Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

When the Dallas Cowboys kicked off to New Orleans on Nov. 10, the Saints had done a poor job of protecting Drew Brees from sacks, complementing him with a reliable running game and avoiding penalties on the offensive line.

Opponents in the first half of the season were sacking Brees 2.5 times a game on average, when typically he’d be brought down behind the line of scrimmage 1.3 times an outing.

The Saints had gained just 638 yards on 191 carries — a paltry 3.3 yards an attempt.

The regular starters on the offensive line had been whistled for four false starts and a deplorable 12 accepted holding calls, often setting up obvious passing situations that exposed Brees to sacks.
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Then, between kickoff of the Cowboys game and the end of the night Thursday, the Saints rushed the ball 86 times in three games for 437 yards, a superb 5.1 yards per attempt.

The starting offensive linemen eliminated false starts. They were called for holding just twice. Opponents sacked Brees only once each game.

The crucial result: The Saints (9-2) reaped three victories during a brutal 11-day stretch preceding a Dec. 2 visit to the Seattle Seahawks (10-1), the NFC’s front-runner, and a clash at home Dec. 8 against the Carolina Panthers (8-3), who sit right behind New Orleans in the NFC South.

“We seem like we are in a great spot right now,” said Saints running back Pierre Thomas, who averaged 5.5 yards on 38 carries in the three wins and made a touchdown catch and a touchdown run against the Cowboys. “Our offense can really do it all: Go out there, run the ball, execute, pick up first downs on the ground and also in the air.

“We just feel like we’re in a great position now and just need to stay focused.”

Achieving that won’t be an issue if an offensive line that had drawn a hefty share of criticism at the year’s halfway mark maintains the level it displayed in New Orleans’ recent wins of 49-17, 23-20 and 17-13 over Dallas (6-5), San Francisco (6-4 going into Monday nights’ game) and Atlanta (2-9).

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Re: Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

sorry i can nit get on this band wagon just yet. they are getting better but there is a lot of room for improvement. drew is still getting hit to much

Re: Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

Agreed, because when they are off, it is ugly.

Re: Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

Agree with both, I have seen the O-line get handled more than once, they have to keep up.

Re: Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

Thay may be the worst title I have ever seen for a sports article.

Re: Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

I thought it was pretty clever, made me chuckle.

Re: Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

I smell a troll, you can root for us secretly Caddyman.

Re: Saints offensive line begins holding together
 

Lelito was in the game last week and played OK but we have a long way to go. dlp needs to stop getting shoved in the back field. Oh yeah, we have a long way to go.