As promised, here are the final defensive and special teams statistics for the 2008 season. As you would expect, these aren't as impressive as their offensive counterparts.

Rushing Defense

Passing Defense

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Quarterback A+

I would have given Drew an A+++++ but that would have been plain ridiculous. Best quarterback in the league and quite possibly the MVP for the first half of the season. Praising Drew comes so easy and is becoming quite redundant so consider this matter closed.

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Saints Defense First Drive (3 plays, 0 yards, 0:10, Punt)

• This drive looks great on paper but it could have been much worse. Vincent Jackson completely burns Aaron Glenn but drops the ball just off his fingertips for what probably would have been a score.
• Charles Grant drops back and makes a nice diving play on the ball in the backfield and almost makes the pick. Pretty impressive for Charles. Not something we usually see from him.

Saints Offense First Drive (8 plays, 72 yards, 3:43, Touchdown)

• After a Deuce run for only a yard we finally see Marques Colston look like his old self. He scoops up a nice catch and runs a bit more for 49 yards.
• First down and Deuce runs for a loss of 1 yard.
• Drew throws to Billy Miller incomplete. Then goes right back to Miller over the middle for a gain of 10 yards.
• Rather then kick the field goal with an unsure Mehlhaff, Payton decides to go for it. After a fake pitch to Stecker Brees throws a short jump, dump off to - who else - Billy Miller for the first down. Nice call.
  
• The drive ends with a play action touchdown pass over the middle of the end zone to Mark Campbell.

Saints Defense Second Drive (12 plays, 64 yards, 6:50, Field Goal)

• LT runs and catches for 20 yards on the first few plays of this drive.
• On third down Aaron Glenn gets called for pass interference and this keeps the drive alive. Not cool.
• Rivers makes a few short passes over the middle and continues to take advantage of a weak Saints secondary.
  
• Back to back false start and offside penalties cancel each other out. It appears it really should have been two false start penalties.
  
• The Chargers score a touchdown on third down but they get called for holding and get pushed back 10 yards. San Diego can't convert and kick the field goal.

Saints Offense Second Drive (7 plays, 77 yards, 3:36, Touchdown)

• Brees starts off going right back to his favorite target of the night, Billy Miller, for 20 yards.
• Then Deuce gets involved with a 4 yard run and a 3 yard catch off a play action to him. Glad to see Payton continue to stick with McAllister. 
• After a 10 yard pass interference penalty on Quentin Jammer, Pierre Thomas makes a nice run off the left side for 15 yards.
• Drew tries for Meachem in the endzone but Cletis Gordon makes a nice breakup. Fortunately, he gets called for interference though the call is incredibly questionable. Nice to get some calls go our way though. Ball spotted at the 1 yard line.
• Mike Karney punches it in for the score while San Diego may have had 12 men on the field. No call.
  

The Saints appear to be well in control of this game as they head into the fourth and final quarter.

Saints Offense First Drive (10 plays, 89 yards, 4:06, Touchdown

• Saints put together another long, well executed drive.
• Lance Moore makes a nice 31 yard reception as he came across the field and into wide open space.
• Pierre Thomas looks like his usual self, barreling and bouncing off defenders for 8 yards and a first down.
  
• Brees is flushed left out of the pocket and looks like he has some room to scramble but pulls up instead and finds a wide open and nonchalant Devery Henderson in the back corner of the end zone for the touchdown. It's nice to have confidence in Devery's hands back.
  
• Mehlhaff misses the extra point.

Saints Offense Second Drive (6 plays, 25 yards, 2:00, Touchdown)

• Saints get the ball back immediately after Chris Reis makes a nice play on Darren Sproles, the returner, and pops the ball loose. Usama Young is in the right place at the right time, comes up with it, and runs it back to the Charger 25.
• After hitting Mark Campbell for a 13 yard first down, the Saints go to the air three straight times but can't punch it in the endzone.
• Payton decides to go for it on fourth and one. He wisely gives it to Deuce, who scores the 51st touchdown of his career and moves him second on the Saints all-time list. I am pretty satisfied with Payton's decision making and his play calling mixture.

Saints Defense First Drive (7 plays, 66 yards, 3:17, Touchdown)

• Rivers throws complete to Vincent Jackson on the sideline. Harper and Gay are no where near him to make a play on the ball, more worried about a big play apparently. Will Smith almost gets to Rivers in time. 
• LT breaks loose for another huge run of 40 yards. Harper makes a weak attempt at a tackle at the line that Tomlinson spins away from and then finds plenty of daylight.
  
• Harper makes up for it by making a great tackle on LT behind the line for a loss of three.
  
• On third down, Rivers finds a wide open Tomlinson underneath who then makes a move as Vilma goes sliding past him. This grass is certainly affecting this game. There is no doubt.

Saints Offense Third Drive (4 plays, 76 yards, 2:06, Touchdown)

• After just one give to Deuce the Saints take to the air a bit more. First Billy Miller then Devery Henderson.
  
• Another late hit penalty on San Diego after Henderson's 20 yard catch gives the Saints great field position.
  
• Brees throws a great spiral and somehow Lance Moore comes up with the ball in between two defenders. He was looking over his right shoulder but made the nice adjustment to the outside after Brees threw it where he knew only Moore could get it.
  
• The Saints have just been scoring at will this second quarter. 

Saints Defense Second Drive (5 plays, 64 yards, 2:21, Touchdown)

• The Saints hold San Diego to third down but Rivers completes a pass over the middle to Vincent Jakson for 16 yards. Jackson carries Gay, who looks like a rag doll, with him to the sideline. Jackson dwarfs gay so much so that I literally couldn't see Gay behind him until Jackson turned upfield. Frustrating none the less. Gay is lying on his back in pain after the play.
  
• Then its a pass to Gates who just runs right past Usama Young straight up. 30 yards.  
• In case the secondary didn't look bad enough Rivers goes to Gates one more time for 12 yards and the score. Usama Young is the culprit again. He just gets outrun plain and simple. This drive was just bad. We made the Chargers offense look like...ours.

Saints Offense Fourth Drive (6 plays, 31 yards, 1:03, Punt)

• Deuce has pretty much disappeared since the opening drive.
• On second down Billy Miller bobbles a catch that is ruled an interception but the call is reversed and ruled incomplete.
• Devery Henderson gets some separation and is open deep down field. Brees throws but the ball may have slipped a bit. The pass is underthrown and Devery's attempt to come back to it is failed.
• Antoine Cason breaks up a pass to Billy Miller and the Saints punt.

This game was awful and miserable I am completely uninspired so this will be pretty short.

• This was definitely the worst loss of the season. Unlile the Saints other losses, this game was a blowout.
  
• The Saints just came out flat. Not sure whether its being on the road or what but they definitely don't seem to have the same intensity they do at home.
  
• Bobby McCray finally came out of his shell today and notched 6 tackles after only 3 for the entire season.
• Mehlhaff was perfect on the day.
  
• Turnovers were the key in this game. The turning point of this game was Shockey's fumble. It was all downhill from there. The Saints have started a new turnover streak.
  
• Drew Brees did  not look like this normal self today. Dropped balls and missed routes by his receivers didn't help either.
• The offensive line was sub-par in their pass blocking today. Drew was forced to scramble and make quite a few throws under duress. This was also a large factor in the below average passing game. Julius Peppers had a very good all around game.
  
• On the other side of the ball the defense didn't do a great job getting pressure on Delhomme.
• Colston was obviously not really ready to go. I believe he had two drops, at least one of which would normally have been a catch.
  
• Both Shockey and Colston may have affected the rhythm of the offense. Normally Drew indifferently spreads the ball around to whoever is open but it seemed like he was forcing some passes to a not 100% tandem of Shockey and Colston.
• Maybe it was better run blocking but Reggie was actually getting nice chunks of yards on the ground. It's only fitting that during the same game Reggie seems to finally be getting it in the running game he injures his knee.
  
• Everyone will be talking about the 3rd and one play that went to Reggie Bush on the pitch. Perhaps Payton was going with Bush because he was in a good rhythm at the time but really that is a Deuce situation.
• I will spare you the "football is a game of inches" diatribe in regards to the two 4th down conversions. 
• The running game in general was actually very efficient. Bush, McAllister and Stecker had rush averages of 6.1, 5.2 and 5.0 ypc respectively. Unfortunately, they only ran the ball a total of 20 times. Stewart and Williams of the Panthers carried it a total of 35 times.
  
• Tight ends Shockey and Billy Miller got some significant yardage but Devery Henderson was the only receiver to gain more than 10 yards. 
• Jonathan Vilma yet again finds himself at the top of the list for tackles. He also had a nice pass deflection at the line.
• Unlike weeks past the Saints had trouble stopping the run and allowed 143 yards of rushing offense.
  
• Probably the most frustrating thing about being a Saints fan year is the incredible inconsistency. Day in and day out. Week in and week out. Year in and year out.

I will leave the rest of the complaining up to you guys. There was a lot of bad out there out on the field today so I expect a lot of yelling and screaming. Don't bottle it up. Let it out.

Back by popular demand, its "Breaking It Down." To be honest, the last few games never got recorded by my TiVo or got deleted from my TiVo before I ever did anything about it. So without further ado here is what I saw after re-watching the game on television.

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Quarterback A+

Do I really even have to discuss this. Drew is incapable of getting a grade below a B. Today, I had to give him an A+ because I don't know how he could possibly have performed any better. 86.7% completion percentage!? That's not human. Lance Moore dropped one so really he it ought to be higher. To be fair to everyone else though, Drew's performance was a team effort on the part of not only Brees but the receivers and the offensive line. Just amazing.

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I love the smell of victory in the morning. I also like reading quotes about that victory. Here is your collection of post-game quotes from the Saints drubbing of the Raiders yesterday. By the time you are done reading these quotes you will be pumped all over again. Get comfortable because I've got a lot for you.

Special thanks again to MtnExile for his ridiculously awesome work with the above graphic. Is that not the coolest/funniest thing you have ever seen? Be sure to show your appreciation in the comment section for MtnExile's awesome work! If anyone else thinks they have something they can contribute to CSC feel free to let me know.

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Key Matchups

Saints Defense vs. Raiders Running Backs

The bad news is that the Raiders have three good running backs in Justin Fargas, Darren McFadden and Michael Bush. The good news is that Fargas and McFadden are both coming back from injuries and the Saints defense is coming off of a spectacular performance against much feared Adrian Peterson. We know this unit is up to the challenge and can be succesful. The performance of Jonathan Vilma and our defensive tackles will play a crucial role in stopping the run. Forcing JaMarcus Russell to go to the air a lot and win the game with his arm will increase the Saints chances of walking away with a victory.

Saints Special Teams vs. Raiders Special Teams

To punt or not to punt. The Raiders actually do a good job on special teams coverage and exhibited that skill against Devin Hester last year. Chances are they aren't as afraid of Reggie as other teams might be. Look for them to punt to Reggie. If they do, Bush will have very little room to work with. Some big blocks like the ones he got from Stecker and Dunbar will be necessary.

Saints Secondary vs. Raiders Passing Game

If the defense can actually force the Raiders to rely on the pass then it will be incumbent on the secondary to do their job in the backfield. Obviously some pressure from the line will help immensely but the corners cannot allow Russell to beat them deep with that cannon arm of his.

What The Saints Need To Do

Establish the Run

The Raiders do not have the same great run stuffing defense that the Vikings do so there is no reason why the Saints shouldn't at least attempt to pound the ball up the middle with D. Mac. Making the Raiders respect the run game will open everything up for the rest of the offense.

Stop Turning it Over

The Saints have now gone 22 straight games with at least one turnover. Ridiculous. That must come to an end. Turnovers are the easiest way to lose a game.

No Penalties

I hate having to even mention this. The Saints have given up 225 yards in penalties the last two games. That's more than the Lions can gain in one game! This is a mental and discipline issue. Clean it up!

60 Minutes of Football

The Saints have had trouble closing games. Whether it's missing field goals, coming up short on third down or giving up big passing plays late in the game, the Saints need to play a complete game for the entire length of the game. If this game is closer than we all hope in the fourth quarter, the ability to finish will be important.

Players to Watch

Taylor Mehlhaff

The kids first real game. He's gonna be nervous as hell so let's all pray that he doesn't get put into a must make situation. Weatherford has been taking the kickoffs as of late so look for Mehlhaff to take over duties there as well.

Jeremy Shockey/Marques Colston

Will they be back? It's questionable.

Deuce McAllister

Don't let him leave your sights.

Opening Statement:

“Going through the injury report, Jon Stinchcomb (back) did not practice, Marques Colston (thumb) was limited, Jeremy Shockey (hernia) was limited, Aaron Glenn (ankle) did not practice, Sedrick Ellis (knee) did not practice, Mike McKenzie (knee) did not practice, Antwan Lake (groin) did not practice, Kevin Kaesviharn (back) did not practice, David Patten (groin) did not practice, Chris Reis (hamstring) was full, Jonathan Goodwin (hamstring) was limited. The following are roster moves that we have made here in the last 48 hours, these three players were put on injured reserve: cornerback Tracy Porter, kicker Martín Gramatica, and fullback Olaniyi Sobomehin. We waived tight end Buck Ortega from the active roster and we signed the following four players to the active roster: defensive end Jeff Charleston, kicker Taylor Mehlhaff, tight end Sean Ryan and defensive tackle Montavious Stanley. We signed to the practice squad cornerback Darrell Hunter and linebacker Pago Togafau and released from the practice squad William Kershaw and David Roach. Some notes on practice, it was a little bit of a different schedule. Because of the Monday night game we went later today, obviously, and in a more reduced fashion. Most of it was base, first and second downs.”

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