Monday Morning QB (1 Viewer)

zorro37

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/09/wild-card/index.html?eref=sihp

Saints related stuff
That's the biggest upshot of the weekend -- New Orleans was a very surprising one and done. Check out the sad, recent Super Bowl hangover story:
2005 Pittsburgh
Went 8-8, didn't make playoffs
2006 Indianapolis
Lost to San Diego in divisional round
2007 New York Giants
Lost to Philadelphia in divisional round
2008 Pittsburgh
Went 9-7, didn't make playoffs


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/09/wild-card/index.html#ixzz1AdeTSXb9

Last week, quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch and offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates, who should take a bow alongside Hasselbeck for the offensive explosion, installed a play they'd seen the Bengals run against New Orleans five weeks ago. In it, Cincinnati had the tight end dive to cut block a rushing linebacker, then wait a moment, get up and look for an opening in the Saints' D -- while Carson Palmer and the rest of the offense seemed to be going the other way.

The misdirection play confounded the Saints, and the Seahawks stole it for the game plan Saturday. "We just did a good job of scheming them, and that play's a perfect example,'' Hasselbeck said. "It's the kind of play where you've got two or three guys throwing cut blocks, and you sell run, and it looks terrible, but if you run it right, the tight end ought to be able to get free.''

8. New Orleans (11-6). You're tired of hearing me say this, but I'm not stopping. The Saints had five running backs on injured-reserve entering the game. Two more, Reggie Bush and Julius Jones, got hurt during the playoff game at Seattle. On the last drive of the game, New Orleans was down to fullback Heath Evans and DeShawn Wynn, signed Monday, with its season on the line. So on the biggest drive of the year, the Saints have their eighth running back and a fullback. That's it. My point: And the league wants to go to 18 games? Who'd the Saints have signed for the playoffs then? Hokie Gajan?

Goat of the Week
David Akers, you're lucky this man was so bad Saturday.

Roman Harper, S, New Orleans.

Harper picked a bad day to have the worst day, by far, of his career. The mainstay in the New Orleans secondary was badly duped on two of the first three Matt Hasselbeck touchdown passes. It was so odd to see a Gregg Williams secondary get beat up like that, and Harper was at the head of the class of dunces. Harper at least was honest with the New Orleans Times Picayune on the play that he let John Carlson flop around on the ground like a dying fish, then watched him get up and run to an open spot for a touchdown throw. "He hit me with the 'oh, crap!' screen, you know, where the guy's on the ground and everything's going the other way and all of a sudden he gets up off the ground and goes the other way," Harper said. That's your man, Roman.
o. Great nugget by Jay Glazer on FOX, saying the hero of the weekend, Marshawn Lynch, could have been dealt to New Orleans instead of Seattle had the Bills done their due diligence. Glazer reported the Saints would have given the Bills a third-round pick at least, and Seattle ended up dealing fourth- and sixth-round picks for him.
 
I still guess no one really accepts the fact that we had gone thru 5 rbs this season ( my reasoning behind our offensive woes early on and in the red zone) that I have been speaking on since Sat. Until now. Seems some get it.

SP will never publicly state it, but having to use guys who normally wouldnt see the inside of a locker room in the regular season, much less the post season, is the largest part of whe we struggled all season long. Inconsistancy at RB threw our offense off tremendously.

Not an excuse, an explanation for those who are looking for one. ( I hope Bobby Hebert and Deke Bellevia read this article )
 
I hope the Saints and their coaching staff remember they have something to prove to themselves next season. Also a lot of writers are still upset that we won it last year so they leave out the facts so they could make their point absolute.
 
In all honesty, we weren't going to get any further than a first-round playoff win with our RB situation this year. Had we not lost to Seattle, we'd be looking at another brutal loss to Chicago in the cold of Soldier Field, I'm afraid. I knew all the odds were against us b/c I was well aware of the futility of SB champs in the followup year. We just have to accept that a "two dat" was never realistic and hope that the FO makes all the right moves in the offseason to get us to the point where we can win our division again, knowing that that's going to be tougher than ever due to Josh Freeman and a begrudgingly good Atlanta team.
 
RB wasn't our problem, though. Allowing 41 points to a team that averaged 19.4 was.
 
It was a bitter loss but atleast we aren't being crapped on by the media like I would have expected. This team was simply just too banged up to go on any further. Hopefully we get fully healed and greatly improve some weaknesses in the offseason so we can make a run next year. Time hasn't run out on us just yet and we have a fairly young nucleus still in tact.
 
Yes rb situation was awful, makes it difficult for an oline to handle blocking assignments when there is a new back every week with different running styles. Though pass protection was suspect all year, especially at the tackle position. Need another stud se and an olb. Proper pass rush and run stuffer would do wonders for the db's. Do we go rb in draft? Well, if PT, Ivory, Hamilton, PJ et al don't get injured en masse then maybe not. Gonna be an interesting off season. BTW, job 1: get new st coach and speedster return man, a freakin' sap!
 
Still, you think there's somebody better out there to return kicks besides henderson and meachem who were just horrible on kick returns...

What about J. Bell?
 
The RB situation didn't help, but we scored lots of points people. I think this had more to do with it...

Inactives:
Saints starting linebacker Danny Clark (hamstring)
Starting safety Malcolm Jenkins (knee)
Backup defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove.
 
RB wasn't our problem, though. Allowing 41 points to a team that averaged 19.4 was.

Very true. But there's nothing that kills an opposing team's spirit and quiets the crowd quite like a dominant running game. Plus Drew could've used the safety net; he's been carrying the team mentally all year. Chris Ivory was made to order for this game, and his loss truly sucked.
 
Very true. But there's nothing that kills an opposing team's spirit and quiets the crowd quite like a dominant running game. Plus Drew could've used the safety net; he's been carrying the team mentally all year. Chris Ivory was made to order for this game, and his loss truly sucked.

I agree, but I think that has to be on Payton. Bush had only 5 carries and Jones had only 15 despite a decent YPC. I know Bush got hurt but that was later in the game and we could've fed either guy earlier in the game. And after Bush's game vs. Tampa last week, I have no idea why he wasn't used more rushing-wise. But no matter, we could've run more and it probably would've worked had we not gone our usual route in tough conditions and passed 76542325456567 times.
 
I agree, but I think that has to be on Payton. Bush had only 5 carries and Jones had only 15 despite a decent YPC. I know Bush got hurt but that was later in the game and we could've fed either guy earlier in the game. And after Bush's game vs. Tampa last week, I have no idea why he wasn't used more rushing-wise. But no matter, we could've run more and it probably would've worked had we not gone our usual route in tough conditions and passed 76542325456567 times.


You could argue that if Reggie would have ran more earlier in the game, he would have gotten hurt sooner. While I do not think injuries are a players fault, as long as they take care of their bodies, I do not think a injury prone player is the organization's fault either. The Saints have to find a dependable RB this off season. We have been trying to get away with finding gems, what we need is a gold brick. That is something that is solid and retains its value for a long period of time.
 

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