Monday Night Football Week 12: The Saints Continue March to Miami, Reach 11-0
The predictions were relatively constant in similarity. Both teams were scoring a lot of points. Both teams would play to the wire. The Saints would edge it out. The Pats would outplay a team with a depleted defense. Saints. Patriots. Saints. Patriots.
Nobody saw a 21-point difference. And if you think you did, you were clearly just delusional.
Nobody routs a team that has won three super bowl championships within the past decade, especially a New England Patriots team with a hall of fame quarterback in Tom Brady. And Pro Bowl-caliber receivers like Randy Moss and Wes Welker. And a revolutionary coach like Bill Belichick running the plays. Nobody can completely out-stage a team this reputably good in a big game situation on a Monday night.
In 2007, the New England Patriots went 16-0, a perfect record in the regular season. In 2009, the New England Patriots were rightfully kicked off of their throne at the top of Football Olympia.
On the final night of a very quiet November, a Monday Night Football game showcased a power shift in team legitimacy. The once clutch-capable Patriots were completely embarrassed in the Superdome by the home team, a football team once deemed the title “The ‘Aints”.
There was no “ain’t” about this team. The Saints played so well on Monday that I don’t even know where to begin.
We can start at quarterback. What was supposed to be a duel between two elite quarterbacks ended up becoming a bullying session. And the guy usually known for out-dueling quarterbacks ended up getting a taste of his own medicine.
The numbers just don’t lie. Drew Brees donned an absolutely perfect quarterback rating. 371 yards. Five touchdowns to five different receivers. Not a single turnover.
Tom Brady? A quarterback rating of 55.0, far and away one of the lowest of his career. 237 yards. Zero touchdowns. Two interceptions.
Against a defense with nagging injuries all across the front and secondary. New Orleans literally hired old, familiar faces off of the street to compete against the once feared Patriots squad. Mike McKenzie, a former Saint who was let go in the offseason after a knee surgery, and NFL veteran Chris McAlister, contributed tremendously in the absence of Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer. McKenzie had arguably one of the most explosive comeback performances of any player coming back fresh off a surgery, picking off a Tom Brady pass intended for Randy Moss in the first half. The other pick came in the hands of Darren Sharper, the MVP of a New Orleans defense that kept Tom Brady from reaching the end zone by air. It was the eighth interception of the year for this season’s biggest comeback story.
Despite watching the game with a big crowd within my very own home, it was very easy to distinguish the amount of noise and excitement being showered onto the artificial turf of one of the league’s signature stadiums. There wasn’t a member of Who Dat nation anywhere within the contents of the dome that was not on their feet, cheering and showing their love for Louisiana’s most beloved sports franchise.
The Saints offense was unstoppable. Five different receivers caught touchdown passes. Including a third string tight end who hasn’t caught a single pass in his NFL career until tonight. I couldn’t even think of his name without fact checking myself. It is a distribution of the ball like this that makes this Saints team dangerous. Anybody, anyplace, anytime, on the field, can score points. The offense is flawless. It was built to score points, and scoring points it absolutely does. Drew Brees had a field day with Bill Belichick’s proud defense. In fact, the whole offense completely thrashed the defense in all aspects. The running game had its way with the defensive line all night when it counted the most. Drew Brees snapped into a rhythm quickly and never looked back.
The Patriots were completely dominated by a better team, a team who is just a solid field goal kicking situation away from perfection. The offense is unstoppable. The defense forces turnovers more than any other team in the league. When key players have off nights, other players step up in their place and make big plays to substitute any disadvantage plaguing their chances of winning.
The Patriots were beaten by the best team in the league so bad, by the 6-minute mark of the 4th quarter, Patriots coach Bill Belichick benched Tom Brady and other key starters and called it quits.
The New Orleans Saints are 11-0, and are five games away from a perfect season. Only one team with a winning record, the Dallas Cowboys, remain on the schedule. The Saints play at home on a Saturday night against the NFC East leaders. With an inconsistent offense and a defense with plenty of holes, do you honestly think Tony Romo and his group of pretenders can even leave a dent against a team this good?
Perfect season talk often becomes way too common of a topic among NFL teams with monstrous starts. But, really, the Saints are the most complete team in the league. As far as perfection goes, the Saints are about as perfect as you will find right now.
I want to go into detail about a factor I thought was going to a tell a completely different story about this game. Going into this highly-anticipated contest, I thought Wes Welker would be the big play maker of the night for the Patriots, making key receptions and scoring quickly. The type of player Welker is essentially forces defensive coordinators to build a game plan around them. Tonight, though, Welker only gained 46 all-purpose yards— through the air and on the ground. Randy Moss, while far from quiet, only totaled three catches for 67 yards.
By shutting down the biggest targets Brady had at his disposal when it mattered the most, the Patriots ran out of options and could only score two offensive touchdowns through the running game. But with as Saints defense this well disciplined, you can only score on the run for so long. The defensive line tightened up coverage on rushing plays and completely turned their only option on offense into a non-factor.
The Saints don’t have the best defense in the league by any means, but with the array of talent and big play corners on their squad, who needs to be a statistically solid defense when you are making the plays that matter the most? The defensive philosophy behind this great unit is unbelievable. Remember, everybody, this is a defense that was ranked in the lower portions of the defensive stats only a season ago. They were almost last in defensive turnovers and were in the 20-ranks in the passing game.
What a difference a year makes. While Drew Brees won’t even come close to having a statistically incredible season like last year, what matters most is the win column. The Saints are a game away from matching their all-time win total of 12, but such a record is irrelevant when you look at the possibilities of perfection.
On this night, the Saints put the rest of the NFL on notice. They have won games in every single way possible. They have destroyed teams. They have won ugly on defense. They have made solid teams look terrible. They have come from behind with deficits ranging from 10 points to 21 points and have achieved victory. The Saints have showcased every single aspect of what a championship team looks like.
A franchise quarterback who has pretty much become the unofficial Mayor of New Orleans, with his MVP-like production on the field and his contributions to the troubled city off the field. An offense that can score on any given down, on any given quarter, on any given field. A defense with the perfect mixture of veterans and rookies making plays and developing an insurmountable chemistry among each other.
You could easily draw up an area of concern with the field goal kicking game and a vulnerable defensive line against the run. But let’s be serious here. Who needs field goals when you score as many points as a Drew Brees-led offense? And why fret about teams with established running games when you can shut down the passing game and force the running game into blitz packages?
Even with potential holes, the Saints are an unsinkable ship. The fans of this team are riding high on one of greatest seasons in this half-century old franchise’s history.
With five games remaining, and a top playoff seed up for grabs, the league’s perfect team are showing no signs of slowing down. And for the sake of their perfect record, the unbeaten New Orleans Saints go back to work immediately as they prepare for a Washington Redskins team with a solid defense and a nothing-to-lose attitude.
In typical Saints fashion, one could assume the perfect record ends here in a trap game. History has no place here for this team, though.
Because this season, the New Orleans Saints are in the process of making a new history.
As Week 13 approaches, an occasion such as this just begs for the question.
Who dat thinks they are going to beat this team?
Saints Nation will see you in January, Minnesota.
