Coach Payton
 

How about we talk about Coach Payton's growth as a play caller? I know its been touched on here and there since the season began, but it was never more evident than it was yesterday against the dolphins. Brees was under pressure the entire first half and in the beginning of the 2nd half, but it seems as if the moment Mike Bell entered the game the tide began to turn.

Brees had just fumbled, Miami went up two scores in the 3 rd quarter and everyone here who has watched the Saints in years past knows that the old Saints would have come out throwing it all over the place on the next drive and Brees would have been under constant pressure, much like he had been the entire game...but Mike Bell gets 12 carries in a quarter and a half, Henderson gets a reverse, Reggie gets one as well, Brees scores on a sneak, and Drew really wasnt even hurried after that, and all of that leads up to the Saints outscoring Miami 22-0 in the 4th quarter.

That is the new, more mature play caller Sean Payton has become and i hope that it doesnt go unnoticed.

Re: Coach Payton
 

In the first half I thought we had "Old Sean" who abandoned the run game at the first sign of a deficit, but when came out in the second half and started calling the game with balance, it made the difference.

We still had a 2x reverse, so Old Sean is still there somewhere. But he's growing and maturing as a coach before our very eyes.

And not that he's short on Kudos or anything, but Gregg Williams pulled some magic out of his butt. Another 0 points scored on us in the 4th. MIA was running all over us in the first half and he and the players pulled it together. Just perfect halftime adjustments on both sides of the ball.

Re: Coach Payton
 

I felt the same way. Early on, I was yelling "RUN THE BALL!" at the TV.

Luckily, Payton came to his senses and started running it. We actually beat the Dolphins at running the ball, and hardly tried in the first half.

Re: Coach Payton
 

I agree it was a well played and well coached game by both teams

Re: Coach Payton
 

I agree he is recognizing and making adjustments quicker. I honestly believe Brees has a lot of input in the offensive scheme. On the lighter side I don't see that crazy look in the Coach's eyes like in earlier times.

Re: Coach Payton
 

Payton is becming more intuitive in his play calling as well. It is obvious that he has more confidence in our run game. He game planned to make the safeties play against our passing game in the first half and then made excellent half time adjustmnets in getting the running game going.

Re: Coach Payton
 

I like, especially this year, how we are doing the basic things very well. We don't need to mess with the Wildcat because it's more effective for us to run the ball and set up the play action fake and hit Colston on the slant :-).

I see the Saints running the basic pass patterns well and executing straight-forward plays pretty well, like the QB sneak this week. Again, not doing anything real exotic most plays, just running plays that Brees and the offense can execute well. So I'll tolerate the occasional triple-reverse LOL.