Things in the Cresent City are usually pretty laid back .Good food, good drinks, good people and great football. Not so great if you are a Carolina Panthers fan or Cam Newton.
Carolina came into the Big Easy on an eight game win streak, with a red hot defense and an offense that seemed unstoppable. That is until they came to New Orleans, where Rob Ryan‘s defense was like kryptonite to superman, completely debilitating Carolina’s futile attempts to get into the endzone. Stripping quarterback Newton’s cape of ego right off of him. An ego can be an Achilles Heel of sorts, one person’s big headed-ness can blind him and be costly to his teammates.
Moving on to coach Ron Rivera, good old “Riverboat” Ron said after the 31-13 loss that the New Orleans had the advantage because of the crowd noise and the artificial turf. He claimed that the Saints have better timing and speed on it. Too me, Rivera sounds bitter. The fact of the matter is Rivera was just upset that his #1 ranked Panthers defense who had not allowed more than two touchdowns in a game this whole season, allowed four touchdowns to the Saints. In fact the Saints were past the two touchdown mark putting up 21 points in the first half. The last time the Panthers had allowed any team to score that much in the first half of a game was ironically enough against New Orleans in week 17 in 2011 when Carolina allowed 24 points. The truth can be a bitter pill of sorts to swallow.
Speaking of the D, the Saints defense was as good as it gets holding the Panthers to only two field goals in first half of game. By keeping constant pressure on Carolina QB Cam Newton, the Saints defense was able to prevent him from making big plays down the field. Defensive Ends Cameron Jordan and Junior Gallette kept the heat on Newton all night with a total of five sacks between the two of them. Safety Kenny Vaccaro showed his potential for future greatness in making many critical stops. Linebackers Curtis Lofton and David Hawthorne as well as cornerback Keenam Lewis were like a three man dream team stuffing the run time after time.
New Orleans first possession was short lived and ended after only 1 minute and 16 seconds with Thomas Morstead punting 54 yards to Carolina’s Ted Ginn who made quite an effort to return only to be pushed out of bounds, or rather snatched out, by Morstead grabbing his face mask. While a flag was quickly thrown and a 15 yard personal foul penalty was given to New Orleans; I say BRAVO! to Mr. Morstead. Better to take the 15 yard penalty, than to give up seven points.
I was also pleased to see wide receiver Lance Moore step up his game. He seemed to finally get out of that rut he’d been in this season, making a spectacular catch late in seconnd quarter for 21 yards and then another for 11 more yards. I hope to see this spark from Moore the rest of the season, he is a very valuable player who can make some explosive things happen.
Tight end Jimmy Graham had another great night with two touchdowns even with the tight coverage on him throughout game. But it was wide receiver Marques Colston who stole the show and had the best night of his season. He had 9 catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns. He almost picked up a third touchdown in the third quarter when the referee signaled he had crossed the plane of the goal line for an 11 yard touchdown reception. Unfortunately it was not to be as the play was overturned on replay and the Saints ended up settling for a field goal. None the less he gave his all that night and I was so excited to see that again quarterback Drew Brees can utilize each and every offensive player.
Brees had another record breaking game in the place he calls home. He became just the fifth quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 50,000 yards. He was also the fastest to do so, getting to the mark in only 183 career games. The yardage mark puts him with other elite names he other elite players that have broken 50,000 yards; Brett Farve (71,838), Peyton Manning (64,009), Dan Marino (61,361) and John Elway (51,475). When asked in an post-game interview how he felt about the milestone, Brees was extremely humble and gave all credit to his coaches and teammates saying that without them the mark couldn’t have been achieved. This shows his character and his leadership in his team, who he considers family, and the commitment to what being great is all about.
After a heartbreaking loss to Seattle, coming back home to regain sole possession of the NFC South is a great way to keep New Orleans on task and eventually to the ultimate achievement the Lombardi. –Who Dat
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