A little respect from Howie Long

[JOEinPHX]

Howie Long weighed in on the Falcons win in a post late last night, and I think he summed things up pretty nicely. With respect to Fox Sports, I'll cut and paste it here:

The Saints, the defending champs, have to be a little concerned. Not only did they lose in overtime to their biggest rival in the NFC South, the Atlanta Falcons, but they also still have to play a month or more without Reggie Bush, who can turn a 5-yard dump-off pass into 15, 25 yards or even a touchdown. They also lost cornerback Tracy Porter, one of their defensive stars in the Super Bowl, and that’s not good, either.

The Falcons won by being able to pound the ball on the Saints. They have something very good going right now with Michael Turner and Jason Snelling pounding the middle of the line. But I came away from the game being impressed by the growth of quarterback Matt Ryan. A year ago, he went into the Superdome, and he threw three interceptions, two inside the 5-yard line. Today, zero.

Instead, it was Drew Brees who uncharacteristically turned the ball over. Since the 15th game of last season, he had gone 241 pass attempts without a pick. But he threw two interceptions today, so turnovers were the difference.

Each and every personnel move general manager Thomas Dimitroff and coach Mike Smith have made was geared toward beating New Orleans, particularly on defense with the acquisition of Dunta Robinson and rookie linebacker Sean Witherspoon. They made moves to improve their overall team speed and pass coverage, and it’s working.

Brees took a big hit on his left knee toward the end of the game. I’m not sure whether that factored into Sean Payton’s decision to not try to punch it in when they got down to the Atlanta 11-yard line. Payton opted to kick the field goal immediately with a first down. And when Garrett Hartley missed that 29-yarder, the Saints defense got worn down on the final drive.

Defensively, the Saints have made a living off giving up the yards and counting on their opponents to make mistakes. No defense does a better job of stripping the ball away from the opponents. But with the exception of the fluke turnover on the punt return, the Saints produced zip in this big division game.

[AUTiger7222]

Thanks for posting! Howie Long has long been one of the better talking heads!

[phocis850]

Very nice read. Howie isn't scared of saying what he says, he still has that "tacklin' fuel"

[TomBradyMVP12]

Great post.


I hope some other experts can read this, I am sick of hearing "what's wrong with the Saints?" The better team won.

[ChocTheFalconFan]

"But with the exception of the fluke turnover on the punt return, the Saints produced zip in this big division game"

Thats so true! - The Saints fan say we are lucky to win man they are were lucky to even be in the game! - The only reason they were in the game was because of our ST!

[Sporkdevil]

Well... and Lance Moore. It's like we didn't have an answer for him, but he was the only thing that shined on the whole team.

[Knight of God]

Oh yeah, I understood our moves way better after yesterday. LOL!!! No, I'm serious.

[JOEinPHX]

(09-27-2010 12:47 PM)Sporkdevil Wrote:  Well... and Lance Moore. It's like we didn't have an answer for him, but he was the only thing that shined on the whole team.

And Lance Moore is a Columbus boy - how did my Bucks miss on that one!

Seriously, Moore's two big plays were the result of scheme failures. Hopefully, those get fixed, because the Falcons have already had more than enough.

[RnB]

Quality analysis, by talking head standards, is hard to come by. We dominated that football game, outside of the two big scheme failures which gave them an easy fourteen.

I dont even consider the strange punt turnover a failure, just a typical play for the Saints. On the opening return, our ST got caught off guard and blasted which resulted in a score for the Saints. That blown zone coverage between Spoon and Decoud that allowed Moore an easy "Madden" touchdown was the only other true failure worth mentioning, that Howie missed. He still had to cut the Saints some slack with the injury talk to open the piece but everyone should expect that by now, regardless.

Its refreshing to see something in print from a national analyst that puts things in perspective. Not only did he go to bat for the huge win we had Sunday but gives props to our FO and team philosophy. I would have gotten a chuckle if he had referred to "the process" when talking about our acquistions, it was not meant to be though.

Thanks for the post.