The importance of Reggie lined up as a RB
Deuce struggled this week.
I guess I'll take Payton's assessment of Deuce's performance over yours:
Q: You guys got more out of the running game than in the past several weeks. Was it anything that the offensive line or Deuce McAllister did differently?
A: "We tried to make an emphasis this week early on of the importance of trying to establish that part of it. We wanted to go in early and try to establish the run and set up some of the play action later on. Each week takes on a new challenge. We talked about running the ball more early in the game. I thought in that second series we had some big runs, first by Deuce on a little toss that he cut back and obviously there was a third down run by Reggie (Bush) that put us into striking distance. You look for that balance as a play caller. I was encouraged in the second possession, when we got down the field in tight, that we were able to run it in with the goal line package. As the game went on we saw some pretty good run fronts defensively which made it more challenging and maybe put us in a little bit more of a passing mode. Just having the ability to be flexible either way and have some type of rhythm is a challenge each week."
http://www.neworleanssaints.com/newsroomarticle.cfm?articleid=3113
Deuce ran well and scored twice. He didn't have as much room to run in the second half because of the defensive adjustments Atlanta made, but he made the most of his opportunities and came up big on several occasions.