I'll make this brief, as I haven't much time at the moment.

 

The Saints will win the Superbowl hands down, and here's why...

 

1) For all the talk about the Colts' offense and Payton Manning's greatness the fact remains Drew Brees had better stats and New Orleans had the number one offense. The #2 offense was Minnesota and the Saints beat them, didn't say it was pretty, but it happened. If it becomes a shoot-out like so many 'experts' predict, pick the team that can put more points on the board.

 

2) Both defenses are ranked low on the totem poll, but the Saints' Defense was a top ten defense the first half of the season (before losing starters). And, of course, the Saints cause turnovers. If you're of the mind that Manning does not make mistakes, then realize Drew Brees has thrown fewer interceptions. Also realize that Bret Favre (despite being historically known for being interception-prone) threw fewer interceptions than both Manning and Brees, and we all saw what happened in the NFC Championship game.

 

3) The Saints have the #1 Redzone passing defense. The Saints' defense have given up fewer passing touchdowns within the redzone than any other team in the NFL this year. For a pass-heavy team like the Colts, this does not bode well...

 

4) Coming from behind.  Both teams have had come-from-behind victories this year. I believe the Colts have had 7 or so 4th-quarter victory drives. While impressive, it also says that the Colts have come quite close to losing far more often than the Saints have. The Saints have shown they can rally to the cause, but oftentimes don't need to as they are a more complete team.

 

5) Competition. So you beat the Ravens with 2nd-year QB Joe Flacco, wow. So you beat the Jets with Rookie QB Sanchez. WOW. The Saints also beat the Jets, and gave up fewer points, despite having less film to study. On top of that, the Saints beat the defending NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals with 2-time MVP, super Bowl-winning and future Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner. Pretty Soundly, despite the Cardinals putting up 51 points on the highly-ranked Green bay defense the week before. Not to mention the Saints also beat the Vikings, who I already mentioned had the #2 offense of the NFL, and claim ratings-megastar-3-time-MVP-Superbowl-winning-future-hall-of-Fame QB Bret Favre. The level of competition the Saints have played in the play-offs far surpasses that of the Colts.

 

Don't be surprised if the Saints win by double-digits tomorrow. Somehow a 4th-quarter comeback doesn't mean so much if you fall 12-points short....

Apparently Manning is having the best year of his career, or so all the people 'in the know' keep saying. There's no doubt Manning is a great QB, but Brees is better. Well that's what the stats say anyways. Some reason those stats don't matter, which is fine so long as you don't gloss over them and then point out the Saints' defense is 'statistically' worse than the Colts' defense. You can't have it both ways. Rod Woodson on the NFL network and a blog in the Huffington Post are the only people I've seen who not only picked the Saints but also pointed out that our defensive ranking was misleading. Apparently no one but them (in the media) can recall the Saints had a top 10 defense the first half of the season, when all our starters were healthy, much like they are now.

By now I'm sure everyone has read the absurdly biased Judge column on cbssports.com. Seriously?

 

I also noticed that on the nfl page of cbssports.com (for well over a week now) if you click on the Saints helmet logo for the SuperBowl match-up it takes you to the Minnesota Vikings page.

 

This is the website for the station carrying the Superbowl and this level of bias should just not happen. I understand CBS thinks Manning-Favre would have drawn higher ratings, but Favre couldn't get it done. Sorry Boys....

 

Clark Judge may just kill himself if the Saints win in a blowout....

In week 2 of the 2009 NFL season, the Miami Dolphins statistically outplayed the Colts in every phase of the game, including a whopping 45+ minute time of possession. Yet Peyton Manning's Colts still won 27-23, as opposed to the Dolphins losing. 

 

In week 10 of the 2009 NFL season, the New England Patriots statistically outplayed the Colts in every phase of the game, yet were beaten 35-34, as opposed to losing.

 

In the NFC Championship game the New Orleans Saints were 'statistically' outplayed by the Minnesota Viking, save for two key stats, turnovers and Points Scored. And yet (according to most 'writers') the Vikings lost that game, as opposed to New Orleans winning.

 

I beg to differ...

Continue reading this post »

Everyone's been talking about the wildcat lately. I know Miami has been successful with it, but not to a huge degree. As most have pointed out, kind of hard to run the ball when you're down 14 points. I just see it as a non-factor in this game. Sure, they'll get some 3rd down conversions and make some yardage, but I seriously doubt it'll gash our defense as much as some people think.

 

In practice the Saints had Reggie Bush running the wildcat to help prepare. Does anyone think SP might throw one in there just to mess around with Miami (even though we may have a huge lead before he'd ever consider it). I'm not saying we should EVER take the ball out of Breesus' hands. But I do recall direct snaps to our Running Backs on a few occasions in the past.

 

My question is, does anyone see Sean Payton throwing some trick plays in this game such as: a variation of the wildcat, direct snaps to running backs, allowing Lance Moore to throw or pitch (he is a back-up QB).

 

And before calling me insane, I'm not saying we should do any of these things, I'm just pointing out we have done unconventional plays in the past for good yardage so it may be a possibility we see some of SP's'gimmick' offense plays. (Plus, you know he'd love to run some weird thing for massive yardage as an FU to the wildcat and Parcells).

After the schooling our Saints gave the Giants yesterday it seems we're finally getting respect from the National Media. Some have even mentioned a possibility of the Saints going undefeated this year. An undefeated season with a Lombardi trophy to top it off would be all sorts of awesome. As a Saints fan I, among others, say this every year (since 1987) even when we know it won't be true. While I don't think we'll go undefeated this year, our schedule the rest of the way is favorable and should leave us with a pretty good record if this team keeps playing the way they have. Who knows, this year anything could happen with this team.

 

I'm not going to break down the schedule like other people have done/will do, I just wanted to mention that I noticed how favorable it was from here on out...

 

Our three most difficult opponents (at this point), we play at Home, in PRIME TIME.

 

1.We have  a MNF football game at HOME against the Falcons. (Granted we play them again in Atlanta weeks later, which is always a rough place to play, but having them at home for the first game in Prime Time slot definitely helps us get a big jump on winning the division.)

 

2. We have another MNF game, @ HOME, against the Patriots. (At this point in the season they're not that impressive, blowing out a broken team does not count. But if they should come back to form later in the season, it is the Patriots after all, having them at Home is a huge advantage.)

 

3. We have an NFL Network game @ Home against Dallas. (Ok, so Dallas isn't playing so well right now either, and we've handled them before, but when playing any big-market team it's better to be at home.)

 

As I said, I'm not saying we go undefeated, I'm not saying we should look ahead to any games. Just saying that the way this team has played this year, having this schedule ahead of us is very promising for us.

 

Also, How the hell we end up with 3 Prime Time games, all at Home? That is just awesome. And there's still a chance they may flex a game to Sunday night.

 

This is a great time to be a Saints Fan. Gonna have to leave my "Who Dat Tree" up until Mardi Gras. To Hell with X-mas, I'm decorating my house with Black & Gold!

Don't let the hype fool you, we still have work to do...

Continue reading this post »