hagan714

How Good Are The Saints?
The New Orleans Saints lost their home, the Superdome, right along with thousands of citizens displaced by Hurricane Katrina just before the 2005 season began. That season, one of their eight “home� games was even played in New Jersey at the Meadowlands. No one should have been surprised by their 3-13 finish.

It’s amazing what a little home cooking can do. The 2006 Saints enter their Week 13 match-up with the Cowboys perched atop the NFC South with an 8-4 record and a two-game winning streak.

But, how good are these N’awlins boys.

It’s a sexy story, but the fact is the Saints may not be as good as advertised.

They have yet to defeat a team that currently owns a winning record. Three of their wins come at the expense of teams with .500 winning percentages (Falcons twice and the Eagles – 2 of the 3 were in New Orleans). The other 5 games they have won were against teams that boast a combined record of 19-41 (32% wins). They definitely haven’t beaten the cream of the crop.

In all fairness, they only played two teams with winning records, and all they can do is play their schedule. However in both games, at home nonetheless, the Ravens and Bengals convincingly handled them 22-35 and 16-31, respectively.

The Saints offense currently has the most yards of any offensve in the NFL. Quarterback Drew Brees leads the NFL in passing yards. Until his injury, receiver Marques Colston led the NFL in receiving yards and touchdowns. Veterans Duece McAllister and Joe Horn still contribute a great deal to the offense. First round draft choice Reggie Bush is coming off a 4-touchdown performance last week against San Francisco. Even their 3rd and 4th receivers, Devery Henderson and former Cowboy Terrence Copper, have made plays when called upon to do so.

They certainly have talent, but I question how good they will be against a much better defense than they’ve beaten. The 7th ranked Cowboys defense is much better than the next best defense they've beaten which was Philly currently ranked 17th.

Not only that, but the Cowboys offense has shown that they can score with the best in the league. If the Cowboys can hide their most prevalent weakness of the 2006 season, giving up huge chunks of yards in the passing game, it will be difficult for the Saints to win.

Contrariwise, some may suggest that the Cowboys have only beaten one team with a winning record (Indy) of the two they’ve play (loss to Jacksonville 24-17), so the Cowboys may not be much better in the grand scheme of things. However, close analysis of this Cowboys team must be divided at the line between pre- and post-Romo.

Since Bledsoe was benched, the Cowboys have lost one game in a freakishly close contest in Washington and beaten teams like Indy and the Giants (in New York). Additionally, the winning percentage of the teams beaten by the Boys is 43% clearly a tougher schedule.

In an NFC conference where mediocrity seems to be the norm, this weekend’s match-up will provide a rare glimpse at a couple of a select few teams that have separated themselves from the conference standard. With talented teams like Carolina, New York, Atlanta and Philly all fighting for playoff spots at 6-6, the loser of this game could quickly find themselves sinking into the quicksand that is the NFC.

Published Tuesday, December 05, 2006 2:48 PM by deagleton
http://blog.dallascowboys.com/blogs/...05/198144.aspx

All in all reading the post made by the cowboy fans to this posting wich is a lead posting on the
http://www.dallascowboys.com/ web site have been ok to us. a few cowgirls tone in their responces but most respect what we will bring to the field.

TallySaint

Good read. Thanks for posting it.


8)

NOLAmite

"If the Cowboys can hide their most prevalent weakness of the 2006 season, giving up huge chunks of yards in the passing game, it will be difficult for the Saints to win."

"The Saints offense currently has the most yards of any offensve in the NFL. Quarterback Drew Brees leads the NFL in passing yards. Until his injury, receiver Marques Colston led the NFL in receiving yards and touchdowns."

Is it just me or did this guy just give us the reason why we'll win this game?

BoysTakeNFC

We respect yall. GL next sunday

TheGambler

Thanks, BoysTake.

I'll be in Texas Stadium this Sunday. Let's hope for an injury free game all around. These 2 teams could very well see each other again in the playoffs.

ssmitty

very good comparison.......
i thought about this a while back when i looked at who we beat....
the thing he does'nt mention in our loses is how we shot ourselves in the foot again and again and again......
he also does'nt mention the cowboys winning in the last seconds and many things going their way to win others.......
but, a win is a win, right?
and, a loss is a loss, right?
as long as they are in perspective, i have no problem with em.
good luck, bad luck, the better team or the lucky team will win come sunday night..what a good time to be a saints fan..........i for one am ready for this game because i do feel the saints are the better team. and by the better team i mean the best team, because the better team always finds a way to win..........
cant' wait.......................smitty

LongTimeFan

I hear some ppl. say we didn't beat teams with winning records this season, it's just not true, when we beat Atlanta who at the time only had two loses and had the best running game in the NFL at the time, we beat them hands down.(twice in fact)
Next was the Eagles with McNabb coming to town, they also had two loses when they came play us in N.O and looked pretty good up to that game, but we took care of them also.
The 8-4 Saints have improved on defense and are the # 1 offense in the NFL, the Saints don't have to prove anything to anybody but themselves.
IMO we still won't get respect even if we beat Dallas 31-17 but that's ok with me because then the Saints would be 9-4 and on their way owning the #2 seed in the NFC

Rest In Peace JoeSam, thanks for everything my friend.

CHACHING

Amen LTF!
Just...
amen.

saintsrule

The Saints might be getting better.

SoulStar

Cowboys
Washington 4-8 *0-1* at the time of the win
Titians 5-7 *0-4* at the time of the win
Houston 4-8 *1-3* at time of win
Panthers 6-6 *4-3* at time of win
Cardnials 3-9 *1-7* at time of win
Colts 10-2 *9-0* at time of win
Tampa 3-9 *3-6* at time of win
Giants 6-6 *6-5* at time of win
41-55 24-29

Saints
Browns 4-9 *0-0* at time of win
Packers 4-8 *0-1* at time of win
Atlanta 6-6 *2-0* at time of win
Tampa 3-9 *0-3* at time of win
Philly 6-6 *4-2* at time of win
Tampa 3-9 *2-5* at time of win
Atlanta 6-6 *5-5* at time of win
49ers 5-7 *5-6* at time of win
28-45 18-22


Im not sure if I totaled the over all records right, the saints have beaten two divison rivials twices, where the cowboys have only beaten two of them once. Leaving the saints with a Division record of 4-1 and the cowboys with the record of 2-3.

Looks like a push to me, we have both beatean 3 teams with a .500 or better record, also that 10-2 from Indi really pads the cowboys numbers. But its pointless to let over how good a team is by the numbers. A win is a win, just as the folks in New England that question, or even the Cardnials in St. Louis.