D. Flowers
Veteran
Offline
5- Reggie Bush: Now I have Reggie listed here, but not only because of the
2 major mishaps he had early in the second half. Simply put, Reggie
was not ready to play. Some might think his injury is what caused
those mistakes, but I am not one of them. I think that coach Sean
Payton is just as much to blame for Reggie's short comings as Reggie
himself in this case. Here's why: Reggie had some obvious problems handling the football during his first game back from a broken fibula 2 months ago. Both carrying and catching were struggles for Bush. A fact that many miss in this is that the Thanksgiving day game was Reggie Bush's first live action, in practice or game, since week 2. Now with that being said, Reggie was healthy and able last week against the Seattle
Seahawks and was held out by Sean Payton himself. That game would have been a perfect opportunity to get Bush reacquainted with his ball
handling and feel for the game, which would have almost certainly
resulted in a better performance in yesterday's game. Reggie's rust
almost cost the Saints a very important game and that could have
easily been avoided with a measly 5-8 touches for Bush in last week's
game.
4- Second Half Lull?: After exploding out of the gate with a 17-0
first quarter, and cruising to a 20-6 halftime lead, the Saints' well
ran dry in the second half. The combination of sustained, time
consuming drives by the cowboys and untimely blunders by the Saints
ALMOST proved to be too much for the defending champs to overcome. I
proudly repeat ALMOST.
3- Tracy Porters Tackling: I will start by saying that I have never
had any complaints about Tracy's tacking and he did make one nice
tackle on Dallas' Felix Jones for a loss, but his body of work for the
game was pretty poor. He missed countless tackles on that corner that
allowed meaningless 3 yard gains to become 6-7 yard gains that put the
cowboys in position to pick up big first downs in the second half. And
the play where Marion Barber shook the shoes off of porter was hard to
watch, lol. I can laugh now that we won.
2- Butterfingers: Something that can easily get lost in the mirad of
amazing plays that the Saints made on thanksgiving day is the fact
that we would have won by at least 2 touchdowns if our pass catchers
would have made all of the catches that hit their hands. I know that
Henderson had a long one knocked out of his hands, and there's not
much you can do about that, but I know for a fact that Colston, Bush,
and the rookie Jimmy Graham all had passes fly right off of their
hands. Colston's drop cost a first down, Bush's cost us a game icing
touchdown, and Graham's resulted in an interception.
#1: Honestly, this isn't a real complaint because I'll take the win
anyway any day, but I really wanted us to beat the cowboys handily and
make them feel what we felt last year after they ended our undefeated
season. A bit selfish, I know. But I didn't feel like I could let the
arrogant Dallas fans have it the way I wanted to. Because they would
quickly remind me that we, the Saints, were lucky to escape with a
win. And they would be right.
Even with all of that, there were a lot of positives to take from the
30-27 thriller on Thursday. And in my next post I'll give you the top
5 positives from the Dallas game.
2 major mishaps he had early in the second half. Simply put, Reggie
was not ready to play. Some might think his injury is what caused
those mistakes, but I am not one of them. I think that coach Sean
Payton is just as much to blame for Reggie's short comings as Reggie
himself in this case. Here's why: Reggie had some obvious problems handling the football during his first game back from a broken fibula 2 months ago. Both carrying and catching were struggles for Bush. A fact that many miss in this is that the Thanksgiving day game was Reggie Bush's first live action, in practice or game, since week 2. Now with that being said, Reggie was healthy and able last week against the Seattle
Seahawks and was held out by Sean Payton himself. That game would have been a perfect opportunity to get Bush reacquainted with his ball
handling and feel for the game, which would have almost certainly
resulted in a better performance in yesterday's game. Reggie's rust
almost cost the Saints a very important game and that could have
easily been avoided with a measly 5-8 touches for Bush in last week's
game.
4- Second Half Lull?: After exploding out of the gate with a 17-0
first quarter, and cruising to a 20-6 halftime lead, the Saints' well
ran dry in the second half. The combination of sustained, time
consuming drives by the cowboys and untimely blunders by the Saints
ALMOST proved to be too much for the defending champs to overcome. I
proudly repeat ALMOST.
3- Tracy Porters Tackling: I will start by saying that I have never
had any complaints about Tracy's tacking and he did make one nice
tackle on Dallas' Felix Jones for a loss, but his body of work for the
game was pretty poor. He missed countless tackles on that corner that
allowed meaningless 3 yard gains to become 6-7 yard gains that put the
cowboys in position to pick up big first downs in the second half. And
the play where Marion Barber shook the shoes off of porter was hard to
watch, lol. I can laugh now that we won.
2- Butterfingers: Something that can easily get lost in the mirad of
amazing plays that the Saints made on thanksgiving day is the fact
that we would have won by at least 2 touchdowns if our pass catchers
would have made all of the catches that hit their hands. I know that
Henderson had a long one knocked out of his hands, and there's not
much you can do about that, but I know for a fact that Colston, Bush,
and the rookie Jimmy Graham all had passes fly right off of their
hands. Colston's drop cost a first down, Bush's cost us a game icing
touchdown, and Graham's resulted in an interception.
#1: Honestly, this isn't a real complaint because I'll take the win
anyway any day, but I really wanted us to beat the cowboys handily and
make them feel what we felt last year after they ended our undefeated
season. A bit selfish, I know. But I didn't feel like I could let the
arrogant Dallas fans have it the way I wanted to. Because they would
quickly remind me that we, the Saints, were lucky to escape with a
win. And they would be right.
Even with all of that, there were a lot of positives to take from the
30-27 thriller on Thursday. And in my next post I'll give you the top
5 positives from the Dallas game.