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Dec

01

Saints’ monumental rout means 16-0 within grasp

Jason Cole
By Jason Cole,

NEW ORLEANS – Give Sean Payton credit. The New Orleans Saints coach contained himself a whole lot better than New England contained his offense.

In the aftermath of a stunning 38-17 dismantling of the Patriots on Monday night at the Superdome, Payton said all the right things. The closest he came to bragging was when he slipped, oh so slightly, and called quarterback Drew Brees’(notes) performance “magnificent.” Other than that, Payton sold the victory as another good day at the office, but certainly nothing to hang the hopes and dreams of a season on.

Read more of the story here.

Dec

01

What Boston papers are saying about the New Orleans Saints

By The Times-Picayune
December 01, 2009, 7:30AM

Boston Globe
Adam Kilgore writes the New Orleans Saints served the New England Patriots a reminder of what they used to be.

Bob Ryan opines that the Saints, and the Superdome, are the real deal.

Albert R. Breer says New Orleans left New England’s defense clawing for answers.

Monique Walker reports that the Patriots lacked offensive flow.

Christopher L. Gasper says once again, the Superdome is housing a winner.

Read more of the story here.

Nov

30

Saints will have to win a shootout to beat Patriots, stay unbeaten

By Steve Wyche | NFL.com
Senior Writer

The weekend has provided us with a clearer picture of how the trek to the playoffs could be for a handful of teams. Now, it’s on to the real show: New England vs. New Orleans. Both teams seem poised to capture the AFC East and NFC South, respectively, so this is more about The Big Game than anything else.

In order to get the goods on this possible Super Bowl preview, I spoke with some general managers who’ve played either New England or New Orleans and the feeling is that the Patriots, who have three losses and are playing on the road, will hand the Saints their first loss of the season.

There is doubt that New Orleans’ defense will be able to hold up against Tom Brady, Wes Welker and Randy Moss. Remember, these aren’t guys simply regurgitating the Saints’ weak spot from the past. These are opinions from men whose teams have played New Orleans or New England.

Read more of this story.

Nov

30

Five reasons why the New England Patriots will beat the New Orleans Saints

Five reasons the New England Patriots will beat the New Orleans Saints
By The Times-Picayune
November 30, 2009, 9:00AM

Five reasons why the New England Patriots will beat the New Orleans Saints on “Monday Night Football,” courtesy the staff of mass.com, a sister Web site of nola.com.

See “Five reasons the New Orleans Saints will beat the New England Patriots.”

1. Ten years after their first head-to-head meeting, Tom Brady’s performance is still better than that of Drew Brees. And numbers don’t lie, right?

Read more of the story here.

Nov

23

Saints strive for perfection, ready for Pats

By Pat Yasinskas
TAMPA, Fla. — They strolled into the locker room with a few references to their 10-0 record, but the New Orleans Saints are the first to tell you they’re not perfect.

They rolled through the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 38-7, and instantly started pointing out their flaws.

“Let’s face it, these are not the Jon Gruden-coached Tampa Bay Buccaneers that we’re used to,” New Orleans tight end Jeremy Shockey said. “No offense to Tampa. They’re going to be good in time. But we know we can play better than we did.”

Shockey and his teammates have been saying that for the past month or so, but it’s time to back up that talk. The Saints play host to the New England Patriots on Nov. 30 in a “Monday Night Football” game at the Superdome.

You can get by the likes of St. Louis, Carolina, Atlanta and Miami when you’re turning over the ball and your defense is banged up and not playing as well as it did early in the season. But you can’t get by the Patriots unless you’re at the top of your game.

That’s why Sunday’s victory over the Bucs was so encouraging. Even if it was against a 1-9 team, the Saints looked better than they have in their past few outings. They didn’t turn over the ball, and aside from an impressive opening drive by the Bucs, a defense that was without three injured starters didn’t give up much and took the ball away four times.

“I thought we got better today,” Saints coach Sean Payton said.

The outlook gets even more positive when you factor in that the Saints have a chance to get injured defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis and starting cornerbacks Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter healthy in time for the Patriots. That trio, running back Reggie Bush and receiver Lance Moore all sat out against the Bucs.

It’s likely the Saints will at least get some of those injured players back as they have eight days between games. And they have to be feeling better about their depth in the secondary after first-round draft pick Malcolm Jenkins got a start and produced an interception.

Take all of that as an indication that the Saints are heading in the right direction at the right time. No, they haven’t played a perfect game yet and there might not be any such thing. But the Saints got enough things right that they didn’t need a big comeback like they did against Miami and Carolina and they didn’t let Tampa Bay hang with them the way Atlanta did a few weeks ago.

“Throughout the season, you want to get better,” linebacker Scott Fujita said. “And I like to think we are getting better. People are going to build this up to be the biggest game in the world. We have to keep our composure, not let anything get in the way and go out and continue to get better in practice each day this week.”

In other words, the fans can get caught up in the hype. The players can’t afford that because they’ve got Bill Belichick and the best franchise of the past decade coming to town.

“Our fans are going to be tailgating for about 10 hours before that game,” safety Darren Sharper said. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”

Understandable because the Saints are 10-0 for the first time in franchise history. They’ve also won 10 consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. This kind of winning is basically totally new to New Orleans, a city that’s supported a team that’s been mostly a bunch of loveable losers throughout its existence.

That’s not lost on the players and they know they have to keep improving as they get ready for perhaps the biggest game this franchise has played since the Saints made a memorable return to the Superdome in 2006, the year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf region.

“It only makes it harder because every team we face now would love to give us that first loss,” quarterback Drew Brees said. “We’re building something special this year. In order to get there, we have to win games like the one coming up.”

That’s the next step for Brees, who got back to being a machine-like passer (he had three touchdowns and a 118.0 rating) against the Bucs after a few up-and-down games. Beating a team like the Patriots would only enhance Brees’ common ranking among the league’s best quarterbacks along with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

It could even be a step toward the Hall of Fame for a quarterback who has put up big numbers throughout his career, but doesn’t have the long list of big wins that Manning and Brady have.

“When we take care of the football and take away negative plays, we’re a very, very hard team to beat,” Brees said.

More importantly, winning against New England would be a major step for the entire franchise. Remember, the Saints are in uncharted territory.

“For most of us, this is the first time we’re 10-0 dating back to high school,” Fujita said.

The next step — and it’s obviously a difficult one — would be getting to 11-0.

“This is going to be a very good test for us,” Sharper said. “Coach Payton is always talking about doing things you’ve never done before. Winning this one would be something this franchise has never done before.”

Nov

15

Saints not perfect in St. Louis, but their record certainly is

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Reggie Bush helped the New Orleans Saints overcome another bundle of mistakes to stay unbeaten for the best start in team history.

Bush scored twice for the first time in more than a year and Drew Brees compensated for two interceptions with two touchdown passes that allowed the Saints to escape with a 28-23 victory Sunday over the St. Louis Rams.

Courtney Roby opened the second half with a 97-yard kickoff return and Robert Meachem‘s 27-yard grab early in the fourth quarter gave New Orleans (9-0) just enough breathing room to tie the franchise record with nine straight wins.

“You’re not going to blow everyone out,” said cornerback Randall Gay, who played on the Patriots’ 16-0 team in 2007. “It’s a lot harder to blow teams out when for a lot of teams, this is like their playoff game.”

Marc Bulger‘s 19-yard pass to Donnie Avery made it a five-point game with 2:44 to go and the Rams (1-8) made it to the New Orleans 32 before Bulger threw incomplete into the end zone on the final play.

The Rams had no timeouts on their final drive and burned a lot of clock on Bulger’s 5-yard checkdown to Steven Jackson the previous play, leaving them just enough time for one final snap.

“It would have been really nice to pull it off,” Bulger said. “There’s a reason they’re unbeaten. They made plays when they had to.”

The Rams had a season high for points against a defense that played most of the second half without both starting cornerbacks. Tracy Porter limped off with a left knee injury in the opening minute and Jabari Greer was inactive because of a hurt groin.

Turnovers hurt more. The Saints had three for a four-game total of 13.

They also stalled on offense late in the game, failing to top 30 points for the fifth straight game and opening the door for the Rams.

“We’re not content with where we’re at, and we’re certainly not content with the way we’ve played these last few weeks,” Brees said. “We need to close the game out when we’re given the opportunity.”

St. Louis got big games from Avery, who caught two touchdown passes, and Jackson, who had 131 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries and totaled a season-high 176 yards from scrimmage.

The Rams faced their third straight unbeaten team at home — a first in NFL history. They fared much better against the Saints than against the Colts (a 42-6 drubbing) and Vikings (a 38-10 loss).

“Tough one,” coach Steve Spagnuolo said. “Tough, tough, tough, tough.”

Jackson was at his bruising best again for the Rams, who were coming off their bye and a victory over the Lions the week before that ended a 17-game losing streak. He has 6,206 yards in his sixth season, passing Lawrence McCutcheon (6,186) for third on the franchise career list.

Before exploiting the Rams with 83 yards on six carries with a 55-yard jaunt and adding two receptions for 15 yards, Bush hadn’t done much this season. He scored four touchdowns the first eight games but with only 194 yards rushing.

“I don’t feel like I’ve dropped off at all,” Bush said. “I feel like I’m still the same person, I don’t feel any faster or slower.

“I think coach gave me a lot of opportunities to make plays and I think I was able to do that today.”

The Rams saw the electrifying player taken second overall in the 2006 draft, and the two-TD game was his first since Oct. 18, 2008. Bush vaulted over a defender on a 3-yard run for the game’s first score and won a footrace to a corner of the end zone on a 15-yard reception.

“Yeah, he’s a handful,” Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “He’s a game changer.”

NOTES: Jackson’s run for the tying score was only the Rams’ fifth touchdown out of 18 trips inside the 20 all year. … Rams WR Keenan Burton (right knee) was carted off after getting hurt on an end zone interception by Usama Young and has an injury to the patella tendon. Late October pickup Brandon Gibson stepped in with his first seven catches of the season, for 93 yards. … The Rams forced a total of nine turnovers in their first eight games. … The Saints lead the NFL with 17 interceptions.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Nov

08

Saints rally past Panthers to remain undefeated

It was over when …

The Panthers bypassed an opportunity to kick a 48-yard field goal with 1:16 to play and instead chose to go for a touchdown. A converted field goal would have cut New Orleans’ lead to seven and given Carolina a chance at an onside kick. Ultimately, the Panthers turned the ball over on downs with 22 seconds left.

Game ball

Robert Meachem sparked the Saints with his 54-yard touchdown catch late in the third quarter. He jumped into the air to snatch the ball and then bounced off a hit from Panthers DB Chris Gamble before sprinting into the end zone. He finished with five catches for 98 yards.

Key Stat

Carolina lost three crucial fumbles. Those miscues were too much for the conservative Panthers, who employed a cautious game plan, to overcome.

Noteworthy

Panthers LB Thomas Davis left the game in the fourth quarter with a leg injury. … After throwing at least one interception in his first six starts, Jake Delhomme did not throw a pick for the second straight week. … New Orleans is now 8-0. … The Saints defeated Panthers coach John Fox at the Superdome for the first time.

On NFL Replay
NFL Replay will re-air the New Orleans Saints’ 30-20 win over the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Nov

03

Power rankings: Saints first, Bucs worst

November 3, 2009 6:04 PM

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

Well, I just got back home from my trip to New Orleans and was pleasantly surprised when I clicked on our power rankings and saw the Saints were No. 1.

It’s about time. I’ve been saying for weeks they’re the best team in the NFL and our voters finally agreed. They pushed them ahead of the Colts, even though Indianapolis remains undefeated. I totally respect the Colts and think they’re a great team. Hey, they could even end up winning the Super Bowl.

But, right now, no team has played better through seven games than the Saints and it’s nice to see them get what they deserve.

As for the rest of the NFC South, I think our voters got it right when they kept the Falcons at No. 11, despite their loss to the Saints on Monday night. Atlanta actually played a very strong game and could have won with a couple of breaks. If Michael Turner can continue to run like he did against the Saints, the Falcons will be just fine.

The Panthers moved up only one spot to No. 23, despite an impressive victory in Arizona. But I can understand the logic here. The Panthers need to play like that a few games in a row before anyone’s going to believe they’re for real.

Finally, the Bucs have secured the No. 32 spot after St. Louis got a win against Detroit. All I can really say here is the Bucs truly have earned this honor.

NFC South, Power Rankings 110309, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers

Oct

26

Saints show their mettle in comeback win over the Dolphins

Associated Press

MIAMI — Drew Brees emerged from the locker room with a fresh cut under his chin and another between his eyebrows.

He made the Miami Dolphins look worse.

Brees and the unbeaten New Orleans Saints fell behind for the first time all season, then overcame a 21-point deficit Sunday to beat Miami 46-34.

The NFL’s highest-scoring team topped 40 points for the fourth time and outscored the Dolphins 22-0 in the fourth quarter.

“There was no doubt on our sideline we would come back and win,” said Brees, who threw for 298 yards. “They had given us their best shot, and we had played about as bad as we could play. All we had to do was string together a few drives and gain the momentum back. We knew it was going to happen, and it did.”

NFL passing leader Brees had his worst day of the season, with three interceptions, a lost fumble and five sacks. But he led touchdown drives of 82, 79 and 60 yards on successive possessions in the second half to put New Orleans ahead.

Tracy Porter’s 54-yard interception return then sealed the win for the Saints (6-0), who are off to their best start since 1991 and are the only unbeaten team in the NFC.

“It can be a season-defining win,” linebacker Scott Shanle said. “This was a test we hadn’t faced yet, and we couldn’t be happier with the way we responded.”

Brees threw for one touchdown and scored twice. After his 2-yard keeper with 8:35 left gave the Saints their first lead, he celebrated by dunking the ball over the crossbar.

“There are times in the game when a team just needs an emotional lift,” he said. “I felt like I had to do something to get everybody hyped. The first thing that came to mind was to dunk it.”

Fading at the finish, the Dolphins (2-4) fell 2 1/2 games behind AFC East leader New England.

“This was our game to win,” Miami’s Ricky Williams said. “We fought and we fought. They just fought harder at the end.”

Williams carried only nine times but tied a career high with three rushing touchdowns, including a 68-yard run, the longest of his career. At that point, the Dolphins appeared en route to a stunning blowout.

By the time the Saints picked up their second first down 22 minutes into the game, Miami led 24-3. Against New Orleans, that wasn’t enough of a cushion.

“With Drew Brees, it’s like the score is 0-0,” Miami cornerback Vontae Davis said. “We knew they would come back and that it would be a tough game.”

Two Dolphins turnovers and an ill-advised timeout helped New Orleans back into the game.

After Davone Bess lost a fumble at midfield late in the first half, Marques Colston caught a 21-yard pass that was initially ruled a TD. When a replay review with 5 seconds left determined the ball should instead be placed at the half-yard line, the Dolphins called timeout.

With the Saints trailing by 21, coach Sean Payton sent his field goal unit into the game. During the timeout, Brees lobbied for a shot at a touchdown.

“I just told him I’d get it,” Brees said. “I said, ‘I’ll get the touchdown. I know exactly what to do.”‘

The Saints’ offense returned to the field, and Brees plunged across the goal line to make the score 24-10.

New Orleans struck again barely a minute into the second half when Darren Sharper scored on an interception return for the third time this season. The 42-yard runback came after he snatched a pass that deflected off the hands of receiver Ted Ginn Jr.

The pace of scoring soon became frantic, with three touchdowns in less than three minutes. The Saints drove 82 yards for a score to pull within 27-24, but Miami’s Brian Hartline turned a short pass into a 67-yard gain to set up Williams’ third score.

Jeremy Shockey then broke two tackles on a 66-yard reception for New Orleans, and two plays later Reggie Bush scored from 10 yards out on a reverse, capping his run with a balletic leap near the pylon.

The Saints forced a punt and mounted the go-ahead drive capped by Brees’ score, which made it 37-34. John Carney hooked the extra-point try wide, but he hit a 20-yard field goal with 3:23 left.

Trying to mount their own comeback, the Dolphins dropped two passes and committed two penalties before Chad Henne was intercepted by Porter on fourth-and-13.

Notes: Saints DT Sedrick Ellis left the game with a sprained right knee, and FB Heath Evans hurt his right leg. … Dolphins CB Will Allen was sidelined by a knee injury. … Miami’s wildcat netted 30 yards in 14 plays. … Saints PK John Carney became the fourth NFL player to score 2,000 points.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Oct

26

Perfectly stunning Saints salvage job New Orleans played an imperfect game but departed Miami an improbable 6-0

By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN.com

MIAMI — The New Orleans Saints should be 5-1 now.

They should be back at their team headquarters in Metairie, La., munching on antidepressants, wondering how the NFL’s highest-rated quarterback and highest-scoring offense could lay a carton of eggs like the one they deposited Sunday at Land Shark Stadium.

Drew Brees? You mean the guy who entered the game against the Miami Dolphins as the league’s No. 1 passer? Sorry, never saw him in the first half.

Instead, I saw a stiff who threw two interceptions, was sacked three times and looked like he couldn’t win a backup QB job behind JaMarcus Russell. In fact, the whole Saints offense should have been doused with Lysol after the first two quarters.

“Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong,” Brees said. “The turnovers. Whatever, the batted balls. The penalties. All those things that just gave us no chance.”

And then …

Brees became Brees again.

Saints safety Darren Sharper, who has been in this league seemingly as long as the NFL logo, returned another interception for a touchdown.

Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey, nearly invisible in the first half, stiff-armed the Dolphins’ defensive backs into Biscayne Bay.

And the Dolphins (2-4) once again found a way to dominate an opponent for large stretches of a game and lose. Not just lose, but lose spectacularly. They were last seen curled into a ball, mumbling something about their mommy.

Yes, the Saints (6-0) are somehow still undefeated, thanks to a 46-34 victory that defies logic. How can you play that poorly and yet win that big?

How can you trail 24-3, with five seconds left in the first half and then get a Hail Mary timeout by Miami coach Tony Sparano that saves the day? How can you outscore the Dolphins 22-0 in the fourth quarter and 36-10 in the second half?

“I will say that there was really no doubt on our sideline that we would come back and win this game,” said Brees, whose team hadn’t trailed all season. “Just because that’s all we talked about: finishing football games. … Honest to God, we knew it was going to happen, and sure enough, it did.”

No doubt? The Saints had five penalties in the first half. They were 2-of-9 on third downs. Brees had thrown a pair of interceptions.

Their rushing game was still on the team bus (23 yards).

“Obviously the first half was something to be forgotten,” Brees said.

All of it except the final five seconds. With the Saints on the Miami 6-inch line, New Orleans coach Sean Payton sent his field goal unit into the game. Better to get three points than risk getting nothing.

But then Sparano chose to call a timeout because, he said later, he wanted to make sure the Dolphins had the right personnel on the field. It was a game-changing decision, because Brees used the time to lobby Payton for a quarterback sneak play.

“I’ll get the touchdown,” Brees told Payton.

Payton waved in the offense. Brees told his offensive line, “Get down, get low and I’ll score.”

And he did, turning what should have been an 18-point Miami lead into a 14-point lead.

“Imagine the emotional lift going into the locker room if we could get a touchdown,” Brees said.

“There’s just moments in the game you feel it as a head coach, or as a quarterback where, ‘We need an emotional lift right now. We need a momentum swing. We need to make a play.'”

If Sparano doesn’t call the timeout, then Brees can’t talk Payton out of the field goal try. And without a timeout, the officials would have started the game clock. Brees and the Saints’ offense almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to reach the line of scrimmage and spike the ball in time.

“They ended up going forward and we didn’t make the play,” Sparano said.

That’s one way of putting it. The other way would be that Sparano’s decision — and Brees’ QB sneak — flipped the emotion from the Dolphins to the Saints.

The Saints are now 6-0. They’re the only undefeated team in the NFC and one of three unbeaten teams in the league. If the season ended today, a reporter reminded Payton, they’d be the conference’s No. 1 playoff seed.

“Well, it’s not the BCS,” Payton said. “In the BCS you’ve got to pay attention to the No. 1, the 2, the 3, the 4. That means nothing. After six weeks, we’ve got a lot of football left. The Alabamas, the LSUs, and the Ohio States, and all those people, Iowa, that means something for them. That doesn’t mean anything for us.”

That’s not true. Said Saints center Jonathan Goodwin: “I think this is the first time I’ve been 6-0 in anything.”

There were 14 scores in this game, eight of them by the Saints. Brees finished with 298 yards, one TD pass, twoTD runs, but also three interceptions and five sacks.

But the Saints were bailed out by Sparano’s timeout, by Brees’ ability to change Payton’s mind, by two pick-sixes (one by Sharper — his third of the season — and one by cornerback Tracy Porter), by Shockey’s 105 receiving yards (and about a 15-yard stiff-arm of Miami free safety Gibril Wilson during one of those catch-and-runs), by backup running back Mike Bell’s 80 yards and by a Dolphins team that completely lost its mojo in the second half.

“Without a doubt, it’s the best win we’ve had,” said Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma.

It’s the best because it was so unexpected — perhaps not to Brees, but to the Dolphins and just about anybody else who was watching this game during the first half. Check that: anybody who was watching this thriller late in the third quarter, when Ricky Williams’ third TD run of the day put Miami up 34-24.

“It’s not always going to be perfect,” said Saints kickoff return man Courtney Roby.

And yet here are the Saints. They played an imperfect game, but left with a perfect record.


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