Danno

Words Mean things Alert
I think there\'s a big difference in \"Horrid\" (your quote) and \"Weak-Link\" (my quote). On a unit thats pretty good to begin with a weak link may be far from horrid.

All ribbing aside, the TE position did improve over last years sub par performance. And the WR\'s did not improve. I believe they regressed. If our WR\'s had improved as much as our TE\'s did Brooks numbers would have been Marino-esgue off the charts.
Its debateable which was the weaker link between the O-line and the WR\'s. But if you notice I gave the WR\'s a C and the O-line a B-minus.
I don\'t see how anyone could argue that the WR\'s regressed. Especially looking at the constantly injured Stallworth and key drop after key drop.

BrooksMustGo

Ok, I\'m going to the numbers then (hehe, I can\'t believe I\'m posting a string of numbers)

By the way I\'m taking these numbers from NFL.com
http://www.nfl.com/teams/stats/NO
http://www.nfl.com/teams/stats/NO/2002/regular

Ok in 2002 Brooks threw for 3572 yards in 2003 he threw for 3546 yards

Horn 2002 caught 1312 yards and in 2003 he caught 973 yards, a big drop

Pathon 2002 caught 523 yards and in 2003 caught 578 yards, seems about the same rather than \"hardly nothing\" (an actual quote)

Stallworth 2002 caught 594 yards and in 2003 caught 485, a drop to be sure.

Reed 2002 caught 360 and wasn\'t really replaced for this season.

Deuce 2002 caught 352 and in 2003 caught 516, a significant increase

Lewis 2002 caught 200 and in 2003 caught 226, about the same

Sloan 2002 caught 127 and Conwell 2003 caught 290, a significant increase

Williams 2002 caught 143 and in 2003 caught 436.

In 2002 the RBs and TEs accounted for 690 yards. (I\'m adding Fenderson and Smith to this total, but they only had 68 between them)
In 2002 the WRs accounted for 2889 yards.

In 2003, the RBs and TEs accounted for 1286 receiving yards, about double the total from the previous years.
In 2003, the WRs accounted for 2346 yards receiving, about 500 fewer.

I would guess that not having a Jake Reed type player may have hurt, but it seems more likely that the OC had more confidence in the TEs than in years past. At any rate, the WR\'s basically did what they did last year with the exception of Horn. It looks like the OC wanted to spread the ball around more.

http://www.blackandgold.net/site/signature/buddysig.jpg

BlackandBlue

Why do you think this? Is it because of his age or the fact that he was selected as a pro bowl alternate and not a starter?

BillyC

Because I saw him getting pushed in the backfield too much for my liking.

BlackandBlue

There\'s nothing wrong with our offensive line, except for some young prospects that we need to groom for the future. As for our starters, they are fine. I\'m not going to get into a conversation about how well they execute, I\'ll leave that up for the coaches to decide. Lineman will get pushed around, unless your name is Ogden. He\'s the only one that I can think of that I\'ve never seen man-handled. Gandy has been put on his ass and he has put people on their ass. You can\'t win every battle in the trenches, you just can\'t.
And you can take Pathon off that list of WR\'s that didn\'t perform up to their caliber. He dropped a few passes, but no more than he has dropped in years past. His drops were accentuated by all the other drops that others were making. He had his best year as a Saint in 2003, despite starting one less game than he did the year before.

The waiting drove me mad....
I don't want to hear from those that know...
Everything has changed, absolutely nothing's changed

Eddie is a....draftnik?

BillyC

I can understand why some fans say the offensive line is fine. If you look at the numbers Deuce put up, that would certainly indicate we have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.

But, there\'s more to it than a back having great rushing stats that make a great offensive line. One thing I think makes a great offensive line is being able to rush the ball in the redzone and score TD\'s. When Emmit was in Dallas, the offensive line allowed Emmit Smith to become all time scoring leader for rushing TD\'s.

Our offensive line loses the battle up front and RARLY moves the line of scrimmage. Deuce makes most of his yards with very little help form the offensive line. We can never rush for those 3 or less yards needed on 3rd down. At least that\'s what I saw.

Furthermore, I think our pass protection was shabby a lot of the time.

[Edited on 27/1/2004 by BillyC]

JOESAM2002

I think if you go back and look at the number of different offensive line players we used you might think different.

[Edited on 27/1/2004 by ColdFusion]

Danno

Good point Joe. If this unit had stayed healthy (Bentley mostly) I think our rush and pass blocking would have been much much better.
KC used the exact same line-up on the O-line for all 16 games. If we had done that I think Deuce would have had a shot at 2000 yards...maybe.
If Holland progresses as expected and Bentley stays healthy this unit may move into the B-plus / A-minus category for 2004

BillyC

Our run blocking was better when Spencer Folau went down and was replace by Montre\' Holland. Overall the starting offesive linemen were inconsistant in run blocking an pass protection, IMO. Losing Le\' Charles to injury hurt.

I said all year that our offensive line got pushed around and I really concentrated on watching them play. Too many times I saw defensive linemen in our backfield and most of the time the pressure came right up the middle where Fotenot resides.

We need more power up front and less finesse.

FrenzyFan

We didn\'t execute very well, that is obvious. I don\'t know that I would rate our receviers as the weak link. I will say that they were inconsistent this year. Some games, Joe Horn just couldn\'t lose and he came up with so many third-and-longs that it became generally accepted that he would be the guy Brooks would go-to when he had to make a play. Stallworth-less (at least this year) was just as injury-plagued as ever despite yoga and all the other crap he supposedly did to work on that. Pathon was as he always is, dependable and making a few mistakes.

Our O-line was also inconsistent. Some games they opened holes and Deuce was able to exploit it. Other games, we had guys meeting Deuce coming out of the backfield. In my opinion, it was a game-by-game thing and we had a stretch of good ones there in the middle of the season. By the same token, I can remember AB having all day to throw in some games, and having guys hanging all over him right after the snap in others. Inconsistent.

However, I hesistate to call inconsistency as the reason for saying a particular unit is \"poor.\" That way lies every area of our team this year, and particularly AB.

\"The AB brand of TP will hurt your O-ring.\" - BlackandBlue

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