AMEN!

I am SO GLAD Cha Ching mentioned the DOME PATROL, because for us old timers, this is EXACTLY what those games used to feel like -- this used to be the normal, ALL THE FLIPPING TIME! I would "like" his post a dozen times, if I could.

I keep telling people, stop freaking out and panicking or worrying over Teddy! Teddy is gonna do whatever Teddy is gonna do....Root for the defense with all your heart, because these guys deserve it. It's like this -- if Bobby Hebert or John Fourcade can string together a couple of first downs, if we get the offense past the helmet in the middle of the field, onto the other team's side, eventually Morten Andersen will trot out there and kick a few field goals, and if we're lucky, our defense will keep their offense out of the end zone all day, and we'll be good!


In a way, we've been spoiled as fans, by years of feasting on easy touchdowns that Drew hands out like they were Halloween candy. Now that touchdowns are HARD to get, it's a different vibe. I get why people are uncomfortable. Just RELAX and let the defense do their thing!

Payton said, the defense could have played 8 quarters against the Jaguars yesterday, and he didn't think the Jaguars would have scored a touchdown. Outstanding. I saw it too, and I agree completely!

Repeating what the Cha Ching said -- best post I've seen here in a long time.

STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY THE UGLY WINS!

We prolly wont against chicago either their defense is that good. Ugly wins show character and team work and at the end of the day a wins a win. Who cares how we do it as long as its a w

As for the game, it was ugly. The Saints had just 10 first downs, while the Eagles had 11. The Saints had 64 rushing yards on 30 carries (2.1 yards per carry), while the Eagles had just 53 rushing yards on 17 carries (3.1 yards per carry). The Eagles, despite averaging 3.1 yards per carry, averaged a full yard more than the Saints on each rushing attempt. That should give you a pretty good idea of what game we had on this October day in 1991.

The Eagles could not take care of the ball. They turned the ball over 6 times, which sounds bad enough. But it gets even worse when you consider the fact that they fumbled the ball 6 times, and only lost 1 of those fumbles. Hypothetically, if they had lost every single fumble, they would’ve turned the ball over 11 times. They gave the Saints 11 opportunities to claim the ball on offense. Between times that the Eagles put the ball on the ground and threw an interception, they had the same number of possible turnovers (11) as they did first downs.

Bobby Hebert started the game for the Saints, and was absolutely abysmal, going 2-for-8 for 29 yards with 2 interceptions and 2 sacks. That comes out to a passer rating of 2.6. For some perspective on how bad that rating is, if I played in an NFL game and went 1-for-12 with 0 touchdowns, 0 passing yards, and 1 interception, I would have a better passer rating (4.9) than Hebert had. Steve Walsh, the guy that the Cowboys wasted a first round pick on in the 1989 Supplemental Draft despite literally spending a first round pick a few months prior on Troy Aikman, came into the game in relief, and actually looked adequate, going 8-for-17 with 96 yards and a touchdown. He was, by far, the best quarterback in the game. However, the Saints had less than 100 net passing yards for the entire game.

None of the two quarterbacks that played for the Eagles put up a passer rating better than 35. They would’ve had a better passer rating just throwing the ball into the dirt every single play. Brad Goebel went 12-for-22 with 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, and Pat Ryan went 6-for-12 with an interception. The Eagles finished the game with a mere 204 yards of total offense, which was somehow still better than the Saints, who finished with 162 yards of total offense. Outside of Keith Jackson on the Eagles, who had 8 receptions for 81 yards, I’m hesitant to say that anyone on the offensive side of the ball had a good game.

In total, there were 8 turnovers, with the Eagles turning it over 6 times and the Saints turning it over twice. Dalton Hilliard scored the only touchdown of the game, which came on a 14-yard pass from Steve Walsh in the third quarter, and by halftime, only 9 points had been scored. The game ended 13-6, and 19 total points were scored. That means that the under, despite being historically low, not only won, but handily won.

Before you bring up the argument that this game was just a product of the time and it’s impossible to compare, I present this- during week 7, there were 10 games played, not counting the Saints/Eagles game. Every single one of those games finished with more than 30 points scored. The lowest scoring game, not counting Saints/Eagles, was a 34-7 game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Phoenix Cardinals (41 total points scored). Excluding the Saints/Eagles game, the average number of points scored during week 7 was 51.1 points. Eight teams (Buffalo with 42, Dallas with 35, Kansas City with 42, Minnesota with 34, LA Rams with 30, Atlanta with 39, San Francisco with 34, Washington with 42) would have, at the very least, tied the over/under from the Saints/Eagles game. And, of the 20 teams not named the Saints or the Eagles to play that week, only three of them (Indianapolis with 6, Miami with 7, Phoenix with 7) scored less than 17 points, and only four of them (the three aforementioned teams and Cleveland with 17) scored less than 20 points. So this game was not a product of the times. These defenses were just that good, and these offenses were just that bad.

Bridgewater is becoming the QB of ugly wins.