Interesting stat (1 Viewer)

[SaintsJunkie]

The year we went to the superbowl, Brees threw the fewest attempts of any he has been a Saint. The year he threw the second fewest attempts as a Saint, we went to the NFC championship. The key for us to get ahead is to run the ball and play defense. That is how the Ravens and Niners got to the Superbowl, The threat of Brees throwing will always be there. If we have so many great running backs, why can't we run the ball?

stats: http://brees.netne.net/stats.html

 

[rob22278]

Payton will be more balanced this year. Balanced offense = Super Bowl. Period.

 

[efil4stnias]

Payton will be more balanced this year. Balanced offense = Super Bowl. Period.

correct.

run game.

 

[bornnraisedwhodat]

No doubt. I think even Brees wouldnt mind throwing the ball less. 45+ attempts a game is ridiculous. A good 20-35 att a game fits our offense just right.

 

[muddbug2]

Payton will be more balanced this year. Balanced offense = Super Bowl. Period.

Yes but I think that the balance comes from being good on both sides of the ball, not just being balanced. Get a lead, play good defense and you then tend to run the ball to keep the lead without the fear of bad a defense giving it up.

Any team can be balanced by just by calling plays that make you balanced.

You call plays to win the game and winning teams just end up being balanced because of how the games play out. Winning creates balance, imho.

 

[RaisingTheBar]

No doubt. I think even Brees wouldnt mind throwing the ball less. 45+ attempts a game is ridiculous. A good 20-35 att a game fits our offense just right.

Yeah run game/play calling needs to step up, I want to keep Brees around a little longer than most QBs.

 

[rob22278]

Yes but I think that the balance comes from being good on both sides of the ball, not just being balanced. Get a lead, play good defense and you then tend to run the ball to keep the lead without the fear of bad a defense giving it up.

Any team can be balanced by just by calling plays that make you balanced.

You call plays to win the game and winning teams just end up being balanced because of how the games play out. Winning creates balance, imho.

Not necessarily true. Do you remember the falcon game in atlanta this year? We were gashing their defense with runs, yet continued to throw the ball more, especially in 2nd and 3rd and short situations in the second half, despite only being down 1 score. If Payton had been here, I think the Saints would have stuck with the run more, especially in the 2nd half with our running game clicking and the atlanta defense on their heels. Oh yeah, Drew threw 5 picks that game.

 

[409forever]

we need a defense to stop teams from scoring. brees knows tat when u can't stop anybody u have to throw the ball more to stay in the game to have a chance to win.once we get a defense to stop teams we will get back to running the ball.

 

[CanadaSaint2006]

Not necessarily true. Do you remember the falcon game in atlanta this year? We were gashing their defense with runs, yet continued to throw the ball more, especially in 2nd and 3rd and short situations in the second half, despite only being down 1 score. If Payton had been here, I think the Saints would have stuck with the run more, especially in the 2nd half with our running game clicking and the atlanta defense on their heels. Oh yeah, Drew threw 5 picks that game.

Total insanity, I tell ya.

 

[muddbug2]

Not necessarily true. Do you remember the falcon game in atlanta this year? We were gashing their defense with runs, yet continued to throw the ball more, especially in 2nd and 3rd and short situations in the second half, despite only being down 1 score. If Payton had been here, I think the Saints would have stuck with the run more, especially in the 2nd half with our running game clicking and the atlanta defense on their heels. Oh yeah, Drew threw 5 picks that game.

I never said you'll win every game but over the long haul (season) I beleive that what I said is true. You don't start calling run plays just to become balanced you must always call plays needed to win the game. You also must execute the play called and beat the defense, this did not happen in that game.

Could different plays have won the game or would have better execution been better?

 

[muddbug2]

Think of it this way.

If there's 12 minutes left in the fourth and you are down two scores and you have been throwing the ball a lot do you then call ten run plays in a row just to become balanced?

If there's 12 minutes left in the fourth and you are up two scores and you have been running the ball a lot do you then call ten passes in a row just to be come balanced?

You always call the plays needed to win the game, when the team is really good the play calling tends to become balanced due to winning easily.

 

[iwho_dat]

Yes we need to run the ball more. No doubt about that. But let's not sooooooo predictable like we were this past season. Ugh that was horrible. It seemed like every down we went run, run, pass, punt.

 

[Who Date Demi]

The year we went to the superbowl, Brees threw the fewest attempts of any he has been a Saint. The year he threw the second fewest attempts as a Saint, we went to the NFC championship. The key for us to get ahead is to run the ball and play defense. That is how the Ravens and Niners got to the Superbowl, The threat of Brees throwing will always be there. If we have so many great running backs, why can't we run the ball?

stats: Drew Brees Stats

Is it the lack of a defense?

 

[RockyMtnSaint]

Yes but I think that the balance comes from being good on both sides of the ball, not just being balanced. Get a lead, play good defense and you then tend to run the ball to keep the lead without the fear of bad a defense giving it up.

Any team can be balanced by just by calling plays that make you balanced.

You call plays to win the game and winning teams just end up being balanced because of how the games play out. Winning creates balance, imho.

This is dead on. I think a lot of people get the cause mixed up with the effect.

 

[Redacted]

I previously put together a set of data from 2009 that proved our balance to everyone that wanted to claim we were only balanced because we were blowing out teams and started running the ball to kill the clock.

The data showed our percent of pass to run in the first half of "almost" every game minus 4th downs, was about 60/40 pass/run.

Free NFL Play by Play database (MySQL) containing 518,000+ plays

Here is the website that I pulled my data from. You can do it yourself if you have any database and/or excel experience.

 

[fr3sh]

Mike Bell did a lot of the dirty work for us that Super Bowl year.

I think Payton envisioned Ingram in a similar role. (Eventually becoming the workhorse)