Such a key point. Honouring the run game can be as important as being marginally effective in it. I do keep checking the amount of times we run versus pass attempts. Today was a good example of that being a positive. Definitely think we need more balance in conditions like that today but you are 100% right. As long as we honour it, we're good.

I would agree the running game still doesn't look good, but I was more pleased with the pass protection, so maybe the O line is (pardon the overused expression) starting to gel.

Drew did not seem to be in "run for your life" mode nearly as often this week.

okay, Atl & TB are better than their records
Ariz has rebounded to win 2 in a row
Mia & Chi were both unbeaten when we played them

my cleverly-disguised point is this:
without a strong 'traditional' running game, we have already beaten some good teams

Yes, that's exactly what I was saying. You did well to read between the lines there ... ummmm ... no. I wasn't questioning Pierre Thomas, which I had hoped was indicated by the rest of the context around it. I was saying that based on the logic we have crucified Mark Ingram on, we should also hold up Pierre Thomas. And because I don't think Pierre is to blame, I was using that to demonstrate the real problem definitely lies with the O-line. Having said that, the stats do not lie, on the ground we are very poor indeed.

Look at those down-and-1 conversions. They were worrying. You should be able to plough through them and carry on but we were at 4th down far too many times.

We are definitely managing the clock very well but let's understand why we are doing that. That's largely because we are getting the opposition offence off the field so damn quickly. That is our defence doing that great work. And yes Brees throwing the ball about with so much accuracy obviously helps a great deal but I would rather see a balanced game and an improved running game.

Cant we argue about this when it causes us to lose a game.