FOX 8 Sports Director John Henry Smith gives his weekly thoughts to readers about the previous week's Saints game in this column called "5 Things I Think About..."5 THINGS I THINK ABOUT... the Saints 35-27 win over Atlanta:
JO-LONN DUNBAR HAD HIS MOMENTS He made his first career start in place of an injured Scott Fujita Monday night. The stat sheet says he was only in on 4 tackles. But, I remember them being 4 very impressive tackles. Number 56 was frequently in the right place, even if he didn’t make the play. On the downside, he got handled easily by Tyson Clabo on Michael Turner’s touchdown run. Also, I didn’t see as much of Dunbar in the 2nd half. I don’t know why.
COACHES CHALLENGE BASED ON A PLAYER RECOMMENDATION AT THEIR PERIL!On Pierre Thomas’s fumble, it looks like he wanted to believe he was down so much that he convinced himself it was so. Worse, he convinced Sean Payton he was down too. The result: a lost challenge and a lost timeout. Players full of adrenaline might not be unbiased enough to rely on for such decisions.
JOHN ABRAHAM IS M.I.A.The renowned Falcons pass rusher did not record a single defensive statistics against the Saints. To be sure, Saints tackle Jermon Bushrod played a role. But, Abraham is also clearly not himself this year. He’s got only 3 sacks through 7 games.
THERE IS NO WAY THE SAINTS MISS THE PLAYOFFSDid you know that in the last 20 years, 5 teams have started 7-0. All 5 of those teams made the playoffs and 3 of them won the Super Bowl!
THE DEFENSE IS GOOD, BUT…The Saints have an OPPORTUNISTIC defense, not a SHUTDOWN defense (a la the Ravens of a few years ago.) The defense is only 17th in the NFL in terms of points allowed per game (22). This week’s opponent, Carolina, is 19th (23.7). Clearly, the biggest difference between these two teams is that the Saints quarterback is Drew Brees, while the Panthers quarterback is Jake Delhomme. If anything happens to Brees, the Saints do not have the type of defense that could go lead them to the Super Bowl with a lesser talent at quarterback.
X-TRA POINT! AARON STECKER: BOOED LIKE FAVRE Not really, but the fact he was booed at all was troubling. To my recollection, Aaron Stecker did not leave the Saints voluntarily. I also recall him playing hard for parts of 5 season in the black and gold. That’s why I was a little surprised to hear an undercurrent of boo’s for Stecker the two times he touched the ball Monday night. Saints fans, be happy that he’s got a new job after the Saints made it clear they didn’t want the man anymore! Here’s a question Saints fans: Would YOU have chosen unemployment over the Falcons offer?
