First of all, a warm welcome to my small legion of readers over at Facebook. Catherine E. made a remark that I should go ahead and put this up at a blog where it's publicly available, as opposed to hiding it over at Facebook, so here we are.
For those of you who haven't been here before, Moron Hockey is a satellite blog of Ace of Spades HQ (ace.mu.nu), where Drew M. and I both offer political prognostications. You won't get politics here, unless it directly affects professional hockey or football. There's plenty of political stuff out there, and I'd hope that sports allows us a respite from a rather heated time in our nation.
As the season progresses, you'll see more posts on both football and hockey- as the title of the blog suggests, this is supposed to be primarily a hockey blog, but it makes no sense to have it go dark while the NHL isn't playing. I hope you'll make this a regular stop, and get involved in the discussion. If you'd like us to cover other teams (Geoff, that means you with the Bengals), please let us know in the comments, and we'll see what we can do. If you are so inclined, please follow us on Twitter, and you'll be alerted to any new posts we publish.
So about Sunday's game with the Panthers...
Let me preface this by saying that here in Kansas City, we were treated to the Green Bay-Detroit game, while most of the rest of the country got Panthers-Saints. If the NFL Network decides to show it on NFL Replay, there may be a follow-up to this post.
First of all, the Saints were 3-7 in the last five years against the Panthers coming into today's game. John Fox (who seems the odds-on favorite to replace Tom Coughlin with the Giants) just seems to know how to play Sean Payton, and it doesn't matter what the situation is. I would challenge anyone to name me a time the Saints have won comfortably over the Panthers in the Sean Payton era.
As many have pointed out, the Saints are getting everyone's best effort from their opponents, and the winless Panthers were no exception. Fumbles by Lance Moore (stretching for the goal line) and Chris Ivory (rookie mistake) denied the Saints a chance at at least ten points. Two plays- the blown coverage to Jonathan Stewart, and the well-diagnosed but poorly-defended DeAngelo Williams run- provided the scoring for Carolina.
Drew Brees protected the ball well today, and was the victim of drops by Devery Henderson (2), Robert Meachem (1), and Jeremy Shockey (2). He went 33 of 48 for 275 yards and a TD, which is uncharacteristically below 70% completion for him. Again, if the drops aren't dropped...
There was a stretch in the game where deep in Carolina territory, Payton called for three straight passes, despite a very respectable rushing attack on the day. Chris Ivory rushed for 67 yards on 12 carries, and Ladell Betts had 47 yards on 13 carries. The Saints ran for 121 yards on 29 attempts, and it can be argued that Payton kind of outsmarted himself on a few possessions.
The offense had 79 plays to Carolina's 47, and held the ball for 38:22.
And still, the Saints only just eked out the victory.
The Saints are winning games on the strength of the mojo they picked up last season: they still expect to win every game, and I will remind you that they'd be 4-0 save for the Hartley miss in OT. As of this evening, the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers have fallen from the ranks of the unbeaten, leaving only the Kansas City Chiefs (!) as the remaining unbeaten team. Given that they face a pissed-off Indianapolis Colts team next week, I don't expect any unbeatens to remain after week 5.
As ever, the three victories the Saints have are ones they would have given away in the past. This is a team that knows how to win in pretty much any situation, except being down by double digits. With Pittsburgh looming in the distance, they have four weeks to figure out how to get the offense untracked. With any luck, the upcoming games at Arizona, Tampa, and then home with Cleveland will assist in that regard.
It would appear that Sean Payton has a pair of power rushers on the team- if he'll use them. It is a Payton trademark to use his smaller, shiftier backs to spread the defense out and beat them with the screen pass. At the same time, the thing that has been most noticeably missing from the Saints this year is the downhill running that Mike Bell and Lynell Hamilton brought to the table last year. If (and I emphasize if) he's willing to use Ivory and Betts in that fashion, the smash-mouth football element has a chance of working.
Some of that also depends on the interior linemen (Goodwin, Nicks, Evans) getting their acts together as well. The Saints have given up sacks up the middle, and that's on them. These guys are the strength of the Saints' offensive line, and they're not acting like it right now.
I don't know how you get the receivers to stop dropping balls. I haven't seen enough of Brees this year to know if he's throwing with the same accuracy he had last year. That said, based on the past years, if he puts up 50 throws, it is reasonable to expect him to complete 36-40 of those. At this level, if the receiver makes contact with his hands, you kind of have to expect them to catch the ball.
Defensively, a tip of the cap has to go to Sedrick Ellis. Yes, the Panthers are defensively challenged, but Ellis defended two passes, had a sack, and had another key tackle for a loss. The Saints sacked Jimmy Clausen (who for the moment won't be mistaken for Peyton Manning) three times and held him to 11 of 21 for 146 yards and a TD. Two of those sacks came on the crucial last drive.
On the ground, DeAngelo Williams (who is an elite back, despite his team) picked up 86 yards on 13 carries, including his 39-yard TD run. The Carolina rushing attack was largely held in check by the defense, and is worthy of praise.
The story of the day, of course, was the special teams play- 46-year-old John Carney comes in off the street and kicks three field goals (32, 32, and 25 yards), and Courtney Roby was the beneficiary of a colossal hit by Jason Kyle (second week in a row) that forced a fumble on a punt deep in Carolina territory.
The good thing is that the Saints can improve, and not losing is an improvement. The bad thing is that the Saints need to quit screwing around and get it together. This should have been a thirty-point day. Instead- as it always seems to be with Carolina- it was a nailbiter.
Next Sunday, it's off to Glendale, Arizona, to take on the Cards. It appears that rookie Max Hall will start at QB, so this is another should-win for the Saints. The Cards did their part by getting the crap stomped out of them by San Diego, 41-10. The Saints would do well to make things happen out there.
Updates- Reggie Bush feels like he's going to be back after four weeks. That would put him back in the lineup for the Cleveland game.
No word on Pierre Thomas' ankle. Roman Harper was already sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Chris Reis and Pierson Prioleau (his replacements) were both injured.
Finally, an odd fact- Tulane, LSU, and the Saints all won on the same weekend. This is an incredibly rare feat unto itself, but would you believe that Tulane outscored both LSU and the Saints? Yep, 17-14 over Rutgers. Now about whether or not Les Miles should be coaching even middle school football...
