We're doing to them what Seattle did to us in their house last week. We just don't lose in the Dome in prime time.
Yeah, 5 sacks tonight was impressive. Even more impressive was that they all came on 3rd down. It did suck that they gave up that TD on 4th and forever, but it is what it is. And, if you caught the SEA game today, their offense looked very pedestrian. I'm not sure what happened last week. We just looked S-L-O-W. You mentioned balanced, which the O lacked tonight. Only 69 yards rushing, with 38 on one play. Take that away and they had 16 carries for 39 yards. That's ugly. Not a big deal tonight because we were throwing all over them, but we're going to need a running game in the playoffs; specifically in Seattle.
The biggest thing we learned tonight was how to maintain a mobile quarterback. Pass rushers have to stay in their lanes and can't get funneled beyond the QB while he's in the pocket. Lesson to remember if we get another shot at Wilson.
Some more stats: When the Saints don't turn the ball over, they are 24-0 in the Brees/Payton era. When we hold a team under 20 pts, we're 47-3. We're 11-0 in prime time in the Dome. Not too shabby.
I had a 34-13 prediction for this game. I want my 5th TD back on that overturn. That pissed me off. Could have been a 5 TD performance for Brees, which would have broken the tie with the big foreheaded dude. Both are tied at 8 games.
Fun facts. Saints are 11-0 in their last 11 prime time night games at home. Drew Brees has 37 TDs and only 4 Ints during that time. The Saints have won those games by just a shade under 21 points per game. Drew Brees extended his own record of 300+ yard games while throwing at least 4 TD passes. He now has 22. Peyton Manning got his 18th today as well. Brady has 14. Drew Brees is also on pace for 41 TDs, which would give him 3 straight 40 TD seasons. No QB in NFL history has even done that in back to back seasons. Drew Brees needs to average just under 300 yards a game to surpass the 5,000 yard mark for the 3rd straight year and 4th time in his career. Again, no QB has ever even done that in back to back seasons. Drew Brees QB Rating when playing at home is 99.9. Peyton Manning is the only QB with a better rating at 100.1 (QBs with at least 125 starts).
