Sure Saints

With the first 3 weeks of the NFL perplexing many fans of various teams throughout the league, Saints fans have got to feel pretty good knowing that their team is 3-0. What makes it even better is the Saints are 2-0 in their division and 3-0 in the conference. While many of us may have a bone to pick with the way the NFL chooses to schedule division games throughout the season, it sure works in your favor when you actually win the games. Right now, the Saints are sitting nice on top of the hill with yesterday's victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

I expected the Saints would have a chance to get their struggling offense back on track over the next few games, starting with the Cardinals. While the Cardinals do have a pretty decent defense, it's their lack of competence on offense that gives opposing teams great opportunities. The Saints took their 1-7 (in 2 games) redzone woes and improved them with a 3-5 performance against Arizona. ( Saints/Cardinals Box Score ) That's the kind of consistency that allows an offense to score 31 points. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. Though it may have been what the doctor ordered, it's only been one single dosage of the good stuff. That Saints have to keep it up next week against Miami before we can even start to begin to say that they fixed their redzone issues. More on that game later, but let's not forget that after these two games that can get us feeling good about the offense, the Saints have to travel to play the Bears. Chicago has ones of the best defenses in the league and the Saints always seem to struggle there. Those redzone woes could very easily find their way back.

Nevertheless, the offense looked excellent against the Cardinals. One huge improvement that I immediately noticed was Sean Payton's play calling. We all agree that the Saints must run the ball occasionally for the sake of balance. However, it definitely seemed that Payton was arbitrarily forcing the run in the first few games. Sometimes, the run just isn't there. There Cardinals game out in some heavy run defenses at times. Maybe they noticed SP's adamant attempts on running the ball in the first two games. Whatever the case may be, that became a big mistake as the Saints were fully content to throw the football often. To those that preach balance for the Saints offense, yesterday was one of those games where balance simply isn't the solution.

There were, however, a few negatives on offense. The offensive line is still struggling to protect Brees. #9 has started to resort to scrambling. And, while his scrambling is very effective, it should remain to be extremely rare. Brees was on against the Arizona Cardinals. He was put in some tough predicaments and he came through with big plays. There are going to be times this season where he has off games (we may have seen this against Tampa Bay). When he has off games, the struggles of the offensive line will severely handicap the offense's productivity. Another negative to take away from the game was Jimmy Graham's alligator arms. Despite how well Graham played, there were often plays against Arizona where he pulled up and tried to short arm passes. The head-shooting Buccaneers are still messing with his psyche. Hopefully, this doesn't continue to hinder him.

Overall, the offense gets a passing grade. Toon needs to pull in a catch every now and again. It was great seeing Meechem not only return, but actually catch a TD pass. Maybe his body isn't "broken down" after all? Lance Moore had a rare case of the butterfingers as well. And, then, there was Khiry Robinson. While I'm high on Robinson, AKA Chris Ivory Jr./2.0, we have to put this particular performance in perspective. He had 4 carries at the end of the game. That's it. The game was already out of hand and we were burning clock. Yes, his runs were impressive and Ingram hasn't exactly been wowing us. That said, I still caution those fans who are sold on Robinson and are trying to cite this single performance as proof.

When the game started, the Cardinals immediately drove the ball down field and got a TD. Of course, believing in the trends I've been mentioning every week in this blog, I reminded my friends and family that it takes a drive or two for the Saints' defense to settle. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. I'm not familiar with Rob Ryan's previous defenses and if they had a trend to do the same, but that's simply how this year's unit operates. By the time they hit the 2nd half of the game, they're hitting on all cylinders and causing hell in the opposing backfield. What more can be said about Cam Jordan and Junior Galette? Those guys have a game between themselves to see who can get to the QB faster than the other. They are proving to be a dangerous combination. Jordan has power, Galette has speed. You can run from one, but that'll just get you right into the arms of the other.

And, we can't mention the defense without talking about the greatness that is the Saints' 2013 first round draft pick, Kenny Vaccaro. The impact that he has made is great. The fact that he's a rookie is something special. Congratulations to the rookie for getting his first NFL interception. If Roman Harper can make 2 Pro Bowls as a traditional, hard-hitting Strong Safety, then I think Vaccaro has a chance to obtain the honor a few times in his career as well.

Before the game started, I realized next week's potential match up. The 3-0 Saints versus the 3-0 Dolphins on Monday Night Football. I told my family that, should the Saints and Dolphins both win, I want to sell our tickets for that game. Monday night games are hard to make for us and we could get some money back by selling them through NFL Ticket Exchange. More importantly, however, we can legally sell them for more than we initially paid for them and use the extra money in January - when we're purchasing playoff tickets. Who Dat!


P.S. - Oh, and...
NFL Week 3 Winners and Losers – If the Saints’ defense is really this good, look out NFC
Speak for yourself, Schwab. Ol' BoudinSandwich has been saying this since preseason.