Drew Brees in this postgame said that championship teams get better every week and the Saints need to find a way to get better every week. For three weeks since the bye, we’ve seen this team get better and better. The Saints could have easily allowed to two opening drive turnovers to affect their confidence and implode with another poor road performance. Instead, the Saints stay focused, played hard, and found a way to grind out a very tough divisional road game. At 4-4 the Saints are now in first place alone in the NFC South and they get to enjoy a three game home stretch after a mini bye week 10 day break. The defensive performance, with the help of Cam Newton’s gross passing inaccuracy, was outstanding. To shut out the Panthers in the first half and gift the offense their first touchdown was masterful. Below are my bullets on the game:
- Keenan Lewis was the man. He held Kelvin Benjamin, a rookie who has been getting ridiculous praise all week, to 2 catches for 18 yards. That was on 10 targets! Lewis completely locked him down in man to man single coverage for most of the night. Tip of the cap to the Saints’ top cover corner who probably had his best game as a Saint.
- Cam Newton looked horrible. He played really poorly in two games against the Saints last year save one 2 minute drive, and it’s starting to feel like Rob Ryan has his number. Every time he plays the Saints he seems to really struggle completing passes. He finished 10 of 28 for 151 yards.
- Give credit to Corey White and Patrick Robinson, both so maligned this season. Each had excellent games in coverage and seem to be coming around.
- Drew Brees had two turnovers on the first two drives but it’s hard to blame him for either. The first was a low ball to Kenny Stills, which he should have caught, that deflected off his hands and bounced up for an easy fluke pick. The second was an accidental strip by Erik Lorig. Other than that, Brees threw the ball well despite dealing with a lot of pressure.
- It was a poor day for the Saints’ offensive line. Despite a strong commitment to the run and 105 yards gained on the ground, the Saints averaged only 2.8 per carry. They also gave up 4 sacks. Zach Strief left the game with back spasms and Bryce Harris struggled mightily in his place. Disappointing to see the Panthers beat the Saints in the trenches there, but hopefully Strief and Goodwin come back for the 49ers game. I can promise you Goody won’t want to miss that one.
- Akiem Hicks was a menace in the middle. He played backup guards and it showed. His push up the middle was significant all game long.
- Hurt or not, Jimmy Graham had a huge game. 7 catches for 83 yards and a touchdown. He’s clearly still hampered but he make a huge impact in this one.
- Kenny Stills had a major drop problem, coughing up 3 balls, but still managed 5 catches for 72 yards. His chemistry with Brees is developing nicely.
- Brandin Cooks as a punt return is not working out so far. I wish there was someone else to go to.
- Give credit to Sean Payton for sticking to the run, despite it often not working. 37 rushes and 34 passes is fantastic balance. I’ve seen so many games in this era where Payton would completely abandon the run and just start throwing every play.
- Ingram rushed for 100 yards exactly on 30 carries. He’s the first Saint to have back to back 100 yard rushing games since Deuce McAllister.
- For once DeAngelo Williams didn’t destroy the Saints all on his own. He had a very pedestrian 8 carries for 20 yards. He did also take his lone catch for 30 yards on a screen, but that’s keeping him in check much better than they’ve pretty much ever have.
- The Panthers had 1st and goal at the 6 down 21-7 and the red zone defense came up with a huge stop reminiscent of what we saw last week. That pretty much killed the Panthers’ chances.
Another great Saints performance and it was on the road! The 7 game regular season losing streak is snapped and the reward is control of the division. While the next three weeks are at home they come against very stiff competition in the 49ers, Bengals and Ravens. So the Saints have their work cut out for him. But the season is just starting to get fun.
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