Kamara now has a knee injury too (2 Viewers)

[limeyjohn]

Wouldn’t mind resting him a game and using Murray with a dash of Washington

 

[HouseCall]

Teams have quit tackling Kamara like normal. They never try and hit his upper body or even wrap at his waist. They always go for his knees and ankles (pretty smart unfortunately). The last 3 weeks I've seen him get hit and twisted in his lower extremities a lot.

100% accurate.

Kamara’s balance is key to his effectiveness— so teams have been going low on him to minimize his ability to spin out or away from contact. It’s working too, so expect it to continue. Also, expect more lower extremity dings to Kamara.

 

[Swimmer]

The bigger problem is that the OL can’t get a decent push in the running game. Everyone calls them “elite”...that may be true for their ability to pass block, but it’s definitely NOT true regarding the running game. Kamara has absolutely nowhere to run.

Sacred ground- talking about our O-line not being elite - lol. Sammy, what you say, I'm afraid, has some truth to it. I think they are one of the better O-lines, but we don't seem to have road graders who physically push D-lines back much in the run game. Brees makes a lot of things look real good. If Teddy can get us to 6-2 when Brees returns healthy, we should make a run for it all. 14-2 or 13-3 is definitely in reach now.

Sammy, how much of the lack of push yesterday do you give to the Jags. I just don't follow them much. Thx!

 

[renegadewa]

Well who didn't see this coming?

He's been really durable for a couple of seasons now but he's also taken A LOT of wicked hits and at some point it catches up.

It's time to rest him and let Murray and Washington slam the line for a spell.

 

[whodatphil]

Murray looked good yesterday. Time to start using him more between the tackles and letting Kamara line up more as a WR. Lighten his workload a little

 

[sammymvpknight]

Sacred ground- talking about our O-line not being elite - lol. Sammy, what you say, I'm afraid, has some truth to it. I think they are one of the better O-lines, but we don't seem to have road graders who physically push D-lines back much in the run game. Brees makes a lot of things look real good. If Teddy can get us to 6-2 when Brees returns healthy, we should make a run for it all. 14-2 or 13-3 is definitely in reach now.

Sammy, how much of the lack of push yesterday do you give to the Jags. I just follow them much. Thx!

To the Saints OL's credit, they were able to get it going a little bit in the second half, but I was at the game. I had the game right in front of me, and like usual, the Saints RBs had to create their own yardage. Kamara looked great in pregame workouts. He was cutting and looked like his normal self. But he tweeked something in the first quarter and he wasn't the game after that point. He wasn't necessarily limping but he was jogging a little bit gingerly between plays. And the biggest difference you saw is that he wasn't slipping tackles. It is very rare for Kamara to go down on first contact, and he consistently went down at first contact this game.

You look at what the Panthers have done last week against the Jags, and what they have done on the whole, and you'll see that the Saints OL and run blocking scheme isn't in the same league right now. They have relied HEAVILY on Kamara breaking tackles for the running game to have the YPC that it currently holds. They were consistently getting pushed back, especially on the interior, like they have most of the season. It's almost like the interior OL pass blocks on running downs...they don't attack. I don't know if it's because they are running more zone blocking techniques versus power blocking techniques, but it has been hugely disappointing. With that said...they still did a fantastic job in pass blocking like they usually do.

They play the Bears defense this week, and boy it should be ugly. The Bears are stronger on the second and third levels than the Jaguars. The Saints defense and special teams will need to continue to play at this elite level for us to win that game in Chicago.

 

[Hey BAY BAY!!!]

Sit AK. Rest him up until after bye week. Murray and Washington have to get the job done.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Sit AK. Rest him up until after bye week. Murray and Washington have to get the job done.

Agreed.

I'd rather play three road playoff games with AK than two home games without him. He's the 2nd most important player on our team. We need him healthy.

 

[FGE413]

Trust Latavius.

 

[Domeination]

Sit AK. Rest him up until after bye week. Murray and Washington have to get the job done.

This.

 

[sammymvpknight]

Or

It could be that the teams we play have their own Defensive Coordinators, that spend their week game planning to take away our run game and make TB throw.

I don't know but just a hunch.

That's definitely part of it. In spite of Bridgewater's play against the hapless Tampa Bay secondary, I don't think many teams are going to respect his ability to beat them deep very often. And Kamara draws attention. When you are there in person you can see how the defense adapts to Kamara being on the football field. Murray can definitely sneak in and out of the formation much easier.

 

[diehardfan]

He's fine.

It will take a lot to prevent him from playing in a game.

No, he's not. He's got 2 minor injuries and I'd like to see us sit him at least for a game because there's no sense in having a hobbled AK. When he's 100%, he's the best player on the field, like in the Seattle game. We need that guy down the stretch. Let him get healthy.

 

[Noble Saint]

Is it the same leg? If so, I’m not surprised. When you heavily tape a joint, a large portion of the strain is transferred to the next joint.

 

[SaintRob]

Sit AK. Rest him up until after bye week. Murray and Washington have to get the job done.

I'm 100% on board with this. We can beat the Bears without him because I think our D can keep the Bears well under 14 points. We can score enough to win without Kamara. The Cards are terrible and we'll be at home. Rest Kamara for 3 weeks.

 

[Le_fleur_fan_78]

You could tell he was a little banged up. I’d let Murray be the workhorse for now. I’d hate for Kamara to get even more banged up because we’re going to need him later.

Bring Harris into the fold, he's can break a big run at any time and he's an unknown, which could work in our favor. Kamara needs to rest.