CTSwampDog

I've been a Saints fan since 1986...why? that's a long story and another post. Living in southern Connecticut and listening to all the Giants fans "chirping" all week as well as the local radio stations "talking up" the Giants this week made it a tough week to be a Saints fan here in "Giants land". Make no mistake this is "Giants land", sure you have your Patriot fans...Jets, Bills, Cowboys, Vikings, But the majority of fans here are Giants fans. To my knowledge there are only 3 Saints fans in CT (I'm sure there are more now and WILL be more as the season continues)... James - I simply knew him as "James", but each week (pre DTV NFL Sunday Ticket) I would meet him at a sports bar in New Haven (challenges) and huddle around a 13" tv to watch the Saints...the Saints were never on the "Bigscreen". Qbrees9(New Haven) - Don't know him...I have read his posts and maybe at some point we can hook-up for a Saints game...and me. On Sunday, I did something I usually would not do...I invited my friends who are Giants fans over to watch the game. Normally I would not want to jinx the Saints by watching the game with opposing fans or to be quite honest, usually I watch the games solo...I tend to get quite "animated & vocal" while watching the Saints and to make it worse, I hate the Giants...probably just years of "local Giants BS" being force fed. SAINTS WIN!!!!...So YES!!!, It's ALL GOOD IN "GIANTS LAND"...QBrees9, gotta ask, did you frequent challenges during the pre DTV days...If so, we may have already met.

Halo

Awesome man, I'm glad someone is fighting the good fight up there!

SaintPauly

I understand your pain friend. I live in the Bay area, Santa Rosa to be exact, and it's 49ers, and Raiders everywhere! I, and my friend Tony, are the only two saints fans in the area I think, and we are at the sports bar every sunday, louder than everyone in the place. It is a great time to be a saint, no matter where you live.

boonedocksaint

i understand where you guys are coming from. i've lived in orlando my whole life, when i was younger, i NEVER saw or knew any other saints fans, but, now i know at least 10 diehard fans that i can go watch the games w/ here in orlando. and it seems more and more when i go out wearing my saints stuff, someone will yell "who dat!?" when they see me, or say "geaux saints" or something.

i never minded being the black sheep, but, it is nice to be around fellow saints fans, and these days, they're more and more. as far as my non-saints friends, the've ALWAYS helped me cheer on my team. they've always pulled for the saints, unless of course they're playing their favorite team. i think this is because our franchise has been downtrodden for its entire existence, and everyone loves the underdog.

so, if there's people out there who dont have a nfl team to call there own, come on over to the saints bandwagon! i will welcome you w/ open arms, especially here in orlando! the only stipulation is, if you're jumping on, you're staying on! no jumping off when we're having a 3-13 season!

mikesaintfan

im in that giantland too..in fact i put up a thread about it the other day..all the giants fans are just suckling off those damn yankees now..
my wifes fammily is all G-men fans..as i said in the other thread..havent seen any g-men jerseys lately..haha

Rugby Saint II

Fortunately, I live South of I-10 and get the games locally unless I am up north visiting my girlfriend. We always go to a sports bar and always find someone who likes the Saints...they may not necessarily be fans, but it's good to hear strangers pull for the Saints.

B_Dub_Saint

So what kind of excuses are they making up there on why they lost. I would love to hear em

CTSwampDog

New Haven Register (New Haven,CT)
10/18/09 - Saints won't be a Brees

Drew Brees and Eli Manning have a lot in common lately.
Both went to the Pro Bowl last winter and now lead undefeated teams. Today they’ll meet in Big Easy, where Manning grew up and Brees now lives. Their teams will clash in the Louisiana Superdome, where Manning has seen countless games as a fan, and where the fans now pull for Brees.
For Manning, the experience will border on surreal. He used to be one of those screaming fans in the dome trying to make it tough on opposing quarterbacks. Now he’ll be one of those quarterbacks trying to overcome the crowd noise.
“I know how the fans think and they are going to be loud,” Manning said. “They will be rooting for the home team.”
Fortunately for Manning, nothing takes a hostile crowd out of the game like the type of punishing, productive running game the Giants have. Just turn, hand off, and move the team methodically down the field, limiting chances for sacks or interceptions, the types of big plays that get a stadium rocking.
In fact, for all the accolades heaped upon the star quarterbacks of the Giants (5-0) and Saints (4-0), this game could be decided more by defense and running.
By now, the Giants’ ability to lean on Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw is established. New York averages 160.4 yards on the ground, which ranks fourth in the NFL, with its mix of Jacobs’ power and Bradshaw’s speed and elusiveness.
“You’ve got to have your chin strap fastened, your new mouthpiece in, all your cheek pads ready to go. You better have your shoulder pads strapped down tight when you’re getting ready to play both of those guys,” Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams said. “They’re both tackle-breakers. They’re both very physical runners. They’re both good on yards after contact.”
A little more of a surprise this season has been the running game of the New Orleans Saints, which ranks second in the NFL, averaging 166.3 yards. This week, the Saints will have a tandem of their own in Mike Bell and Pierre Thomas, one they haven’t had together all season.
Bell rushed for 229 yards in the Saints’ first two games, but sprained his right knee late in New Orleans’ victory at Philadelphia. Thomas, who did not have carry the first two games while he was coming back from a preseason right knee sprain of his own, took center stage in Week 3 at Buffalo and has rushed for 212 yards and three TDs since.
“It’s going to be electrifying because we’re going to keep pounding and pounding and pounding,” Thomas said. “We’ve also got Reggie (Bush), who can do just about anything out there on the field, so it’s going to be crazy.”
The Saints’ running game is the reason they’ve been able to remain unbeaten while Brees’ production has fallen sharply in the past two games. In Buffalo, Brees’ streak of 22 games with 200 or more yards passing was snapped in Buffalo, and Brees passed for under 200 yards again two weeks ago against the New York Jets.
Brees said defenses aren’t shutting him down so much as the Saints have exploited their newfound ability to control games by keeping the ball on the ground and using up clock.
“We went in wanting to take care of the football and run the ball efficiently, which is always what we want to do, but maybe more so against those teams,” Brees said. “We just knew that maybe managing the game was maybe more important than trying to be super aggressive. ... We’re running the ball well, using up clock, so I think when you look at it, maybe the output wasn’t what it was in the past, but the fact that you win by 20 points and 14 points, who cares?”
This could be another one of those weeks for the Saints. The Giants’ defense, allowing the fewest yards in the NFL, also has been the league’s best against the pass, but 15th against the run. Then again, the Giants haven’t played many offensive juggernauts in recent wins over Oakland, Kansas City and Tampa Bay. New York hasn’t had to deal with receivers like Marques Colston or former Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey.
“It’s not our fault how bad the offenses were that we played,” Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce said. “Obviously ... it is one of our biggest challenges all year because the Saints have a great quarterback. They have a lot of speed at running back, obviously Shockey at tight end, the receivers. They are loaded, we know that.”
New Orleans also is much improved on defense. The unit still gives up yards, but also leads the league in takeaways with 13, thanks in large part to 33-year-old safety Darren Sharper’s five interceptions, two of which he has returned for scores.
Incidentally, Sharper has intercepted Manning four times, returning two for touchdowns.
“Yeah, I am keeping him in the Pro Bowl every year it seems like,” Manning said. “When the ball is thrown to him, he makes the catches and makes good plays. You have to know where he is on the field.”
This game, it seems, has it all: unbeaten teams, each with star quarterbacks, good running games and good defenses. There are the added subplots of Manning playing in his hometown and Shockey playing for the first time against the team that drafted him in 2002.
Saints head coach Sean Payton called the Giants the best team, with the best quarterback, that New Orleans has faced all season. The Giants have made similar comments about the Saints.
“These are the games that are fun to play,” Manning said

New Haven Register (New Haven,CT)
10/19/09 - Brees & Co. slam Giants

Who dat knew them Saints were this good?
Drew Brees torched the Giants’ league-leading defense, swarming Saints defenders ruined Eli Manning’s homecoming and undefeated New Orleans matched its best start since 1993 with a 48-27 throttling of previously unbeaten New York on Sunday.
“We wanted to really dictate the tempo of the game the whole way through,” Brees said. “Seven different guys scored touchdowns. That’s big. That’s the type of rhythm that, when you get in, you feel like you can call anything and it’s going to work.”
Brees ended his two-game streak without a touchdown throw by completing 23 of 30 passes for 369 yards and four scores, giving him 101 TD passes since the Saints signed him as a free agent in 2006.
The Giants (5-1) came into the game giving up averages of 210.6 yards and 14.2 points. The Saints (5-0) had 34 points and 315 yards by halftime.
The Saints have beaten all comers by 14 points or more and have yet to trail this season, looking more and more like the team to beat in the NFC.
Yet the architect of this juggernaut, coach Sean Payton, bristled at the notion that New Orleans’ latest convincing victory over an undefeated team from New York — they beat the Jets 24-10 in Week 4 — meant that the Saints had established themselves as clear Super Bowl favorites.
“I don’t think you can talk about big pictures after (Game) 5,” Payton said.
Manning looked like his father Archie sometimes did when he played for woeful Saints teams of old, fumbling on a sack by Roman Harper to set up a Saints score and throwing an interception under pressure that stalled a promising drive.
It was Manning’s first game in the Superdome, but not a memorable one for him — or for fellow Louisiana natives Brandon Jacobs and Corey Webster. Manning was 14 of 31 for 178 yards. He lost his cool at least once, yelling at Ahmad Bradshaw and slapping his shoulder pad after the running back’s lapse in protection precipitated a rushed throw that Jabari Greer intercepted early in the third quarter.
“It’s not the way I imagined it during the week, but you’re going to encounter all sorts of games and all sorts of situations,” Manning said before walking across the Superdome field to the team bus, his mother on one side, his father on the other. “I look at it as a loss. We need to go back to work this week, fix some things and try to improve.”
Manning connected with Mario Manningham for a 15-yard score in the second quarter, but also overthrew an open Steve Smith on a deep pass that could have resulted in a touchdown in the first half. He was replaced by David Carr late in the fourth quarter.
By contrast, Brees connected on 15 straight throws at one point, two short of the franchise record he already owns. That stretch included his first three touchdown passes: 1 yard to former Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey, 36 yards to Robert Meachem and 12 yards to Lance Moore.
Saints players and coaches praised the offensive line, which routinely gave Brees time and did not allow him to be sacked.
“I don’t know that we ever hit him,” Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said of Brees, exaggerating only slightly. “At this level, if you’re going to stop the pass, you’ve got to get pressure. You’ve got to force the quarterback not to throw it on his tempo.”
Former Hofstra standout Marques Colston put on a show for his fans watching back in the New York area, often victimizing Webster as he caught eight passes for 166 yards and a 12-yard touchdown. He twisted gracefully in the air to snag passes thrown high and behind him, held the ball while absorbing hard hits and broke tackles while struggling for extra yards.
New Orleans gained more than 500 total yards before a sack of backup Mark Brunell made it 493. Moore caught six passes for 78 yards and Meachem had two catches for 70. New Orleans had 133 yards on the ground, led by Pierre Thomas’ 72. Mike Bell, Reggie Bush and fullback Heath Evans all scored on runs.
The Giants were held to a season-low 84 yards rushing.
By the end, jubilant fans rained down chants of “Who dat say they gonna’ beat them Saints. Who dat! Who dat!”
Colston said he was confident he and his teammates would not let their explosive start go to their heads, though — not after missing the playoffs the past two seasons.
“This group has been together long enough to see some of the great times (the NFC championship game in 2006) and the last two years have been pretty difficult for us, so staying grounded is definitely not an issue in this locker room,” Colston said. “We’ve got some great veteran leadership.”

New Haven Register (New Haven,CT)
10/20/09 - Secondary a primary concern

Watching film of their dreadful performance against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints wasn’t much of an eye opener for suddenly suspect New York Giants secondary.
The mistakes they made in the 48-27 debacle were obvious. Saints receivers caught four touchdowns and helped Brees run up 369 yards through the air because the secondary didn’t do the little things — and didn’t look ready for the Saints’ explosive attack.
While it all falls under the category of blown coverages, the errors ranged from simply failing to make a play on a ball when in position to the more subtle problems of being out of position in zone coverages or shading the receiver to the wrong side — effectively taking away any help a player is supposed to have.
What the tape didn’t show is what the secondary really lacked — not enough respect for the Saints (5-0).
“I think this was something that showed up this game,” said safety C.C. Brown, who was exposed time after time as the Giants (5-1) fell from the unbeaten ranks. “We pretty much got up on our high horses. We thought it would be another brush-through game. It was an eye opener for us.”
The surprise was how easy Brees made everything look against a pass defense that was ranked No. 1 in the league. At one point during the first half, the quarterback hit 15 straight passes in helping New Orleans score touchdowns on its first four possessions.
“We just made some mistakes that we can’t make, especially when you’re playing a team of that caliber,” cornerback Corey Webster said. “So we take the film, we take the whipping that they issued out, and we go back and start working hard and compete.”
Webster might have made the biggest mistake. On the opening drive, he was in perfect position to intercept a third-down pass to Lance Moore and the ball went through his hands to Moore for a first down.
Instead of being off the field, New York fell behind 7-0, then 14-0, and never recovered.
“You can’t just roll the helmets to win the game, you have to do everything right,” Webster said.
It wasn’t just the secondary that played poorly. The vaunted defensive line barely touched Brees and the linebackers were no match in coverage against tight end Jeremy Shockey and running backs going out for passes.
“It’s a wakeup call,” said linebacker Danny Clark, who was beaten by Shockey on the Saints’ second score. “It’s like pressing the refresh button on the Internet. It’s not a good one, it’s definitely a shot over the chin, but we understand that we have to get better. If this happens, I would rather lose now than later in the year when it’s even more important. Guys are humbled, we understand where we went wrong.”
That was the attitude of the defensive backs, who now have to get ready to face an Arizona Cardinals air show led by Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald.
“We were definitely playing the defense that was called, but it was just things like if you were outside, the receiver was inside,” cornerback Terrell Thomas said. “It’s little fine errors like that. Even when we were in position to make plays, they came up with the ball. It’s one week.
“They are good and they came off a bye and they knew our weaknesses,” Thomas said. “When you play a good team like that you have to be on point with everything, and we weren’t, and it showed.”

New Haven Register (New Haven,CT)
10/23/09 - Giants plan to use blitz more this week

After watching videotapes of the game against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, Giants defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan kicked himself a little.
The defense played poorly as a whole and vaunted line led by Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora barely touched Brees in the 48-27 loss. They didn’t sack him and they hit him only three times. Brees could have taken publicity shots after the game, his uniform was so immaculate.
“In hindsight, if I have to do it all over again, we’d pressure much more, more frequently, send more guys than they could block,” Sheridan said Thursday after New York (5-1) practiced for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals (3-2). “That was their plan to max (protect) it up and throw the ball.”
The Saints (5-1) did it to perfection and the Giants never adjusted.
The Saints went back to pass 33 times in the game — 30 throws, one scramble and two penalties — and the Giants countered with only 11 blitzes.
Sheridan credited the Saints with having a great game plan. They moved the pocket, used an extra offensive tackle at times and ran passing plays out the formations that they had previously used for the run.
Sheridan expects more of the same from the Cardinals and Kurt Warner on Sunday, even though Arizona uses more four-receiver formations than the Saints.
The one thing that will change is the Giants will come with the blitz, Sheridan said.
“We want to get (Warner) as uncomfortable as possible,” linebacker Danny Clark said. “So we needed to practice with faster tempo. That started today.”
Expect the Giants to also play Tuck, Umenyiora and fellow defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka together more. The Giants have rotated the trio on most series to keep everyone fresh.
This week, don’t be surprised to see Tuck and Kiwanuka playing at the tackle every now and then.
“We consider ourselves a world-class organization and we are going to get the problems corrected,” Kiwanuka said. “Did they expose some things? Yeah. Were there problems out there? Absolutely. But it’s our job to get them corrected, and we’re positive we’re going to get those corrections made. We will get it done.”
Sheridan said his unit has been upbeat this week after giving up nearly 500 yards in total offense.
“You just got you (butt) whupped,” Tuck said. “You definitely want to come out and do something about it. I would worry if we came out like it was another day. This locker room is filled with winners and when we don’t win, we try to figure out why we didn’t and do something about it.”

Sorry...soooo long...But you asked

rich006

Giants will be tougher when they come back to NOLA for the NFC championship game.