Saints Nation: Saints Demolish Giants 49-24

That one was reminscent of the Saints-Colts earlier in the season. I become more convinced every game that the Saints are simply unbeatable at home this season. This was a beatdown of epic proportions, and quite simply the Giants were completely helpless as trying to stop the Saints. The Saints carved them up all day long whichever way they wanted to, and the Giants were incapable of stopping anything the Saints threw at them. Brees in particular was on fire much of the game and when he plays like that the Saints are almost impossible to beat. The Saints threw for 372 yards and rushed for 205 more. That’s right, 577 yards of total offense. Lord have mercy. On to my post game bullets…

• The Saints fake field goal was a good design on the opening drive, but should never have been called with the down/distance being 4th and 11. If they had 5 yards to go or so I would have supported it, but when you need 11 yards you don’t run a fake field goal. Ever. Especially not in the first quarter. That was ridiculous. Take your 3-0 lead and move on.
• Will Herring (pictured) goes from being the worst free agent signing of the season to making a ridiculous play. That interception was ridiculous. I had totally wrote him off as a roster member and he came through with the play of the evening on defense.
• The Saints ran the ball for 6.8 yards per carry led by Ingram (80 yards), Thomas (63 yards) and Sproles (54 yards). Brees’ 8 yard touchdown run was most impressive of them all with a little shake and bake.
• Devery Henderson and Lance Moore had a lot of involvement in the offense and it was great to see them in the mix, especially Devery who had been so quiet after a good start to the season.
• The offensive line, particularly the interior, MAULED the Giants. Expect good grades.
• Eli Manning threw for 406 yards but so much of that was meaningless garbage yards against a soft defense. Still, Tracy Porter and Patrick Robinson were both alarmingly bad in coverage in this one.
• Ramon Humber and Isa Abdul-Quddus are both guys you don’t hear about much but they both played well.
• The number of personal fouls in this game was ridiculous and out of hand. Some of them were absurd calls by the refs. Others were a clear lack of poise and concentration on the players. A sloppy game in that regard. The Saints need to exercise better control.
• Jo-Lonn Dunbar was oustanding against the run, cracking skulls with his hitting. He kept Brandon Jacobs largely in check.
• Some vicious hits in this one. Isa Abdul-Quddus and Leigh Torrence both had deadly hits on Hakim Nicks. Jimmy Graham got lit up. Malcolm Jenkins had a couple good pops. And Brandon Jacobs trashed Roman Harper on his touchdown run.
• Patrick Robinson looked more like the corner in the Packers game.
• Tracy Porter’s tackling and coverage was very poor overall, but he did force a fumble to redeem his otherwise atrocious night.
• Drew Brees missed a few seam routes long, but overall he was close to flawless passing.
• Speaking of Brees, that play where he escaped two sacks before almost crossing the line of scrimmage and dumping the ball to Pierre Thomas for a first down was pure magic. Wow.
• Jermon Bushrod’s run blocking on those Darren Sproles edge sweeps was as good as I’ve ever seen.
• Will Smith never gets help from refs with holding calls. He was blatantly held throughout this contest as well. It’s getting ridiculous. 
• Morstead’s net managed to be better than his gross on punts. Haha. He’s awesome.
• I still can’t believe the refs awarded that fumble to the Saints. To me that guy’s elbow was clearly down. I also thought the “roughing the passer” on Will Smith was one of the worst calls of the season.

Grades coming soon. Bring on the Lions.