SB Nation User Blog: Philinwood

IN DEFENSE OF OUR DEFENSE!!!

Philinwood — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:49:19 -0000

I know there is a lot of talk and concern about our defense, and clearly we miss Greer,Porter and Fujita. But, I just had a great revelation!!! We just faced 2 QBs the last 2 weeks that had career days against us. And, they are both good QBs. But, the thing that separates these two QBs from guys like Brees and Manning, is that they cannot do that every week or almost every week. But, make no mistake, they are capable as we have seen, of doing it on occasion. So, instead of letting that scare us, we should gain confidence. Guys like Manning, Rivers, Romo, Mc Nabb, etc are not going to throw the ball BETTER than Redman or Campbell did- they threw the ball phenomenally. It was possibly the best day of their careers. And, we took their best punch just like we would take anyone else's best punch- and we still won! Peyton Manning would not have passed better than Redman did yesterday- he was phenomenal. It's as good as it gets. And, when we get back to full strength and guys like Jenkins play later in the season and are better for all the experience, we will be even better. We will be pressuring QBs better and we will be like early in the season. But, we always take their best shot and find a way to win. It's not a fluke, it's for real.

Fujita Surgery??

Philinwood — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:21:05 -0000

anyone know about Fujita having surgery? Apparently he tweeted something about feeling better just before kickoff, and that he had surgery, but I haven't heard anything about it. My guess us he had a minor arthroscopic "clean out" in a knee, but it would be nice if they released some info about it.

Oh, and since I need a few more words, can anyone comment on that booth review where it stayed in our favor, but everyone around me, even Saints fans, said that our receiver (Colston, Meachem whoever- I forget) had a foot on the out of bounds line and the completion should be reversed. Anyone remember? I think it was late in the game.

WHO DAT BENGALS??? WTF??

Philinwood — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:56:22 -0000

Can anyone explain to me why I am watching postgame footage on FOX Sports of The Bengals locke room and they are chanting WHO DAT? WHO DAT? WHO DAT GOING TO BEAT THEM BENGALS?? I don't know, I had a few beers during that awesome Saints comeback, but what is that all about? Am I hallucinating? Did anyone else see that? Help me out here. I would really appreciate if anyone else who knew anything about that could comment.

PRO BOWL VOTING!!!!

Philinwood — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:29:27 -0000

While we are all pumped up and waiting for Sunday, I'd like to encourage everyone to go up on NFL.com and vote for Pro Bowl candidates. Apparently the Vikings are getting a big contingent voting for their guys. A couple of things that pissed me off and a good tip----

- We have only 2 wide receivers nominated- Colston and Henderson. Eagles have 3- Maclin, Jacskon and Avant.

Cmon, Avant and Maclin can't hold a candle to Meachem and Moore. We should have at least 3 nominations.

- For kick returners, they dropped the ball. We have Reggie that we can vote for but no opportunity to vote for Roby.

Should be a separate category for KO returners and Punt returners.

- RB we only have Pierre Thomas to vote for- no Bell. Giants have Bradshaw and Jacobs. Pretty lame!!!

TIP TIP !!!!

- You don't have to vote for the Max- for example if you want PT to be and all-star and they say you can select 3 RBs, - if you only vote 1 vote for PT each time he has a better shot at winning

You can vote many more times than once- they allow it!!!!

CONSIDER THE PATRIOTS SCHEDULE....

Philinwood — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:27:06 -0000

The opponents who The Patriots have beaten have a combined record of 32-44!!!! Check this out:

Bucs 1-10

Bills 4-7

Jets 5-6

Ravens, Jags, Falcons, Dolphins 6-5

Where is that defining game that got THEM credibility?? If anyone knows, please clue me in. Also, the Bills game was basically won except the Bills' KR at 2:06 didn't take a knee so they could run the clock out and fumbled. Oh, yeah I forgot, they played the Colts pretty close. I guess that's it. So, the best teams they have beaten are Jags and Falcons. Not all that impressive. And, they lost to David Garrard and Mark Sanchez. I can't even remember who the Bills QB is, but he almost beat them and TO only had 2 catches. I really think the figures speak for themselves. The teams that the Patriots have lost to have a combined record of 22-10. What do you think??

Everyone seems a little more at ease......

Philinwood — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:29:12 -0000

I knew our boys would be fine. I knew it and then I knew it more when, before the Tampa game started, they showed Brees' rankings overall in pass completion %, yds per pass, red zone stats, etc. He was like #1 or #2 before the Tampa game and everyone was wondering "what's going on with Brees?" Well, I think there were 2 things going on with Brees. 1) He's in the NFL!!! For goodness sakes, he was ranked #1-2 in so many stats- he can't be perfect. and 2) his Mom died and I am sure he was getting wind of the investigation and all that stuff that I am sure could be quite distracting.

Now about The Patriots... we will win that game. But, it doesn't really matter. If we lose, we learn and we're better prepared if we meet them in the Super Bowl. But, I think we will win. They have a lot more at stake. If they go 6-4, AFC home field is looking a little bleaker. And they still have to deal with the Colts somewhere along the line. No, they have a lot more pressue on them. We have more offensive weapons and our defense forces more takeaways.

They are good, but we should be better than them if we play well. We're fine win or lose, but I have officially changed my approach. Previously actually wanted the Saints to lose a game to take any potential "monkey" off their backs. Now, I want them to win out, and I don't want to see them lose a game, but I am okay if they lose a game. And, for the record, this is the way I knew this team could play and expected them to play. This next game will be a lot of Payton/GW vs. Belicheck and I see Belicheck getting exposed. I also see the Dome Crowd playing a big role in The Perfect Storm playing havok with The Patriots

One last point. Our X-factor in our first 5-6 games was Heath Evans. He was phenomenal. We kind of forgot that, wondering why our offense was not so explosive after he got injured. Then along comes Dave Thomas and after a couple of games he settles in and becomes a new X-factor. But not quite at first. Much different than Evans. And Eckel is getting more comfortable,too. But just as Deuce Mc Allister would have had a little bit of a transition if he didn't have Mike Karney, I think our offense had a little transition period without Evans and now we have adjusted. We can't do the exact same things we used to do with Evans, but we have found other things that work. I think that was a big factor we overlooked. Kudos to Payton in that respect. He's coaching his best year ever. And obviously there is a transition without Moore a lot of these games, but overall we are adjusting and I like how we have done so.

Courtney Roby KO Return

Philinwood — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:47:03 -0000

I thought Roby did a nice job on the return and the return team set it up nicely. St Louis cooperated well also, they seemed to do a poor job so it all came together. It made me think of a post/comments a few weeks ago that claimed Roby was slow. Well I never thought he was slow, I really like him as a returner. He's been very reliable and to me has looked very capable of breaking the long one so it was nice to see it happen. So, I have 2 questions, unrelated. 1) Didn't that kickoff return affirm that he has good speed and is a good returner for us?
2) Can anyone comment on his return about 4-5 games ago that was probably his longest of the season before the retuern vs Rams. It was at home and there was a penalty at the end of the play. I was in a bar and I think it was because someone threw a beer bottle or something on the field. Is that what reeally happened because there was no commentary where I was watching.

Everyone Seems Overly Concerned

Philinwood — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:36:59 -0000

Last time I checked, an ugly win gets a W in the W-L columns, and a pretty win gets the same thing. The Saints are fine. Every good team goes through this and the strong ones prevail as we did. The weaker teams, especially at home, play their best games to stay competitive. They have to!! The Rams had 2 solid weeks off with loads of game tape and a lot of motivation. I think they are relatively healthy now. They have, agruably, the best or second best RB in the league. And, the absolutely biggest factor in this game and our last couple of games is our defensive injuries. Clancy, Greer, Sharper, Ellis. Four starters that are very important. Add in that Fujita played his first game in 3 games and was probably rusty and not used to playing with some new faces, and it is small wonder our defense didn't have its best day. They worked Jenkins in there also and he is a work in progress (showing great potential) But the defense with all of this going on played good enough to win.

I also think GW played pretty "vanilla - style defense" and I think that's because 1) he held back from some risky blitzes etc because of personnel (INJURY) issues and 2) he is holding back for The Patriots game. That's just my take on it. I would have liked a bigger margin of victory, but I am happy- everyone is gunning for US every week. Blowouts won't be easy- we'll have to settle for W's. W's are good, very good.

Does Anyone Know...

Philinwood — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:30:12 -0000

if online you can actually see what the active roster/ depth chart is for the particular Sunday before the game starts or during the game? I was trying to figure out if they activated Arrington or if Jason Kyle stayed active (I don't think I saw him play). I was just wondering, because with people like Fujita. Goodwin, Moore, Hartley and Ellis out, I couldn't figure out who might have taken their places on the roster (other than Pressley) . Any info on this would be appreciated. Also, seems they don't have much confidence in Eckel, but even thouygh Dave Thomas is giving 100% and is very versatile, it would seem to me we need a real professional FB who can be a traditional run blocking FB and carry the ball and catch passes occasionally. Isn't there someone out there who we can pick up!!

De Mario Pressley, Thank you, thank you very much...

Philinwood — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:51:34 -0000

I am sad to see Kendrick Clancy on the IR list. I never deemed him an All Pro candidate, but he did a great job for us and who am I to assess his potential or his stature? Certainly he would have been a very important player/starter on this team as they make a run and I had no qualms whatsoever about him playing/starting whatever. He was solid, hopefully he will come back and be solid next yeqar and I wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully he will wear a ring come February. But, I will say this. I have been waiting for Pressley to get his day and I am optimistic. If he pans out to be a good player, it will be awesome. It seems many were hopeful he would excel just 1-2 years ago and it seemed like he was getting overlooked. And, as Saints fans, we lost PJ Hill and Danny Gorrer from the practice squad- which ( our practice squad) appeared to me several weeks ago, to be immensely talented which should come as no surprise because of how loaded we are on our depth chart at many positions. When other teams actually NOTICE our practice squad, it is a special year no doubt. In the NOLA small market, I think we are one of the last places teams look for practice squad players, unless....duh... YOU ARE UNDEFEATED!!! So, I am happy that Pressley is getting a chance to play, I KNOW he will do good and I just pray we utilize Arrington, if only for special teams or as a sub- we don't want to lose that guy like we lost others.