should be a pushover, and Philly should at least give them a hard game. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see another spanking.

So of the six “easy” wins they got last year (three of which they shouldn’t have had), they now might well have none, with a max of three they still “should” win. And from the first-place finish they face two teams they should split with (as they did with their similar games last year), and from the “hard” games instead of only two with one being gift-wrapped by the refs, they have at least three and maybe 5, all of which they at least “could” lose, and at least three of which they “should” lose. So that’s a -2 (or more) to their wins.

One more loss in the division, either to us or Tampa, and they’re at the -3 (to 10-6) I predict as the minimum shift in their record. Lose one more “hard” game or two in the division and they’re the 9-7 I predicted.

So for what it’s worth, I still see them at 9-7 or maybe 10-6 and either missing the playoffs or getting crushed in their first game (again). They don’t have a playoff-caliber defense yet. Now I don’t see us as more than 11-5, maybe 12-4 if it’s our year to get lucky. But that will be enough to handle Atlanta at least. Tampa is more unknown. They could be better or take a step back for a year, but I think they’ll at least get one game off Atlanta this time. And that will be enough to finish Atlanta’s hash and keep them out of the playoffs. I think it’s far more likely the NFC-E (because of facing the crappy NFC-W) will send two playoff teams than for the NFC-S to do it.

by FriarBob on Sep 4, 2011 3:03 PM CDT up reply actions

Bob,

I certainly agree with you about those birds being lucky last year. The wins surely weren’t from great play. Plenty will disagree, but it was obvious.

by tommy v on Sep 4, 2011 4:42 PM CDT up reply actions

I recall a game (Tampa I think) where Grimes had 2 interceptions and NEITHER one was an interception. I was being biased, I was watching closely and he did not catch the balls. So yeah, alot of help from the refs last year.

by Valmo on Sep 5, 2011 4:02 PM CDT up reply actions