| Douglas Benton. 11th December, 2006 - 12:20 am
 After the first few games of the 2006 season, the New Orleans Saints were the feel good story of the NFL. They returned to the Superdome as winners, becoming to the people of the Gulf Coast.
They have not relented and with their dominating 42-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, the Saints are now more than just a feel good story. They are Super Bowl contenders.
The positives that came out of Texas Stadium are too numerous to count, but one of them was an outstanding offensive game plan installed and called by head coach Sean Payton. Payton dinked and dunked the Cowboys’ defense in the first half before going for the jugular in the second half and seal the win away.
Payton’s innovative playbook allows everyone on the roster to get involved, as evident with 10 different receivers having a catch on a night they were without Joe Horn. Payton has a great knack of play-calling and keeping any defense off balance, even a top unit like the one Dallas has. He is fearless to taking risks and makes sure he is setting the tempo for the game so the defense has to react. To do this, Payton has used unknowns and former cast-offs, but the key cogs in this offensive machine are the free agent Drew Brees, first rounder Reggie Bush and Saint stalwart Deuce McAllister.
Brees is playing at a MVP caliber pace in his first year with the Saints with 3,649 yards and 20 touchdowns. Brees doesn’t have the biggest arm or the greatest size, but he knows how to play the position by reading defenses and throwing to the weaknesses.
Most of what Brees is using Payton’s offensive philosophy of attacking every level of the defense and then putting the ball ahead of his receivers so they have a chance to run and gain more yards. This is important because the Saints lack a wide receiver that can blow past cornerbacks on a regular basis.
One player who can get past defenders is Reggie Bush, who is showing the world that even though the uniform is different, his ability to make people look silly is still there. Bush is as much of a threat in the air attack as he is on the ground, well on his way to 100 receptions as a rookie running back and by lining up all over the field and using motion to slow down the defense, which adds a great dimension to the whole offense.
However, an underrated player for the Saints is Deuce McAllister, who gets lost with Bush on the team. He provides the team with a power running option to keep the opposing defense honest. No matter how good your passing game is, you need a running game to have a complete attack and win in the playoffs and the Saints have a nice attack with McAllister and company.
So now the Saints sit at 9-4 and should get a bye in the playoffs, which is crucial in a possible Super Bowl run. That run will be on the back of this offensive attack, which just seems to be getting better and better any week. Defense wins in January, but with Drew Brees and this offense, the New Orleans Saints might just be putting that theory to the test. |
