Give Payton Credit -- Mike Detillier (1 Viewer)

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Give Payton Credit

By Mike Detillier

Following the ugly 39-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles I have never heard so much discontent for the New Orleans Saints under head coach Sean Payton. This football club was reeling and they seemed to be a ship with no football rudder. Wins over the Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts doesn’t mean they have turned the season completely around, but you have to be impressed with the stability and the ability to be flexible that Sean Payton and his staff have done to help build confidence in this Saints football team.

Today’s game against the New York Giants is another football snapshot, but Payton and crew have found another way to win games. This is not the 2006, 2009 or 2011 Saints football team that could roll up an average of 28 points per game and just hit the football accelerator when they needed to put points on the board.

Those heady offensive days are gone. The Saints today are winning with a host of young and talented defenders in inside linebacker Stephone Anthony, cornerback Delvin Breaux and outside linebacker Hau’oli Kikaha. And they are getting Pro Bowl play from defensive end Cam Jordan the past two weeks. They are bending and sometimes bending a lot, but never breaking. For the criticism handed out to defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, he has called a couple of outstanding games and we all know this team still needs better personnel on defense, especially a top flight edge pass rusher and another rangy outside linebacker.

But they are getting pressure and forcing turnovers. The Saints are dead-even at the zero mark in the giveaway/takeaway part of the game and that has not been a strong part of the Saints teams under Sean Payton.

The Saints special team units have done more than their fair share to add a couple of “W’s” in the win/loss column. Two weeks ago Michael Mauti’s block and then scoop and score of a punt ignited the Saints to their 31-21 win over Atlanta. Last weekend it was a fake field goal pass completion from Luke McCown to tight end Ben Watson that fueled the early fire against the Indianapolis Colts. Then you had a forced fumble on a kickoff by safety Akeem Davis that put the Saints in prime position to score again and late in the game, even though it was dicey, the Saints came up with the onsides kick.

And they also got the healthy return of punter Thomas Morstead to the lineup and he continually backed up the Colts offense late in the contest.

But late in the game Indianapolis had numerous chances to put up a potential game-winning touchdown and the Saints defense slammed the door on those attempts.

Next year the Saints offensively will have to rebuild with a couple of new wide receivers, another pass catching target at tight end and a couple of new offensive guards, but the last two weeks the Saints have shown that IF they can protect Drew Brees and give him a semblance of a running attack they are still a pretty good offensive team.

The Saints don’t have a signature pass catching weapon anymore due to the trade of tight end Jimmy Graham and age setting in on the best wide receiver ever for the Saints in Marques Colston, but they do have a signature offensive lineman in left tackle Terron Armstead. Time and time again Armstead blew open huge holes on the left side for Mark Ingram, Khiry Robinson and C.J. Spiller to run through and he gave Drew Brees plenty of time to throw the ball downfield with little to zero pressure coming from Brees’ blindside. Armstead is the best left tackle to play for the Saints since Willie Roaf.

For the first time this season the Saints physically manhandled a team in the rushing department with their blockers upfront and with a strong game from Mark Ingram.

This Sunday the Saints face a team with more Louisiana offensive players that I can ever remember on one team. Quarterback Eli Manning (Isidore Newman/Ole Miss), halfback Orleans Darkwa (Tulane), wide receivers Odell Beckham, Jr. and Rueben Randle from (LSU) and tight end Larry Donnell went to college at Grambling. The Giants can score points and in a hurry. The Giants defense is not as stout as in prior years under Tom Coughlin, but they are opportunistic with the best giveaway/takeaway number in the NFL with 10.
But in the Superdome Sean Payton’s New Orleans Saints teams have dominated Coughlin’s Giants.

For the Saints to win down the stretch the formula of playing solid defense, getting pressure and turnovers and winning the special teams part of the game is paramount. The Saints offensively will score points. Certainly not at the rate of Saints teams past, but good enough in a league that has 5 undefeated teams and then a host of middle of the road NFL clubs to get back to the .500 mark and possibly a tad better with a favorable schedule down the stretch.

Finishing teams off in a better manner in the fourth quarter would keep ‘The Who Nation’ from taking medication late in contests, but it has worked the last two weeks and the Saints have pieced together back to back wins for the first time since October of 2014. But young teams, like the Saints have today, have a tendency to be stock-market like. One or two weeks playing well and then not playing so well for a week or two.

Give Sean Payton credit for keeping his team breathing after getting off to such a bad start. He has gotten it done, just in a different way. He did not let his team let go of the football rope when it got loosened in Philadelphia. It’s a new way to win for a team built primarily in the past on throwing the ball and having elite play from Drew Brees.

Playing smart offensive football, run the ball behind one of the league’s top offensive linemen, get some pressure on the opposing quarterback and create turnovers, and you can win a lot of games in the NFL today that is as water-downed as ever before.… And of yes, win the very important phase of special teams. It may not as explosive or as spectacular as in past years, but it’s been effective the past two weeks. Right now the Saints just are not talented enough to out-offense each team they play. You have to have other elements kick in at a higher gear on defense and on special teams to post wins today.

It is a new formula and give one of the top coaches in the game today in Sean Payton full credit for getting this team focused and confident again.



Pro Scout on Delvin Breaux


Following the New Orleans Saints 27-21 win over the Indianapolis Colts I had a chance to talk to an NFC pro scout on Saints cornerback Delvin Breaux and below are his comments.

“Delvin will not make the Pro Bowl this season, but based on early play he deserves it,” the NFL scout said. “Patrick Peterson is a great talent out in Arizona and Josh Norman has made a host of “splash” plays for the Carolina Panthers, but Breaux really sticks out on a team that other than Cam Jordan doesn’t get a strong push upfront without blitzing. Breaux is physical, he has long arms, great ball skills and he has a knack for slipping around receivers and getting his hands on the football. You can’t teach that ability. Either you have it or you don’t. I thought last year the kid out in Atlanta (Desmond Trufant) deserved to be a Pro Bowl pick. Teams stay away from him now. Breaux is a terrific young talent for the Saints. I give them a lot of credit. Sean (Payton) saw him work out and made sure he wasn’t leaving Louisiana. He could have signed with any NFL team and all of us were after him. The Saints don’t have a lot of signature players defensively, but they have three now with Cam Jordan, Keenan Lewis-when he is healthy and now Delvin Breaux. Breaux reminds me of a young Charles Tillman who was a really good cornerback for so many years with the Chicago Bears. ”


Talent Game

When LSU plays Alabama this coming Saturday you will be watching the one yearly rivalry game that has produced the most NFL drafted players from 2010-2015.

In that timeframe LSU has produced 39 drafted players and Alabama has produced 44 players. That combined total of 83 is the best of any series during those years.

Just consider you have seen Julio Jones and Patrick Peterson, Amari Cooper and Tyrann Mathieu, Eddie Lacy and Jeremy Hill, C.J. Mosley and Odell Beckham Jr., Dont’a Hightower and Jarvis Landry, Marcell Dareus and Michael Brockers, Mark Ingram and Eric Reid, D.J. Fluker and Bennie Logan, Kareem Jackson and Reuben Randle, just to name a few players who have played in this game during those years.

And this year you get to see the best football player in America in LSU’s Leonard Fournette, the best offensive line in college football at LSU featuring Ethan Pocic, Vadal Alexander and Jerald Hawkins, the best defensive line in college football with A’Shawn Robinson, Jarran Reed and Jonathan Allen with Alabama and the most dominant linebacker in the SEC in Alabama’s Reggie Ragland.

There will be some major league talent out on the field this coming Saturday.

The secondary part of these numbers is that the yearly rivalry game that tied for second place was LSU (39) versus Florida (35) with 74 players. The Florida State (39) versus Florida (35) yearly rivalry game was tied with 74 players also.

The yearly rivalry game that finished right behind the two games in the #2 spot was Georgia (33) versus Florida (35) with 68 total and Florida State (39) versus Clemson (29) with 68 also.

Growing up in the 1970’s this is a radical change geography wise with teams putting out the most talent to the NFL.

In the 1970’s the games with the most players to the NFL were the Notre Dame versus USC game, the Pittsburgh versus Penn State rivalry and the Ohio State vs. Michigan slug-it-out matchup. While Ohio State has got back to the football mountain under Urban Meyer the shift to players entering the NFL has changed dramatically to the Southern region of our Football Country.

And LSU and Alabama are the lead dogs in the most talent rich yearly rivalry game in college football today.


What A Return for Laquon

Late in the 2014 college football season we all witnessed one of the most horrific leg injuries of the season when on a potential touchdown catch Ole Miss wide receiver Laquon Treadwell sustained a broken fibula and a dislocated ankle late in the game against Auburn. In 9 games in 2014 Treadwell had caught 61 passes for 870 yards, averaged 14.3 yards per catch and scored 6 touchdowns before the injury.

When you see someone sustain that sort of injury you wonder how well he recovers from those injuries and does he lose anything athletically because of it?

Treadwell, who was considered by many to be the top prep receiver in the nation when he came out of Crete-Monee High School in Illinois, has made a remarkable comeback from the injuries and he looks like a sure-fire 1st round pick in 2016.

In many ways the 6-1 ½, 210 pound Treadwell reminds me of former North Carolina State wide receiver Torry Holt who went on to have an NFL Hall of Fame career with the St. Louis Rams.

Treadwell is silky smooth, he has good route running features, he catches the ball with ease and he has excellent leaping and timing skills with the ball in flight. And he has another gear to kick into out in space.

In 2015 Treadwell has caught 61 passes for 870 yards, averaging 14.3 yards per catch and scored 6 touchdowns and he has again emerged as one of college football’s top wide receivers.

It’s a great story of fighting his way back to the top with hard work and determination. Laquon Treadwell is one Hell of a football player and a likely top-15 pick in the 2016 NFL draft.


Follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeDetillier
 

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