Puddinhead

Simple keys to the game for the Saints:

Avoid falling behind by two or more scores early. Sounds like \"Football For Dummies\", I know, but we absolutely could not manage to do it for the bulk of the season. This team (heck, MOST teams) quickly become one-dimensional if they find themselves trailing by two touchdowns or more. The problem for the Saints is that their most valuable offensive asset is probably McAllister, and his value is as a \"grind-it-out\" back who\'s most productive the more he carries the ball. Yeah, I know Saints fans hate all of those runs right up the gut early in the game that go for one or two yards; \"Predictable! Conservative!\" Well, guess who else hates it when the Saints keep pounding McAllister inside like that? The safeties and linebackers of the opposition. He starts getting up to 20-25 carries late in the game, and some of those guys start losing their enthusiam for another collision with a 230 lb guy who runs as hard as he does. My guess would be that McAllister\'s yards per carry is a lot higher on runs 20-30 than it is on runs 1-10 mainly because of this. Remember, the Panthers have allowed 150+ yards rushing six times this season; three times they\'ve allowed over 200 yards rushing. The other thing this does, obviously, is allow the Saints to effectively use their play-action passing game, which, say what you want, can be pretty darned good when the defense has to respect the run. Our offensive line looks like a whole different unit when the defense can\'t just tee off and pass rush because they know we\'re far enough behind that we have to pass every down. And Brooks can look pretty stellar (I know there are those here who disagree, but I feel an unbiased observer would agree with me) when he doesn\'t have a lineman in his face before he can even set up, and can set himself squarely and then step into his throw.

Another key, obviously, is to stifle the Panthers running game at least to the extent that they\'ve been able to manage against the Cowboys, Bucs, and Falcons. Nick Goings has done a fine job filling in this season, but he has still only averaged 3.8 yards per carry. Do a good enough job defending against the run (as they\'ve been doing lately) to keep Goings under that 3.8 ypc average rather than over it, and you go some of the way toward making Carolina one-dimensional...and in a dimension in which they don\'t want to be hanging out. Load up on the run early, and make Delhomme throw the ball to win. Carolina\'s passing game is even more predicated on the play action than is the Saints. The Panthers need the linebackers and safety to freeze respecting the play fake in order to create the little medium-range \"dead zones\" for their receivers to settle into so Delhomme can get them the ball. Even the beat writers covering the Panthers talk about how they get very little run after the catch, and it\'s mainly because the throws Delhomme can make best are the ones on the short to middle \"stop\" routes behind linebackers who\'ve only gotten a shallow drop because they have to play the run game. Limit the running game, and make Delhomme throw often out of a straight drop with something of a pass rush coming at him. Much has been made of Brooks making poor decisions with the ball this season, but Brooks and Delhomme have identical 3.1% interception percentages this year. (By comparison, Tom Brady\'s 2004 percentage is 2.9%) Over his two years as a starter, Delhomme throws interceptions on 3.3% of his passes, compared to 2.3% over that period for Brooks and 2.6% for Brady. Meaning...what? Meaning if you can limit their running game, the Panthers just might be prone to turning the ball over to you a couple of times.

The third key...win the special teams contest. No, I don\'t mean you have to get another return for touchdown in order to win. But you do have to win the battle of field position. The Saints need to do a better job getting field position off of the Panthers\' punts than the Panthers do off of Mitch Berger\'s offerings. Don\'t surrender a big play in the kicking game.

When you sum it all up, it really does sound like Football 101 as taught by Professor Vince Lombardi--establish your running game, force the opponent to rely on his passing game, and win the kicking game. That\'s been the time-honored formula for winning football for a lot of years, and for good reason. And the thing is, there are at least some indicators that point toward just this scenario being a real possibility for the Saints this weekend.