Exittium
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TheWallE":3tg5litz said:Thats a pretty good track record for pinpointing potential blowouts this year. Allow me to respectfully disagree with a few of your points however:
1) The Saints absolutely CAN run the ball. Are they great at it? No. Are the inconsistent at best? Yep. However, teams with similar 'poor' rushing units according to the Stats have gone into Seattle and had lots of success:
Tampa Bay had over 200 yards
Arizona had 139
The point is, it can be done, and this New Orleans rushing attack is coming off one of their stronger efforts.
2) The Saints CAN stop the run. The Saints have in fact faced 5 of the top 10 rushers in 2013 (including the top 2 and your own Marshawn Lynch) and none of those 5 have rushed for over 100 yards. Their defensive front is more than capable of playing at a high level. Take last week for an example: Philly is one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL, lead by a monster rushing attack that averaged over 160 yards a game. The Saints D went on the road, in the sub freezing temperature, and held them to less than half of their season average. They are more than capable of stopping the run.
3) You are completely wrong about the tenor of this Saints defense. The Saints are one of the NFL leaders in sacks with two players in the top 6. Both of those players are defensive ends, and the majority of our pressure looks come with four men up front or a minimal risk blitz from the LBs. The era of the Saints playing crash and all out blitz football has come and gone. The Saints are one of the better teams at developing pressure with their defensive front.
Add to that the already mentioned successes this team is capable of having stoping the run and you see why New Orleans finished the season ranked 4th over all on defense. They absolutely can play good defense, and your premise is incorrect that it folds when up against good offenses (see last week)
4) I sincerely hope the Seahawks call this game the exact same way, that is step one for a huge blunder. Because New Orleans is absolutely NOT going to call the game the same way, which means the outcome is 100% guaranteed to be different. Historically games of this nature (A playoff rematch of a regular season blowout) are very rarely similar outcomes to the first meeting. In fact the team that loses the first game in this scenario is 13-12 in the rematch. Showcasing that blowing out a team in the regular season is not as massive of an advantage as would seem.
That one sentence made me spit my coffee out to laugh.. because aside from those two games you name more where teams have had SOOO much "success". ALSO the stains maybe in your opinion have had their strongest effort for the run but in my eyes, it against what the 28th ranked defense.
Your easy schedule has also allowed for that "4th" place defense. The saints have been all season long the paper tiger of the NFC, such as the chiefs were for the AFC
Now take ur saints homerism and begone with ya. Your comparing apples to oranges. 8) :icon_new: