Jacks out of 3A playoffs
December 4, 2013
Last-second heroics push LSU past Arkansas
December 4, 2013
Entering the team’s Week 13 contest with the Seattle Seahawks, the New Orleans Saints were playing some of their best football of the season.
One of the reasons for that was the success of the team’s rushing attack, which came into the week averaging 97.7 rushing yards per game for the season and four yards per carry.
While that still ranked in the bottom 10 of the league before Sunday’s games, the Saints had gotten a promising rushing effort in each of the team’s three previous games, including a monstrous 242-yard effort in a 49-17 victory over Dallas in Week 10.
Not coincidentally, that was the start of a three-game winning streak that included wins over two potential playoff teams in the Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers on the heals of a dismal rushing effort against the New York Jets in which the team was held to just 41 yards on the ground in a 26-20 loss at the Meadowlands.
The success of the running game also followed a four-game stretch to start the season when the Saints’ top back, Pierre Thomas, averaged just 25.3 yards per game. Over a three-game stretch in October, Thomas’ average doubled to 50.7 yards per game, and for November, that average had risen to 58.3 yards per game.
That’s not counting the recent surge from tailback Mark Ingram, who exploded for 145 yards in a breakout showing against the Cowboys and had a modest 57 yards rushing on 15 carries (3.8 YPC) over his next two games against San Francisco and Atlanta.
For his part, Thomas recently said the Saints knew their offense – and the running game in particular – had the potential to put up big numbers. They were just their own worst enemy at times during the beginning of the season.
“We were going through a lot, putting ourselves into bad situations or putting ourselves in holes with penalties … delay of games, just little things we had to correct,” he said. “We couldn’t really find that groove, that good tempo.”
The Saints eventually found that tempo, and that helped lead to three wins in a span of 12 days. Even with the game against the Seahawks, one of the NFL’s best defenses, in their rearview mirror now, the Saints will continue to face tests from other top-notch defenses in the NFL, namely NFC South division rival Carolina.
Through the first 12 games of the season, the Panthers led the NFL in fewest points allowed per game at 13.1.
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE?
Leading up to the Seattle game, the most talked about storyline was that the Monday Night showdown at CenturyLink Field would go a long way toward deciding the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the race for home field advantage.
In recent years, however, home field advantage hasn’t been as much of an advantage for teams as it once was.
Beginning with the Super Bowl XL champion Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005, a total of three Wild Card teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl after spending the entirety of the playoffs away from home.
Three more teams, the Indianapolis Colts in 2006, the New York Giants in 2011 and the Baltimore Ravens a year later, played on Wild Card weekend in the opening round of the post-season and won three playoff games en route to winning the Super Bowl.
Moreover, the last team with home field advantage throughout the playoffs to win the Super Bowl was none other than the Saints in 2009.
None of which is to say that home field advantage is no longer a luxury, but that teams have increasingly found a way to win in the playoffs without it in recent years.
In the Saints’ case, the team has been one of the most successful franchises on the road in recent years despite their only losses this season coming away from the Superdome.
In preparation of Monday night’s game at Seattle, in wintry conditions no less, Saints coach Sean Payton said the team wasn’t putting any more emphasis on their opponent even with the No. 1 seed up for grabs.
“We try every week to prepare as if that type of game is of the same magnitude,” Payton said. “It’s (always) the next challenge and certainly it’s a big challenge. It’s not like you do additional this or that. As coaches and players, you lay down the itinerary, get adapted to it and follow the process of getting acclimated as quickly as you can to the opponent. After this game, we’ll treat the next week the same way.”
New Orleans Saints halfback Pierre Thomas makes a move during a game this season. Thomas and the Saints have pounded opponents in recent weeks with a stout run offense.
