The Exile’s Report, Newman’s Own Edition
Thursday, 16 October 2008 07:21
The Exile's Blog
My Man Luke Eat 50 Eggs Department:
“I don’t care if it rains or freezes
Long as the name of my quarterback Brees is
Best QB in the NFL by far….”
Forgive the forced lyrics, the tragic result of ADHD in the morning shower. With the recent passing of Paul Newman, and the ascendancy of Saints QB Drew Brees into the highest peak stage of his career to date, there’s no shame in a cool hand reference or two.
Despite missing his two best targets in WR Marques Colston and TE Jeremy Shockey, Brees is putting up the best numbers in the league throwing to the likes of Lance Moore, “Third Down Devery” Henderson and a collection of TEs from a temporary employment agency. Brees is leading the league in yards per game and is second in QB rating, and only second largely based on having six INTs already, most of them fluky (dropped passes, Hail Marys, etc.). I was trying to develop some comparisons of Brees to other modern athletes, and all I could come up with, despite my disapproval of May-December relationships, was that he must be the love child of Bart Starr and Steve Nash.
The surgical 26-for-30 performance against a decent Raider defense was Brees at his best. If he can maintain his health and focus for the rest of the season, barring an even worse run of injury, this team will be as big a threat as any in December.
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Speaking of 50 eggs, in a quick chain gang break away from our three children for the weekend, the longtime companion (hereinafter referred to as “Mrs. Three Bloody Marys with Lunch”) and I managed to pound in Acme, Mother’s, some upscale new place in the Warehouse district and Galatoire’s around a Saints game in the space of 32 hours. Not that there was any drinking involved.
In addition to being an endless fountain of relevant cultural references, Dr. Ex is now also an expert in antacids and pain medication.
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Man With Know Eyes Department:
Interesting sidelight during the Vikings game two weeks ago was the analysis/revelation from announcer Ron Jaworski that Brees and the Saints’ passing attack focuses on hitting the WRs down the field in the eyes, rather than the numbers. The theory is that the balls being a little higher up in the field of vision makes them easier to catch, and Brees is accurate enough to slot the passes in there.
Back to those fluky INTs. It does seem like we have an inordinate number of INTs that pop off the hands of our downfield receivers, including the two this year against Washington, Moore’s bizarre bobble against the Vikings, former TE Eric Johnson’s two misplayed juggling acts in the loss to Houston last year, etc., etc.
I remember when Eagles coach Andy Reid was breaking in a young Donovan McNabb, and McNabb would occasionally skip a maddening ground ball at the feet of an otherwise open receiver, and it almost seemed by design as an essence of ball discipline in Reid’s pass-wacky West Coast offense: if you’re going to miss, keep it low. And McNabb’s INT numbers have always been quite good.
Contrasting this with the Saints right-between-the-eyes methodology, it may be that the periodic pop-up INT is just an occupational hazard of our approach with the passes at the eyes, rather than between the numbers. Given that Brees is already pretty short, and yet we’ve been so effective, an oversized share of these types of turnovers may just be an unwanted byproduct that we have to deal with from time to time.
Either that, or God just hates us.
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Non, Je Regrette Non Department:
Is it a coincidence that LBs Scott Fujita and Scott Shanle have swapped places, with Scott moving over to WLB since he came back from his injury and Scott staying at SLB where he moved when Scott got hurt, and now the defense is playing better?
This took two years? I don’t know whether to scratch my head as to why it took so long or give them credit for thinking outside the box. If there’s one thing coaches generally hate to do more than lose, it’s admit to a mistaken decision.
Hey, ask Jim Haslett.
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Ragtime Department:
Johnny Hooker: “He’s not as tough as he thinks.”
Henry Gondorf: “Neither are we.”
Which pretty much sums up the situation every time we play the Panthers.
What is it about the Panthers? Why can’t they just be bad? Why aren’t they really that good? Why is every game they ever play ugly? It’s like Panthers HC John Fox is channeling Reggie Dunlop and either making his entire team into goons, or making them play old time football. The Saints can never just seem to get a clean break up on this team in a game. Ya falla?
It always seems like we ought to win the matchups, and yet I head into every Panthers game with complete doubt as to the outcome. Given the issues that have lead to three close Saints losses and a 3-3 record this season, to say this game was critical would not be an overstatement.
It’s times like this that you rue the timing of the injuries, but, as we have learned, there are no rules in a knife fight. You can miss injured CB Tracy Porter as much as I do, but it’s not going to help. There are no great teams in the NFL this year, making getting out of the NFC South with at least the division title, if not a first-round bye, the biggest priority in our 42 seasons, and a road win is the difference between a two-game deficit with the season half over and a possible tie for first with a 2-0 conference record over TB and Carolina. These kinds of no-Patriots seasons don’t come around every day.
Every time I thought this Saints team was finally together in the last two seasons, we ran into a physical team that gave us trouble, if not a loss. Sunday will pretty much determine if we’re fighting for supremacy, or just fighting to make the playoffs, for the rest of the season.
I’m going to just have to believe that Toe Blake, Eddie Shore, and the Hanson Brothers are on our side this week. Saints 24, Panthers 20.
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7-7 last week, 45-41-2 for the year, now down 10 simoleons. Dr. Ex needs to get to Mass more often.
