Zulu--King

I certainly don\'t absolve AB of anything. People just make it easy to defend him, because AB takes ALL the blame. I\'ve been here a month and I\'ve seen the LBs blasted once or twice. The O line, not until the draft. The WR drops, not until an AB supporter bring them up. Ab\'s name comes up in every thread

yasoon

Bingo, Whodat. :thumbup:

lsuforever

We hear AB to pro bowl every year lets all remember we drafted brown but doesn\'t mean he is NFL ready.
Everybody bashes brooks, haslett, and venturi every year but once off-season starts everybody starts the Pro Bowl talk about AB and especially last year thr Boo pro bowler. This team still has a lot of question marks and lets all hope Donte\' doesn\'t get hurt because we have no true 3 or even 4 reciever talman and devery are hype but nothing special.

GumboBC

Clearly I see things much different than most.

And clearly I place much more importance on the offensive line than most.

Blaming the offensive line for many of Brooks\' problems isn\'t deflecting blame away from Brooks.

It\'s stating the obvious. And the obvious is that a bad offensive line causes good QB\'s to struggle.

Anyone think our offensive line hasn\'t been terrible?

If you don\'t think it has been bad, then my conversation ends with that person as we\'ll just have to agree to disagree.

But if you think our offensive line has been bad, they surly you\'ll agree that it\'s affected the play of our QB. Why do you think offensive linemen are drafted so high? To protect the QB?

If a team can\'t run the ball, it\'s usually the offensive line. Not the RB.

If a QB is struggling, many many times it\'s because of the offensive line.

In Brooks\' case, there is NO question in my mind that our offensive line has caused many many problems.

If our offensive line gives Brooks time to throw the ball and he still struggles, then I\'ll vote for Brooks to be traded.

Like I said, I feel very confident. I\'ve seen Brooks play and I have a lot to go on. Why? Because I\'ve also seen our offensive line play.

TheDeuce

Gumbo I totally agree with you on this one. Take a look back to the 2000 and 2001 seasons and notice how solid our offensive line was. Those guys were nasty. As a result, Brooks had extra time to make better reads and throw better passes. Watching the Saints ever since then, the O line has slowly been declining in talent and performance. This past season, it reached a new low. Anybody remember the Tampa game at the end of the year? Our season was depending on this game at the time. We had to win if we wanted any chance of getting to the playoffs. Now some of you might remember that AB had a pretty poor game. You know what I remember about that game? Spencer Folau. He was lined up opposite of Simeon Rice. Boy howdy, that was entertaining. It was like watching a Grizzly bear play with a three-year old. If you don\'t remember Folau\'s performance, let\'s just say he\'s a little looser now. In fact, Spence gave up 3.5 sacks in that one game, and the entire o-line surrendered 7 sacks. 7!!!!! That\'s ridiculous. I remember the ball being snapped, and then AB immediately being met by some Tampa defender. And it wasn\'t just the Tampa game where AB was getting hammered and constantly had pressure in his face, Carolina had about 4 each game we played them.

So basically what I am saying is that I really believe the reason why AB has \"regressed\" is because the offensive line has regressed. Give the guy some time to make decisions, and he\'ll come through, just like he did the first few years he was with the Saints (when they had a good line).

Anyways, I would love to see AB have a great season, and he should be helped even more when our running game gets back on track.

WhoDat

Billy - your argument isn\'t the problem. It\'s the way you apply it. Two years ago when the offensive line managed to help Deuce become the NFC\'s leading rusher pretty much all season and earned Deuce a trip to the Pro Bowl, you know what I heard?

Well they were good in run blocking but they weren\'t good in pass blocking... and Deuce did most of that himself anyway - he\'s a top talent. A year later Deuce is out of shape and injury prone and RBs are a dime a dozen, and the line has sucked forever. What about the year before that? And the year before that?

Bottom line is that our o-line wasn\'t bad until last season (maybe at the end of 2003 it struggled in pass protection, I\'ll give you that). But what about before? Oh Brooks was young.

Like I said - there\'s always an excuse.

\"Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s all anyone ever makes for the New Orleans Saints’ organization.\" - Eric Narcisse


\"Being a Saints fan is almost like being addicted to crack,\" he said.[i]\"You know you should stop, but you just can\'t.\"

GumboBC

WhoDat --

In my mind ... I\'ve NEVER made excuses for Brooks.

In your mind ... I\'ve ALWAYS made excuses for Brooks.

I\'ve always blamed (since I\'ve been a member of B&G) the offensive line for MANY (not all) of Brooks\' problems.

The problem is ... not many fans want to blame an offensive line. It\'s the QB who receives the majority of the criticism. It\'s just much more \"sexy\" to blame the QB. Aferall, the QB is the one with the ball in his hands every play. He should make something happen.

I\'m not into placing blame where I don\'t think it goes. And I TRULY believe that our offensive line has played a LARGE roll in AB\'s problems. And I think that\'s going to be proven this year.

It only seems that I\'m deflecting blame from Brooks. When in fact, I\'m placing the blame squarely where I think it goes.

That does not mean I think AB is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He has he faults. But I believe his positives far outweigh his negatives.

saintz08

The more probable part of this equation is :

Front line all chips in and buys Brooks a ticket to the Pro Bowl so he can see what a real Pro Bowl quarterback looks like . They do it in hope of him taking notes .....

[Edited on 26/4/2005 by saintz08]

natedogg02

Dont forget about the Defense sucking all year and us not being able to run the ball cause were down by 30 points. This leads to AB throwing 40 to 60 times a game, allowing the other teams Defense to pin there ears back. And our O-line sucking did\'nt help either.
If the O-line gives him time then AB can pick a Defense apart better then anyone.
The only prob. i ever had with AB is the fumbling and i think he has taken care of that. And i think he should take off and run more often.
If we can show up as a team week in and week out then there\'s no reason we cant go to the SB. (And AB to the probowl along with others)

saintz08

So the hop scotch carpet passes are cool with you ???