Handwerger: Saints still hard to figure out at bye week
 

Most in-season reviews happen after an NFL team’s eighth game. The midpoint, you know.

But we at WWLTV.com – and by we, I mean myself – roll with a different calendar.

So today, the Monday of the Saints bye, we’re putting out our off week review.

New Orleans is 7-3 and leads the NFC South by 1½ games.

This hasn’t been a perfect Saints season. They’ve escaped some games with wins and stoned teams big for others.

But there are two losses on the schedule that are painful and, when Week 17 is finished, could come back to haunt New Orleans.

It’s not necessarily that the Saints lost at Tampa Bay that will chap folks at the end of the year. It’s how they lost – lack of effort and an interception in the end zone on a play that would have given New Orleans the lead.

And with St. Louis, well, yeah. It’s that the Saints lost to the formerly winless Rams.

It’s hard to get a handle on this Saints team. Just when you think you have them pegged, say, like after the Indianapolis game. And then throw a stinker out there like against St. Louis.

His grades and the rest of the article below.
Handwerger: Saints still hard to figure out at bye week | wwltv.com New Orleans

"New Orleans is 7-3 and leads the NFC South by 1½ games"

It's not hard at all.

Saints Grades At the Bye
 

He gives the "D" a C+. What do YOU think?

Handwerger: Saints still hard to figure out at bye week | wwltv.com New Orleans

"Prior to Monday night’s game, they rank 19th overall. They’re last in the NFL in rushing yards per attempt. They’re 29th in the league in interception percentage per pass attempt."

If they actually caught the ones that bounced off the palms of their hands this season, that 29th place would probably look more like an 8th place.

I think he reads this website too much. Look in my 30 something plus plus years as a Saints fan, I've never heard so much criticism of a Saints team that is 7 and 3 in my entire time rooting for the Saints.

7 and 3... division lead... 7 and 3 (seven and three).

Yep SEVEN AND THREE AND LEADING THE DIVISION.

That's an overall A+. We can add another "+" when we clinch the division. Anything beyond that is a crap shoot anyway (more or less).

I give the O a B and the D a C.

The O-line can't run block and can't deal with athletic DE's. The Offensive Coordinator has no clue what a real run play is supposed to look like.

The Defense has inexplicable lapses of cohesion, are oblivious to the cutback, and can't tackle bait. What's with the DB's playing 10 yards off a receiver??

If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was one of our regular sky is falling posters.

Offense - B
Defense - C
Special teams - B+/A-

I give our record, 7-3 leading the Division, an "A"

Offense - B+ (A if we could run the ball)
Defense - C/C- for obvious reasons
Special Teams - A (except for that one runback by the Packers for a TD)
Coaching - B+ (Gregg Williams brought the average down)