Tuesday, Dec. 13
December 13, 2011
Hubert P. Rivere
December 15, 2011
There’s little to be proud of in a loss, especially when your opponent is one of the worst teams in the NFL.
But the New Orleans Saints’ Oct. 30 loss to the St. Louis Rams is beginning to look more like a positive than a negative.
In fact, it’s beginning to look like the spark that ignited the team’s season.
Now more than a month removed from the embarrassing setback, the Black and Gold say that game bred life in the team and has fueled its November push, which has given the Saints firm control of the NFC South Division and a playoff spot.
“That put us at 5-3 with an extremely tough stretch ahead of us, entering the month of November when we made a big emphasis on, ‘This is when the contenders separate themselves from the pretenders,’” Saints quarterback Drew Brees said. “We knew we’d have to play our best football.”
Playing their best is something the Saints have done without question since being defeated by the Rams.
Since that game, New Orleans has rattled home five-straight wins, including a perfect November that saw the team post wins against division rivals Tampa Bay and Atlanta, as well as a Monday night rout of the New York Giants.
Those wins, combined with Falcon losses have assured the team a postseason berth for a third-straight season.
The run also has fans wondering if 2009’s magic is being duplicated.
Black and Gold coach Sean Payton thinks it’s a fair question to ponder, but in true coach speak, he added the team has small things to polish in order to be great.
“It’s vital that you don’t succumb to that idea that we’ve arrived,” Payton said. “It’s a result-oriented business and winning is what’s most important. It’s much easier to come in after a win and look at your team and say, ‘Hey, these are things that we have to improve on.’”
One thing the Saints probably don’t need to improve upon is offense.
Since the setback in St. Louis, the Saints are averaging more than 30 points per game.
Brees is the largest culprit in the offensive fireworks, completing 81-of-117 passes for 943 yards, eight touchdowns and just one interception in the month of November.
“Drew said one drive, one play at a time,” Saints tight end Jimmy Graham said. “He’s a surgeon out there.”
If Brees is the surgeon, Graham could accurately be named head nurse.
The second-year tight end has emerged as Brees’ go-to receiver, having already eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark for the season.
“For me, it’s all about wins,” Graham said. “Personal accolades, we’ll wait until the offseason to look at those.”
With Brees and Graham carving opposing defensive backs, the Saints’ running game has also gotten hot in recent weeks.
New Orleans has rushed for 100 or more yards in three of its past four games. Those efforts have taken the team up the statistical chart, placing the Saints at No. 8 in the NFL in rushing offense.
During the team’s Super Bowl run, New Orleans ranked No. 6 in rushing.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement in the run game and I think that’s something we’re continuing to strive for,” Payton said. “We understand the importance of it and we’ll continue to work on it and continue to be our own self-scout in regards to who’s on the field and what we’re running.”
With the Saints’ offense piling on points by the dozens, New Orleans’ defense has been able to pin its ears back and try and pressure the quarterback.
The Saints’ blitz-heavy scheme hasn’t been great, but has been just good enough to get opponents off the field enough times to allow the Black and Gold to outscore its opponents.
Defense might win championships, but right now, several of the best teams in the NFL rank near the bottom of the league in yards allowed per game.
Improvement from that unit is more important to Payton than anything else right now.
“It’s the teams as we move forward that are able to play their best football not just on one side of the ball or the other,” Payton said. “We talked about Indianapolis in ’06. There was a lot of pressure on them in regards to how their defense was playing. Right down the stretch entering the postseason, we saw a huge improvement and eventually a team that won a Super Bowl.”
Whether or not the Saints experience the same fate as that Colts team did remains to be seen.
Either way, that one miserable day in St. Louis just may be a blessing in disguise.
“You’re coming off a couple of disappointing losses where you feel like that’s not good enough,” Brees said looking back. “That’s not our brand of football. If we’re going to fix it, it’s time to fix it.”
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees frees himself from an invading Tampa Bay Bucs defender. Brees has been juking and jiving the Saints into the end zone all month, sparking a postseason push. FILE PHOTO
