Blessed and Highly Favored - or - The Saints Are Coming! The Saints Are Coming!

One of the best things about playing a team twice in the season is that as a blogger, I get to recycle some of my first match-up article for use on the second match-up. Unfortunately, when we met the Saints in week 4 of the pre-season, both teams fielded a completely different version of themselves so I can't do that here.

We didn't face Drew Brees and his assortment of receiving goodies, and we didn't face what has turned into one of the top defenses in the NFL. We faced the 2nd and 3rd stringers, and the hapless Joey Harrington. At one point they wheeled Mark Brunell onto the field, and we took advantage. It's amazing how the team with arguably the best starting QB in the league had such mediocre depth at the position. They have since gotten rid of Harrington and have Brunell and Chase Daniel as the back-ups.

I'm not going to lie to you. Miami's best shot at winning this game is for Brees to get food poisoning mere minutes before the game.

Even that may not be enough. I'm by no means a Saints fan, but they have several things going for them that make them an intimidating opponent.

The Receiving Corps
Not to take anything away from Brees, but just about any QB would look good with this group of receivers. Marques Colston, Lance Moore, Robert Meachem, Devery Henderson, and of course Jeremy Shockey are the main event but they use running backs, Reggie Bush, Pierre Thomas, and Heath Evans in the passing game as well. The ability to put 8 or 9 legitimate receiving threats on the field in a game is one of the tactical advantages New Orleans brings to the game. The wide receivers make the kinds of plays that show up on highlight reels on a consistent basis. Brees knows he can put the ball up for them to make a play on it, and they will make the effort to get it. In watching the Giants/Saints game this past week, you can see Brees time and again making throws that most people would expect to fall incomplete or be intercepted. But for the most part, his receivers were ready for the early throw, or battled it out for the deep lob.

The Defensive Backfield
Eli Manning had tons of time to make throws, and went deep time and again, and the Saints secondary was all over it. Talk about speed - Jabari Greer looks like he's found new legs, and Tracy Porter continues to be the best cornerback you've never heard of in the NFL. Starting safeties Roman Harper and Darren Sharper seem to be in a perpetual cover-2 scheme, making the deep ball very tough to place. But there is another dimension to the Saints' DBs - the Blitz. Sean Payton sends blitzes frequently and from all different angles. The safety blitz is something the Dolphins can expect to see a good ten times a game, and they will blitz a nickel corner a few times as well.

These two units, combined with Drew Brees' quiet leadership and poise, and very accurate, very brave passing, and Sean Payton's coaching, is my opinion on why the Saints are undefeated and getting the media buzz they are. Being unstoppable in the passing game, and preventing other teams from passing on them makes for a pretty harsh opponent.

But since I only pointed out two specific units as strengths, you can probably foresee that I'm about to point out more weaknesses than you can shake a stick at (I don't know what that cliche actually means, but it fits here, right?).

Weaknesses

Offensive Line
This isn't a bad group, but they're not that great either. Pro-Bowler Jammal Brown is on injured reserve, and while the rest of the group has been moving the chains, I wasn't impressed with the pass-protection I saw from them. Brees gets hit a lot. They're not forming a pocket around him. And a lot of their running game comes from the outside. It will be work, but there's no reason why we won't have a good chance at getting pressure and limiting their running game.

The Linebackers
If Scott Fujita can't go on Sunday, then backup Troy Evans takes over. Johnathan Vilma is on pace to end up with 50 fewer tackles than last year. These guys are not really designed to stuff a power running game coming off a Bye week. If we can get past their defensive line, we should be able to push for extra yardage. They're also not a huge pass-rush threat, though the Saints will find other ways to create pressure, as mentioned above.

Special Teams
This could be the first time we face an opponent this year with worse kick coverage than ourselves. They looked awful vs the Giants, allowing Dominic Hixon to rack up 230 yards on 7 kick returns and 51 yards on 2 punt returns. Considering this will be Ted Ginn's first opportunity at more than one return in a game, there could be opportunity here for the Dolphins.

Reggie Bush
What's strange to me is that Bush is listed first on the Saints depth chart when basically all he does is return punts and run for negative yardage. I don't understand the Saints love-affair with Bush, especially considering Miami's hate affair with Ginn. Say what you like but Ginn has made more of an impact than Bush has for their respective teams. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the Saints having Bush active is much the same as the Dolphins having Pat White active on game days, so they sort of cancel each other out.

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Ok, here's the deal. The Saints are a damn good football team. But they are not unbeatable. They win by having a very balanced offense, and running a lot of play action. which sets up big plays down the field. Basically a very normal, un-gimmicky offense that is just executed very well. If an opponent facing them was able to do the same thing, then they'd have a good shot at defeating them. That opponent might as well be the Dolphins.

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INJURY REPORT - FRIDAY, 10/23/09

New Orleans Saints at Miami Dolphins

New Orleans
Questionable: LB Scott Fujita (calf), CB Malcolm Jenkins (ankle)
Probable: LB Jonathan Casillas (calf), TE Jeremy Shockey (shoulder), CB Leigh Torrence (hamstring), DE Jeff Charleston (rib), G Jahri Evans (toe), LS Jason Kyle (knee, ankle), P Thomas Morstead (right ankle)

Miami
No injuries to report.