Deuce
 

The number of carries he's been getting really doesn't seem enough to me.

At first you might think maybe it's because of the knee not being 100%, but he sure looked good to me in the first Tampa game when he ran all over them.

Last week we got behind early, and started throwing more, but I couldn't understand why with 1st and goal at Pitts 5 or so, we run Reggie up the middle twice.

Then, today, yeah Brees threw it 50+ times, and Reggie ran North/South for the most part, but we don't seem to want to run Duece very much.

Anyone with any idea why not?

RE: Deuce
 

They want him healthy for a trade. I hope not, though.

Re: Deuce
 

I'd have to think he's not 100%. The coaches know he was running well before his injury. They wouldn't just limit his carries unless there was something wrong with his health.

You have to remember that the average NFL runningback's career is only like 3 years or so. Deuce has had nagging injuries every year, including the devestating ACL injury last year. The fact that he's even somewhat productive right now is really more than what we should have expected.

RE: Re: Deuce
 

I ask after each game why Deuce doesn't get more carries, he seems healthy, Bush is the one getting the carries it seems.

I said in the beginning, healthy or not, Duece is gunna get a lot less carries. Its just the way Payton is gunna play call. Its gunna be a west coast offense, lots of throwing 5-6 routes, especially since we drafted Bush, hes more of a slot receiver. Instead of the pounding the ball in years before, we are dinking and dunking, alot because we have a compatent QB now. Its not gunna be the same offense as before. More speed than power.

And right now we have a top 5 offense in the NFL. Deuce was getting all of the carries for the past 4 years or so and where did that get us? Same old boring inept offense. Nothing at all is wrong with our offense. We just can't give up 30+ points a game and win.

I don't think that's a fair example for Deuce since we had that jackass playing QB.

Maybe so, but the point is our offensive production is not the problem. We just have to cut down on turnovers and we need a real defense. We have had no problem moving the ball on anyone this year except for the Ravens. We would have gotten more rushes had we not had to abandon the run.

As for why Reggie got the ball inside the 5 yard line, perhaps they noticed how LT had so much success against them last week.

Uhmmm......Reggie is by no means L.T. When he starts doing the things L.T. does on an NFL football field, then I say go ahead & give it to him at the 5. Until then......let the big Brahma bull do the goal line running.

GEEZ...did I say that Reggie was LT? The implication was that they are backs with similar physical traits. Cincy had difficulty reacting to LTs speed last week, and Reggie had a reasonably productive day all things considered too. He was consistently getting 5-6 yards a rush. If we hadn't had to abandon the run he would have had better stats. If I were Payton I would have done the same thing. I tend to trust Payton's judgement...he's an NFL head coach of a top 5 NFL offense for a reason.

He averaged 3.9 yds/rush, not 5-6. Deuce averaged 4.0 yds/rush. Very similar averages, but when you're inside the 5.....you give it to the guy who can run through arm tackles, not the one who goes down on the 1st hit. . I don't care where you're coaching at, that's just common sense.

Despite Sean Payton's lack of common sense, I still trust his coaching ability and judgement.

The part about Reggie getting it twice up the middle was from the Steelers game last week.

Going in to today's game I had hoped we'd try to control the clock and run Deuce a lot to keep their offense off the field. They clearly had the advantage with their WR's over our DB's.

Yes, we're definitely getting a lot of production out of our offense, but there's something to be said for wearing down the other teams D and resting ours.

Well I think part of the reason why Payton has been successful with the offense thus far this season is that he ISN'T running a predictable offensive gameplan that perhaps most fans on here would want him to run. He's not allowing opposing coaching staffs to effectively gameplan for us. This is why we've been able to put up 500+ yards of offense in consecutive weeks. Not one fan on here would want him to keep passing to people like Henderson, Copper, and Stecker. Yet all of it IS working, and we are moving the ball.

As far as Deuce goes, we don't know the whole story, so isn't it fair to assume that Payton has a good reason for not feeding him the ball 25 times a game?

Our failures offensively speaking have come in the turnover battle. No matter how much game planning we do, we still can't fumble and throw ill-advised INTs and expect to win.

I'm not really complaining about our offensive philosophy as much as I'm curious as to why we haven't tried to run with Deuce more often. Is it just part of how Payton wants to do it or is it more to do with Deuce's knee?

Who knows? I would split the carries to preserve Deuce for this last stretch. It's a long season. Other than that, the only reasoning I could think of is that he doesn't want to become predictable in his playcalling.

When they didn't have enough offensive players, he got the ball too much. Now he is not getting it enough, because they have other people who want the ball.

Re: Deuce
 

Because the great wonderful reggie bush can do it all .... I guess the coaching staff dosent realize the saints have a pro bowl HB Deuce Mcallister they hardly ever play him... Im tired of seeing reggie out there he should be the 3rd down back and nothing more..... Deuce needs the ball rember what he did against Tampa Bay??? just give him the ball and he will just go truck along not move a junk and spin all that bullcrap deuce will run you over.... DEEEEEUUUUUCCEEEE !!!!

RE: Re: Deuce
 

Kenny Wilkerson was on 4th Down on 4 last night and they had a segement devoted to this topic. Kenny doesn't think Deuce is getting enough touches, either.

For one I don't think Deuce is Deuce anymore... he is becomeing more of a Fullback than a RB.

Re: RE: Re: Deuce
 

Yeah....Bobby Hebert said the same thing to my dad & I after the game too.

RE: Re: RE: Re: Deuce
 

I think Payton has abandoned the run game a little too soon these last few weeks. We need to go back what we were doing earlier this season.

RE: Re: RE: Re: Deuce
 

I think that Payton tries to score early and preserve Deuce for the 4th quarter so that he can pound out the ball. Deuce has only received less than 15 carries once in all of the wins we have this season. Those were games where we were either winning or not involved in a shootout where each QB throws the ball 40 times. Its hard to pound a bruising back when you are playing from behind ala Panthers and Ravens or when you are involved in a shootout against the Bengals. I agree that they didn't run him enough this week. But when you are playing from behind in the 4th quarter hes not gonna touch the ball. Plus its hard to spread the touches around Deuce, the big play threat that I hope Reggie fulfills sometime soon, and with the Drew is throwing the ball.

However, I do agree 100% that Deuce isnt touching the ball enough in the red zone. That would be a good start to cutting down the turnovers would be to let Deuce pound the ball when we get inside the opponents 30 and especially in the red zone.

RE: Re: RE: Re: Deuce
 

I do not think Duce or bush is at 100 %. but i have to agree we are not using the run enough. Phili was the last time we ran to control the game. But that was when duce first showed signs of injury. Bush has the ankle issues. It has been all drew ever since. so you have to wonder