It’s always nice when the Saints just obliterate their opponent. That was pretty much the case today as the Saints went into Carolina and thoroughly embarassed the Panthers. 34-3 is your final, and the Carolina offense was never really capable of doing anything. The Saints go to 6-3 and get a chance to heal up with a bye week this weekend. Here are my postgame thoughts:
— Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer coming back made a huge difference. They had the Panther receivers on lockdown all game.
— Ouch with the injuries! Granted the Panthers had a good bit more, but the Saints lost Sharper, Jenkins, Ivory and Shockey to injury. That’s just what I know for sure. I guess we’ll see how severe those injuries are, hopefully none are too serious. The good news is the Saints don’t have another game for 14 days. Maybe we can even see Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas back by then.
— That 54 yard run by Julius Jones was sorely needed. Nice to see the running game make a big play.
— Does Drew Brees even consider throwing the ball to Devery Henderson anymore?
— Lance Moore is awesome.
— Roman Harper had the most complete game of his career. He was amazing.
— The Saints finally scored a defensive touchdown this season thanks to a Jabari Greer pick six.
— The Panthers tried three quarterbacks against the Saints, and Tony Pike was the best with a 60.1 quarterback rating. Haha.
— Jimmy Graham is a very promising young tight end. He’s only going to get better in the passing game as a big target for Brees.
— John Kasay missed a field goal. I didn’t realize he was capable of doing that against the Saints. Seriously, that guy has been on the Panthers since the prehistoric ages and I’m pretty sure he’s like one billion for one billion on kicks against the Saints. He’s beaten the Saints at the buzzer more times than I will ever care to remember. What a jerk. I don’t feel sorry for him in the slightest.
— It was nice to see the Saints actually show up against a bad team and put a beatdown on them. The last time they played Carolina it wasn’t pretty. Ditto Arizona, ditto Cleveland. Cleveland did beat the Patriots today so at least that’s a little less embarassing.
— Next week the Ravens play the Falcons @ Atlanta on Thursday night football. No need for me to tell you who to root for in that one. We also need Carolina to bounce back and upset the Bucs in Tampa on Sunday. With the Saints off those are the NFL games you want to focus on so that we can make a move in the NFC South.
That’s all I got. Terrific win for the Saints, and with Tampa’s loss to the Falcons they are now alone in 2nd place in the NFC South just one half game behind the Falcons. Check back for player grades!
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