By Peter Finney, Times-Picayune
October 21, 2009, 12:34AM
Before last Sunday’s game, Sean Payton told his football team a true story about some nuns, longtime members of the Who Dat family, reminding the coach they were offering prayers for the Saints in their upcoming battle against the Giants.
Which was no surprise.
But what was Payton’s response?
“You should be saying prayers for the Giants, ” he said.
Well, the locker room rocked.
Whereupon the Who Dats who carry the flag scored touchdown after touchdown after touchdown, slaying the Giants piece by piece.
What does this say?
To me, it says Payton, the winning coach, knows he has a very good football team, that he was going to battle with a very good plan.
To me, it also says Tom Coughlin, the losing coach, knew the same thing, but Coughlin could not get his message across when it came to dealing with how many ways the Saints can beat you — with offense, with defense, sometimes with a 40-yard touchdown pass, sometimes with a 99-yard interception return.
Five victories into this season, it’s not that Payton keeps sending messages to his players. It’s more a matter of his messages being received by welcoming ears.
What Payton has going for him extends beyond his offensive smarts. It’s a coach-quarterback relationship that extends beyond offense.
“It makes a big difference, ” said Drew Brees, “when you have veteran guys who have been part of good teams, bad teams, teams that have gone on winning streaks, losing streaks, players who know how to handle different situations.”
Brees talked about being part of teams who have won four, five, eight, nine in a row, but you’re still “only as good as your next performance.”
After watching his head coach make decisions over the past four seasons, Brees has seen someone “with an aggressive mentality, an ability to read the situation in games, to understand who’s hot, how you want to spread the ball around, putting every guy in a position to succeed according to their strengths. Something we learned the hard way the last three years is the turnover ratio, what that means between winning and losing.”
It’s a mindset Brees watched build during the offseason and in training camp, the starting offense going against the first-team defense, creating game-like conditions that helped players feed off one another.
This week’s No. 1 storyline has to do with how successful Gregg Williams’ defense will be against the Miami Dolphins’ Wildcat offense, which embarrassed the Patriots last season and limited the Indianapolis Colts to 15 minutes of possession time this season. The Colts managed to pull out that game because of the magic of Peyton Manning.
“You might say the Dolphins invented the Wildcat, ” Brees said. “They’ve won two in a row, and they’re coming off a Monday night win against the Jets when the Jets played about as good a game as they could play.”
Obviously, what makes the Wildcat special is the personnel, running backs Ronnie Brown and ex-Saint Ricky Williams.
“When you have the quarterback under center, you’re playing 10-on-11, ” said Payton. “When the ball is snapped to a runner, it’s 11-on-11. Miami has good design, good personnel, and that becomes very challenging.”
It’s always challenging for one of four unbeatens in a 32-team league. It’s unbelievably challenging when you’ve got the No. 1 offense and you’ve never once trailed through 20 quarters.
As Payton looks around, his vote for the “the biggest surprise of the season” goes to the 6-0 Denver Broncos.
As everyone looks around, it’s probably unanimous the 0-6 Tennessee Titans, who were 13-3 in the regular season last year, are the biggest disappointment. The Titans gave up five touchdown passes by Tom Brady in the second quarter of a 59-0 loss to the New England Patriots. That’s the biggest shock so far.
As fans check their schedules, there is another shock on the way — the Monday Night Football offering, a showdown between the 2-4 Washington Redskins, whose coach has been stripped of his playcalling duties, and the 3-2 Philadelphia Eagles, who are coming off a 13-9 loss to the Oakland Raiders.
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