What an exciting football season for the New Orleans Saints.
For die-hard Saints fans like myself we sure are getting our money’s worth this season!
Who would have thought head coach Sean Payton’s team would have started off the 2007 season with a 0-4 start by losing to the Colts, Buccaneers, Panthers and Titans. The Saints started off by averaging a dismal 12.75 points offensively and a defense allowing 29.75 points on average.
Topping it off, running back Deuce McAllister suffered an ACL knee injury for the first home game hosting the Tennessee Titans.
The Saints then went on to win the next four games.
Quarterback Drew Brees and company scored an average of 30.5 points on offense and a stingy defense, limiting opponents to an average of 16.75 points per game.
In Brees’ last four games, he has thrown 11 touchdowns and 1 interception.
A big turnaround occurred from the first four games, where Brees was being hurried in the pocket, throwing interceptions and missing the mark with wide-open receivers.
In the first four games, Brees managed to throw one touchdown and nine interceptions with four interceptions coming from the home game against the Titans.
And for the last game against the Jaguars, Brees threw a staggering 445 yards and three touchdowns completing a whopping 71 percent of his passes.
Brees connected with wide receiver Marcus Colston with whom he had 10 receptions for 159 yards. He also found wide receiver David Patten for four completions for 81 yards and one touchdown.
As quoted in the Daily Comet, “I’d say our swagger is back,” Brees said. “When we were sitting at 0-4, we were trying to win one game, one game. Now, we’ve won four in a row, and we have a streak going.”
Much of the credit to winning the last four games can be attributed to the offense line playing excellent football in the trenches.
If the offensive line plays this well for the remainder of the season, the Saints may continue to put out some big numbers. Much of the credit could be attributed to offensive line coach Doug Marrone.
Marrone enters his second year in New Orleans as offensive line coach. Under Marrone’s leadership in 2006, the Saints featured the NFL’s top-ranked offense for the first time.
The team averaged 391.5 yards per game and 4,503 passing yards. Drew Brees became the first passer in team history to throw for over 4,000 yards.
It looks like Brees got his mojo back and maybe, just maybe, defense player Charles Grant’s bold prediction of going 12-4 may come true.
Now wouldn’t that be a nice finish for our beloved Saints?