Saints relearn importance of offensive balance
 

NEW ORLEANS—For the Saints, balance is better.

The Saints know what Drew Brees can do, and they know he has plenty of weapons. But after starting the game a little pass-happy in their 14-9 victory over the Vikings, the Saints found their running game in the second half and it paid off.

Running back Pierre Thomas had 70 of his 71 rushing yards in the second half, including scoring the game's go-ahead touchdown and helping the Saints control the ball for more than 21 minutes after halftime.

"We didn't run the ball a lot in the first half," Thomas said. "We needed to be a little more balanced. We started pounding in the second half more."

The aerial attack led by Brees is the backbone of the Saints' offense. But they won a championship by making opposing teams respect their running game as well, which opened up more opportunities for Brees with play-action passes.

Brees does not want to get away from that this season. So on a night when the offense only produced 14 points, Brees (27-for-36, 237 yards, one touchdown) left the Superdome happy, despite not lighting up the scoreboard.

"We feel like we're a very balanced offense," Brees said. "I felt like we really established (the run) in the third quarter, and obviously we were able to finish the game with that."

Spectacular it was not. Satisfying it was.

A good solid win is still a win.

I don't care how we win. I would like to see a few more points scored so it is not so close in the 4th

BUT its a "W"

They did what they wanted to do. It was obvious Brees and Coach P wanted to get in a aerial assault mode. Looked pretty damn good to me.

Then, once ahead they wanted to start running it more. I just wish Ivory would've been able to play, but look what they did without him.

Reggie looked good. Shockey looked good. Colston, etc... the defense... phhht. How may points were scored on Who Dat?

Yea, Two Dat. Whoot.

DEFENSE... DEFENSE... DEFENSE... What a novel idea.

what we did on D should set the tone for 2010. we should be better in G.Ws second year. it don't matter if we caught a rusty farve or not, A.P was contained and we have to be very pleased.

The offense was a little sluggish after the first drive of each half. It's like they used up everything they had in each of those drives. We may just need to get in game shape.

For sure we do better with a balanced attack, and when the receivers hold on to the ball like they normally do too.