Rating: (1 votes - 4.00 average)

Impossible to stop offense, opportunistic defense power Saints past Lions

Three observations from watching the New Orleans Saints defeat the Detroit Lions 45-28 in front of a raucous home crowd to advance to the divisional playoff round on the road in San Francisco next week:
The only thing stopping the Saints’ offense at the moment is the Saints’ offense

New Orleans didn’t need to punt once on Saturday night, and the two times it booted the ball away via fumbles, Detroit couldn’t capitalize with much-needed first-half points on either rare occasion.

The Saints, with Sean Payton and Drew Brees, have all three levels of their offense working.

When the Lions played the deep ball well, the Saints simply had their backs hew up yards in the wide open spaces underneath. When the Lions were lulled into closing in on the rushing damage of Pierre Thomas, Darren Sproles and Chris Ivory, Brees’ eyes lit up in seeing easy downfield opportunities to speedsters Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem.

As usual, a big factor in opening up both the short and long was uncoverable tight end Jimmy Graham occupying the attention of linebackers and safeties in the middle of the field. The Lions played “pick your poison,” but somehow swallowed every pill as the Saints posted a playoff record 626 yards of total offense. In the modern pass-happy era, because New Orleans also excels at rushing the ball, we’ve never seen an NFL team move the ball quite like this.

We’re also seeing a glimmer of a much-needed Saints’ opportunistic defense.

The Lions were a big comeback team all season, and were hoping to have one more in them after seeing their 14-10 halftime lead quickly evaporate in the third quarter. The Saints, however, who had only nine interceptions in the regular season, came up with two against Matt Stafford to make sure the game was out of reach.

They were picked apart all game by Stafford, but managed to make the plays when they counted. Going forward against the 49ers and Packers, who rarely give the ball up in addition to taking it away at a high rate, it’s vital for the Saints to be on the winning side of the turnover battle after they broke even vs. the Lions.

Read more: Impossible to stop offense, opportunistic defense power Saints past Lions - NFL - Sporting News

halloween 65

I worried about the turnovers in the first half, when we scored on the 1st pos. at the start of the 3rd my nerves settled down. If not for our 2 turnover it would not have been close, as it ended up it wasn't.

WhoDat!656

Saints were fortunate that the Lions didn't score any points off turnovers

SmashMouth

Yeah...yeah.. This is breaking news.... Lol.. Great win by Saints!

Srgt. Hulka

Holy Crapoly, that was a hell of a game!

mike27

Yea I was sweating it going into half-time, but they have tended to get better as the game goes on lately. And is 45 their magic number or what. I think we all know it could have been 52, but it was mighty nice of them to not do so and probably best for keeping everyone safe and healthy.

Colston both sucked, and did well tonight. He seemed to make up for his drops, though being whacked in the head can I'm sure make you lose concentration on the ball for a bit, as to his almost touchdown.

I thought Meachem was the receiver of the night, perhaps partly by luck. And the running crew was awesome, as usual. Thomas is the most amazing runner, you just know he's going down, but somehow he manages to plod ahead, take the hit and move on.

saintfan

Hope you enjoyed it man!

OldMaid

Agreed. Worried the first half.
I really thought, had hoped the Saints would pull a win, but at that time, it seemed just back and forth without a big point spread. I thought the game was going to be tight and whoever won, won.
So glad the Saints won. Won for the hometown there. Great season. Topping off a great season no matter what happens, happens now.
I am just happy that the Saints won and then how they won in that ole 3rd and 4th qrtr.

SaintsRule11

Btw, my prediction was almost exactly correct. I predicted 41-27 and the final was 45-28. I rule! Lol just kidding.

dizzle88

PT for MVP

The game would have been different of PT didn't convert all those 3rd and longs, every single run and pass he had he fought off every tackler until he had a first down, game ball to PT, he was a man on a mission