There are a number of story lines that could have been the focus of this game: Brees injury, Payton could be leaving, the Saints draft position, and of course their horrific defense. All of those are things worth covering, well except for the Payton rumors, but not now. Not after what could possibly be the last game we get to see Drew Brees running Sean Payton’s offense in New Orleans. Not after we got to see a game where the greatest player in the history of our franchise fought through what was supposed to be a debilitating injury to deliver a stellar performance in the final home game of the season. Drew Brees threw for 412 yards on 25-36 passes with 3 TD’s ON ONE LEG! Doing it at all is impressive, but to put up that kind of performance in a game many questioned even if he could/would play is incredible. While the game’s announcers love to talk about Drew’s height, I choose to focus on another noteworthy attribute: his toughness. Drew Brees is quite simply one of the toughest players I have ever seen.
Speaking of toughness how about that catch by Brandin Cooks (you know the one), Cooks has truly emerged the last two games as not only the Saints most dynamic weapon, but also the player who Brees trusts to make a play when he needs one. I still believe that the Saints need someone who can work the interior of the field for this offense to truly thrive, but in back to back weeks Cooks has proven himself to be worth the pick the Saints spent on him (he’s proven it all year). On any other day I would be rubbing it in just how good he looked today (a missed dpi and a poor Brees pass from 150+ and 2TD’s), but today Brandin Cooks isn’t the story. Today’s game was about 3 players to me; Drew Brees and his toughness and competitiveness, Delvin Breaux proving he is the REAL DEAL once again, and Tim Hightower’s return to NFL stardom.
We’ve already touched on Brees, but today fans got the full Drew Brees experience. He was mobile, tough, clever, and daring, whatever the situation demanded of him. He was masterful. It won’t go down as the greatest game he has ever played, but it will be one of the most impressive. As good as he was though, a lot of the Saints success can be attributed to Jacksonville’s insistence on trying Delvin Breaux in the first half. They went after him repeatedly and it didn’t end well for them. Breaux not only shut down his man no matter who it as, but he also deflected a pass into the waiting arms of Bobby Richardson (lol really?), and followed that up by running the route for a receiver later in the half to get a pick of his own. Those two turnovers allowed Brees to put the game out of reach early and even though the Jags realized that the number they wanted to attack was only one digit away…it was too little too late. Number 40 balled out while number 39 gave up 2 TD’s and and got annihilated by one of the league’s best young wr corps, so business as usual so far.
What wasn’t expected, and was a very pleasant surprise to us all was the play of Tim Hightower. The resurgent running back continued his comeback with over 150 yards from scrimmage and a pair of touchdowns. Hightower ran hard, was fast, smart in the hole, and looked like a legit starter out there. Certainly the performance of the offensive line deserves some credit (Andrew will tell you about Lelito’s block in Grades I’m sure). Beyond that though he almost never failed to get positive yards, showed tremendous heart and desire, and made a very strong case that the team should bring him back next season. If nothing else comes from the end of this debacle of an NFL season, it’s good to know that a good man got a second chance and proved he still belongs. Congrats to Tim!
below are the rest of my thoughts from this game:
- Brandon Coleman continued his late season resurgence, perhaps the lights are coming on at last.
- Andrus Peat got his first start at RT, it may have also marked Zack Strief’s last.
- Kai Forbath is just simply not ‘the guy’ and the Saints (and McMahan) look stupider and stupider for letting Hopkins go.
- Cam Jordan DESPERATELY needs some health, and the more I see the more I think the interior needs to be the priority.
- Brandon Browner is awful. I’ve said before that I can see value in his presence, but I’ve also said he MUST be gone at seasons end.
- Kenny Vaccaro just continues to make plays for this team. At this point 2014 is a distant memory for what may become the heart of this defense going forward.
- The Jags are VERY talented and will give a lot of teams trouble going forward, but so could the Saints….possibly soon.
- The Saints desperately need a new TE to compliment Watson, that guy isn’t here right now.
- The Saints team we saw today is the team they could have been if they hadn’t hit injuries and had so much youth playing so early.
- The Saints still have no WLB, no DT, no quality Guards (I don’t trust Tim Lelito at this point), need a TE, and need their corners to get healthy. It’s bad, but its not an unmitigated disaster…or at least it doesn’t have to be.
final note: As a fan I choose to cherish games like today as we have no idea what this off-season will bring. I truly believe that both Payton and Brees will be back for next year at the minimum. However, there are no guarantees and if the price we have to pay for one final GREAT home performance from those two is a single spot in the draft (9 to 10), I will take that every single time.
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