Beating New Orleans

How does it get done? I can't imagine they try and grind it on the ground again, since NO will have all week to study that. The Panther D is depleted from when they met the first time.

How do they beat the Saints, who are rolling right now?

 

New Orleans has been terrible against the run, but I don't expect us to do quite what we did yesterday. Weinke will definitely have to make a few more plays with his arm.

Except for Rucker, this is pretty much the same defense we played against them last time. The safeties will have to play a great game, or at least not give up any 80 yard touchdown passes. And I imagine that we'll blitz inside and try to block throwing lanes. Some teams have had success doing that against Brees.


If Philly wins today, New Orleans will be locked into the #2 spot, which means they could (and probably should) rest some guys. That wouldn't be a reason to take them lightly, though. They still want to have a winning record in front of their home fans, regardless, so I don't expect anything short of their best effort. It will be a tough game for us.

 

I'm looking forward to watching the Giants game to see how the Saints so completely shut them down. To me, New Orleans' defense is the most underrated story of the season since they're mostly the same players they had before. On offense, tackling well is a must, but the biggest concern is just controlling the gaps up front. I'm not that worried about Henderson or Colston beating our secondary deep, but we can't allow them extra yards and we have to devote extra attention to Bush out of the backfield. To have a chance, though, we have to prevent McAllister and Bush from gaining much on the ground.

 

Yeah, they dominted TOP, but held the Giants to 0-10 on 3rd down. That is good defense, regardless.

They've done a good job of finding cheap talent, guys like Shanle and Fujita at LB who are playing well. They don't present a big ass NT up front, though, and that helps us. They're not particularly big anywhere, and they've been run on. Even the Giants had success in a limited amount of offensive plays.

 

Healthy Delhomme + yesterday's running game.

 

It amazes me how Weinke playing poorly makes people forget how much Jake royally sucked this year too. Everyone please remember that Delhomme has more turnovers than touchdowns this year, and that he didn't become the worst 3rd down passer in the entire NFL because we lacked a consistent running game. All that said, a healthy Delhomme does give us a better chance to win than Weinke, but he won't be healthy next week whether he plays or not.

 

forgetful Panther Fans...........shame on US.

:newsmile24:

 

You keep pointing out that Jake has more turnovers than touchdowns but that is a misleading stat. Jake actually has 15 touchdowns vs 11 interceptions. Even if you count fumbles lost, which he has 4, then it is even.

If you break down his season it becomes clear that he has played fairly well most of the time. The first two games of the year without Smith were two of his worst games. His two other bad games were against Dallas and Washington. The rest of his games were pretty solid

Here are his QB ratings for the rest of the games:

@ tampa 93.8
New Orleans 104.0
Cleveland 95.5
@ Baltimore 88.1 (on the road against a top D)
@ Cinncy 87.6
Tampa 92.8
Saint Louis 73.9
@ Philly 86.4 (with a bad thumb on his throwing hand)

 

oll





so anyway, the New Orleans run D has barely been tested (9th in attempts), but they're 25th in yards and 31st in y/attempt. They're also one of the worst defenses in the league v/s the #1 receiver; they're good against the #2 and the secondary targets, but not as much the TE (25th).

They give up over 4.5 yards/carry on runs outside contain on both left and right end. They're susceptible to pursuit. They're also very susceptible to being run right at their right end; they're marginal inside contain. They can be strung out, and swept on; if we execute right, we're not bad at all at if we can hit it up the middle.

And yes, I'd much rather have Delhomme.

Defensively, it'll be an interesting one to scheme. Bush is in stride, and McAllister's in another 1000 yard season; their loss of Colston means they're less powerful, and Horn isn't who he used to be because of the nagging injuries. He should be fine next year, but he's one I'd expect to be resting this week.

Their OL isn't good in power situations; they get their best yards outside left end. They run 52% in between the tackles; they distribute the rest somewhat evenly amongst off-tackles and outside the tackles, but a slight edge at outside left end.

 

They should be resting starters - they clinched the #2 seed.