How did Saints, LSU fare? Let’s grade ’em…

New Orleans Saints:

Quarterback: The expectant father, Drew Brees, made his unborn young’in proud, slicing and dicing Tampa Bay all game long. We said last week that it’s not often that Brees struggles. We saw that to be the case in this one, a resounding rebound game.

GRADE: A-

Halfbacks: Christopher Ivory filled the Saints’ halfback void very, very nicely against the stingy Bucs defense.

GRADE: A

Receivers: The Saints had two receivers who had more yards than Marques Colston, who had 53 yards in his own right. Brees got all of the toys involved in the offense this week.

GRADE: B+

Offensive line: Drew Brees’ jersey never met the Tampa Bay grass, and the Saints ran the football successfully. Can’t ask for much more.

GRADE: A

Defensive line: Tampa Bay couldn’t run the football an inch the entire game. Granted, their run offense is pretty miserable, but it’s still a good outing for the Saints’ front.

GRADE: B+

Linebackers: Arguably the biggest offensive threat Tampa Bay has is tight end Kellen Winslow. He did have seven catches, but none of those surpassed 15 yards.

GRADE: B

Defensive backs: Tampa Bay had 27 total completions, but just 10 of those came to wide receivers. The Saints defensive backs did a good job locking down the outside, which forced Josh Freeman to check down all game long, which thus, limited the big play.

GRADE: B+

Special Teams: Garrett Hartley is still not very good. Perhaps the team could resign John Carney and forget the past few weeks ever happened? Or perhaps they could realize that neither of those guys are the answer and sign someone else?

GRADE: D

Coaching Staff: Tampa Bay was 3-1 coming into this game, but they still are a way away from Super Bowl status. With that said, the Saints didn’t hesitate to pound their outmatched foes to score a big win. The Black and Gold did a good job playing four quarters in this game.

GRADE: B

OVERALL GRADE: The Saints’ offense got on track – BECAUSE THEY RAN THE FOOTBALL. Take note of that, Sean Payton. It wasn’t a joke, coincidence or accident. Now, whether or not they do the same next week, that remains to be seen. But for now, a good and easy win.

TEAM GRADE: B+

LSU Tigers:

Quarterbacks: Jarrett Lee played mistake-free in LSU’s vanilla offense. Jordan Jefferson was pretty bad, though. Not sure if anyone is surprised by that anymore, though.

GRADE: C

Halfbacks: Stevan Ridley pounded in two more touchdowns to run his season total to six. Freshman Michael Ford added two TDs, too in a solid effort for the LSU running game.

GRADE: B+

Wide Receivers: Easily the toughest position to grade. These guys didn’t do anything wrong, but they didn’t make a ton of plays, either. But I think that was due to a laid-back offense from the LSU coaches. We won’t penalize the receivers for that. They caught it when it was thrown to them.

GRADE: B

Offensive line: LSU didn’t protect its quarterbacks all too well. They only averaged four yards per rush against the Cowboys, as well. That’s a number one would have expected to be much higher.

GRADE: C-

Defensive line: McNeese State almost had a 100-yard outing from their second-string halfback. That pretty much says it all right there.

GRADE: D+

Linebackers: The unit closed the holes and sealed the gaps, not allowing the Cowboys to have any big offensive plays. Solid effort from John Chavis’ linebackers.

GRADE: B

Secondary: Not too many guys were open out there for McNeese State. Patrick Peterson’s side of the field was completely off limits, too. Great game from a great unit.

GRADE: A

Special Teams: Patrick Peterson’s presence truly overwhelmed the Cowboys. When they kicked it to them, he made them pay. When they didn’t, LSU got good field position. A missed extra point from Josh Jasper is a concern, though.

GRADE: B

Coaching Staff: When you’re playing a team like McNeese one week before a big-time matchup, you have just two things in mind – victory and health. The LSU game plan was incredibly watered down, but LSU did both things, earning the win, while keeping everyone physically ready for Auburn.

GRADE: B+

OVERALL GRADE: LSU didn’t play well. But who cares? They didn’t need to. They came into this game knowing that they could be scaled back and still win, and that’s exactly what they did. The Tigers struggled a week before Florida and won. There’s no reason to panic when they struggle a week before Auburn. This was part of the plan. There’s no sense in going all out to beat McNeese by 45 points.

TEAM GRADE: B

Nicholls Colonels:

Quarterbacks: LaQuintin Caston was fabulous, tossing for two touchdowns, while rushing for more than 100 yards. A week after a poor conference opener, the Colonels stood large, led by their signal caller.

GRADE: A

Halfbacks: Caston was the team’s primary rusher, and the Colonels didn’t get a whole lot from anyone else. Jesse Turner didn’t have as big a day as he’d have liked.

GRADE: C+

Wide Receivers: Nicholls struggled to push the envelope down the field with big-strike passing plays, but they also didn’t necessarily have to with the way Caston was moving the chains with his feet.

GRADE: B-

Offensive line: One week after letting Caston get sacked more than 10 times, the Colonels’ young line stood tall and did well against a tough Texas State front.

GRADE: B

Defensive line: Texas State gained less than 100 yards on the ground and had less than three yards per rush. Solid outing from coach Dustin Gisclair’s defensive line.

GRADE: A-

Linebackers: Likewise, the Colonels’ defensive line didn’t let the short gains turn into big ones, and they defended well in space against Texas State’s massive pass attack.

GRADE: B

Defensive backs: As well as Nicholls played, the Colonels’ defensive backs were exposed in this game, giving up four passing touchdowns. But those numbers are skewed, because the game did go to four overtimes, so that’s like played an extra quarter.

GRADE: C+

Special Teams: The Colonels’ special teams came up huge. Patrick Dolan placed five of his eight punts inside the 20-yard-line. Likewise, his brother Andrew Dolan nailed a huge field goal in overtime. The Colonels also blocked a field goal in the game to give this unit a perfect grade.

GRADE: A+

Coaching Staff: One week after an embarrassing offensive performance, Nicholls responded in a big way, scoring a huge upset win. There is a big change of blood inside of Nicholls athletics, and it will take a while to set in, but they showed how good things will be in time on Saturday with a big-time win.

GRADE: B+

OVERALL GRADE: Nicholls was up against the wall on Saturday. They were huge underdogs and coming off a woeful performance. But with the game on the line, the Colonels responded countless times to score a huge win – the biggest of the Charlie Stubbs era – and one of the biggest in the past 3-4 years for Nicholls football.

TEAM GRADE: D