Defense, Defense
 

Anyone notice that once we scored 35 points the defensive secondary was mostly second string players? I thought Lewis may have been injured because Corey White was playing his spot and Lewis was on the sideline without a helmet. :eek:

And Carr played a lot I think for most of the 4th Quarter.

Makes me wonder if this was "get the backups some playing time", "don't embarrass the Dolphins", "don't get our first string hurt" or "we are going to rotate moving forward" decisions.

Re: Defense, Defense
 

Yes, I saw a lot of Quddus and Carr. Also played Herring and Humber quite a bit. Taking the foot off the gas a little bit and the second string still came up with two turnovers.

Also, he wasn't really "second string" last night but Rafael Bush is a pretty good player. We have five safeties on the roster and every single one of them can play.

Re: Defense, Defense
 

Lewis was injured at one point... Gruden said a sprain of some sort, but he did come back in after a drive or two.

Didn't play much after that though, everyone was pulled by that point.

Re: Defense, Defense
 

There were also a couple of interesting plays on offense that changed after we got to 35 -- Sproles ran a kickoff out to the 20 and then plopped down to the turf, with no one anywhere near him, before he got plowed into, and Colston slid like a QB after making one catch late in the game. Smart play by the coaches -- spare them the hits and the "remember me" shots and the angry retribution from Dolphin players, once the game is sewn up. You may not be able to pull all the starters, but there's no point in them getting needlessly injured in a game that's already won.

Re: Defense, Defense
 

I guess I don't really consider Carr a second stringer although technically he is. Rafael Bush had an awesome game!

Re: Defense, Defense
 

Yeah, we really do not have the typical 2nd/3rd stringers. It seems like everyone sees the field with all the different personnel packages we have...

Re: Defense, Defense
 

There was several calls to pull the starters in the live chat last night.

Re: Defense, Defense
 

gotta play all the players you can when attacking on defense. gotta have fresh legs in there. plus it helps the ENTIRE unit gel. I know Williams wishes he had the youth the saints have now when he was coaching

Re: Defense, Defense
 

Sproles plopped down because of a lack of blockers... The Hands team was out there in case there was a squib.

Re: Defense, Defense
 

in my honest opinion, I think the Saints on both offense and defense just toyed around with the Fins in the 4th quarter, not being too serious.