The Saints offense was at times unstoppable and at other times also unstoppable, just against themselves. They came out of the gate on fire going up 21-0 against the Panthers and it looked like the Saints just might have one home game skull dragging left in them. But then the other shoe dropped. Andrus Peat got hurt, Carolina discovered that the Saints have alzheimers and frequently forget to cover people, and all of a sudden they went into halftime with a 24-17 lead.
There are a few things that can definitely be gleaned from this game for both teams, and I’ll list out a few of them in my observations, but the biggest takeaway from this game is just how important momentum is to this Saints team. The defense goes through stretches where they not only look not awful, but even look kind of good (still only gave up 104 yards rushing by the way). The problem is that they simply can’t sustain that. When they are playing downhill and are able to string a few plays together you can see the confidence grow and more good plays follow. However, when the inevitable big play (or boo boo) happens you can actually see the ‘here we go again’ on the players faces. The Saints are a team operating with an extreme talent deficiency right now in multiple areas and this causes them to be a very inconsistent team.
The nice thing is that both sides of the ball are being incredibly well coached right now and both Sean Payton and Dennis Allen are getting what I would say is every reasonably expectable drop of production from both units. That doesn’t mean either is very good right now, the secondary is a sea of missed tackles, blown assignments, and flags, and the offensive line….is just offensive without Armstead. Despite that the Saints are within any two of 5 plays going their way of being a 3-1 football team and only a game out of leading the division. Does that mean they are a good team? No it does not, but it means they are battling their collective butts off and that there is hope for the future. Considering the incredible number of injuries they have sustained (Andrus Peat and Sterling Moore went down today) that is all I can ask.
Observations:
- The Panthers offensive line is really bad, and the Saints pass rush looked better because of it
- The Saints desperately need Armstead to return and Peat to start at LG
- Ingram is extremely reliable, but simply doesn’t ‘make plays happen’ and that’s ok
- Brandin Cooks remains really, really, really fast
- Michael Thomas, Vonn Bell, and Nick Fairely all look like excellent additions
- so do Craig Robertson and Stupar
- Kenny Vacarro is a HUGE piece for this defense and the run defense in particular (and that Penalty was BS btw)
- Tommy Lee Lewis should be the punt and kickoff returner going forward
- Cam Newton is still a front runner and not very accurate
- Kelvin Benjamin is first round Coleman
- The Saints DESPERATELY need an edge rusher in the draft or FA
The bottom line is the Saints are 2-3 and look like a team on the rise and the Panthers are 1-5 and are one more loss away from Cam wearing towels on his head and pouting like a 4 year-old again…so for this week at least Football is awesome!
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