The score make it look much closer than it really was, mostly thanks to horrific prevent defense and tackling down the stretch that allowed the Steelers to score 16 points in about 2 minutes, but the Saints went into Pittsburgh and completely outplayed the Steelers. I said the Saints would need a perfect performance by Brees to win this game and that is exactly what they got. Unbelievably he never targeted Graham one time but he threw touchdown passes to Ben Watson, Erik Lorig, Nick Toon, Marques Colston and Kenny Stills. Add to that a 122 yard rushing performance by Ingram and the Saints turned in one of their best offensive performances of the season. Below are my bullet thoughts on the game:
- The defense had two turnovers on interceptions by Kenny Vaccaro on a deep ball and Cam Jordan on a tip to himself. They may have had two but they easily could have had five. The interception drops were out of control in this game and Patrick Robinson had three himself. In fact, one was as gimme of a pick six as David Hawthorne’s last week. The defense needs to start taking more advantage of these opportunities. At least they hung on to a couple. Worth mentioning that Ben Roethlisberger hit his throwing hand and injured it on a Curtis Lofton blitz and that seemed to affect his accuracy.
- The Saints only registered one sack but I thought they did a good job of forcing the ball out with good pressure.
- The Steelers were 6 of 14 on 3rd downs. Totally respectable job defensively there.
- The coverage by Corey White and P-Rob in particular was astoundingly good. Not sure where that came from.
- Le’Veon Bell 95 yards rushing on 21 carries. If you offered me that before the game I would absolutely have taken it. Unfortunately he also had 159 receiving on 8 catches. Again I say the tackling needs to be better.
- Credit John Jenkins who came in, started, and played well up front. He was a big reason why Bell didn’t gash them at will in the trenches.
- Nick Toon’s touchdown has incredible as he absorbed contact from three different players to get in.
- Kenny Stills finished with 5 catches for 162 yards. The Steelers simply couldn’t run with him and his hands were fantastic. He looked like a young Lance Moore out there. Speaking of Moore, he looked like an old Lance Moore.
- Brees spread 19 completions to 9 different guys with none going go Graham. Talk about distribution. I thought for the second consecutive week he played at an extremely high level.
- Thomas Morstead >>>> Brad Wing
- The offensive line gave up 3 hits, 1 sack and dominated for 143 rushing yards. Good bounce back performance after getting chewed up by Baltimore.
- The Steelers missed a field goal before halftime! The consecutive streak stops at 27! Thanks Shaun Suisham!
- Sean Payton and Rob Ryan exchange laughs, anger and everything in between on the sidelines. Not sure what to make of that but they’re definitely talking. If nothing else, the relationship hasn’t gone the way of Gregg Williams where they refused to speak to each other.
- The Steelers put up 538 yards of total offense but most of it was on two garbage time drives to make the score look close. Still, Sean Payton can’t like the way his team closed that game defensively. Unfortunately that somewhat overshadows what otherwise was a terrific defensive performance.
The Saints are now 5-7 and will host an already imploded Panthers team next week. No excuses possible going into that one – it has to be a win. Look out for the podcast this week where I agreed to sing “It’s Raining Men” if the Saints won.
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