The New Orleans Saints hadn’t lost a football game in 81 days, hadn’t even trailed in a game in a month, so watching the Dallas Cowboys suffocate the Saints high flying offense in a 13-10 loss was a bit like watching an alien invasion live on the TV; in theory anything is possible, but you didn’t ever expect to see it.
I’m not mad or even that upset the Saints lost, as Thursday’s game made me even more confident about the Saints chances of a Super Bowl Title. We’ll get to that in a second, but there was one thing that infuriated me about the Saints loss: Why did it have to be to the Dallas Cowboys?
The Saints were poised to give America the greatest gift its received since the French Fed Ex’d the Statue of Liberty, the gift of exposing the Cowboys as a fraud and sending all their fans back to wherever they live the 90 percent of the time the Cowboys aren’t any good. There is nothing so terrible in this world as arrogant Cowboys fans walking around happy, not to mention the next 11 days or longer of ESPN turning into 24/7 ‘Cowboys to the Super Bowl!!’ television.
You failed America Saints. You should feel shame.
Besides my unhappiness with losing to the Cowboys, the Saints actually showed something that will be incredibly valuable come playoff time; the ability to compete and win games in a style they’d rather not play.
The Saints played a grind it out defensive slugfest the Jim Mora led Dome Patrol seemed to be in every week in the early 1990’s. Dallas wanted the game to be a street fight in a dark alley and got exactly what they wished.
Did you think the Saints had it in them to get into a defensive slugfest on the road against a top 5 defense? On the list of “Things I did not see coming in 2018,” it ranks just ahead of me being on TV and just behind my 3-year-old son loving Selena Gomez’s music.
2018 is weird y’all.
While the national NFL talking heads will spend all day gushing over the Dallas defense, the Saints holding Ezekiel Elliott to 76 yards rushing and sacking Dak Prescott 7 times will be as if it never happened.
The Saints might still struggle against the pass, but any team thinking “Hey we are totally going to go into New Orleans for a playoff game and run the ball and beat the Saints” is as delusional as the person who thought peas in avocado was some sort of revolutionary good idea.
Demario Davis, Sheldon Rankins and Alex Anzalone have transformed the Saints defensive front into not just a defense that’s “good enough” to win but one that can beat an offensive line to a pulp. While the Kansas City and Los Angeles Rams have to worry about their defenses getting chewed up and run over by an opposing team’s rushing attack, the New Orleans Saints have no such concerns.
While the Saints defense showed how much it’s grown in Thursday night’s loss, Drew Brees’ quest for an MVP may have slipped away. Most of you may credit Dallas’ defense or say it was the Saints receivers’ fault for dropping so many passes, but you’d be wrong.
The fault of Drew Brees’ struggles last night fall squarely on Sports Illustrated and their cover jinx. Appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated during the season is the same as ordering a fourth Hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s at 4 a.m., nothing good will ever follow it.
The Saints offensive line looked like a beat-up unit playing its third game in 11 days. Give the Cowboys credit for dominating, but there’s no reason to think last night Dallas unlocked some secret formula to shutting down the Saints. There’s never been any secret to slowing down Drew Brees. The formula is hit him over and over and over until his timing and comfort in the pocket is ruined and he starts rushing throws and looking uneasy. It took Dallas four full quarters to get there.
Brees admitted as much after the game.
"I felt like we didn't really find a rhythm for pretty much the whole game. I guess we may have had one decent drive,” he said. “So credit to them."
So now the Saints claiming the number one seed in the NFC seems unlikely, but even that comes with a silver lining. If the Saints are locked into the number 2 seed going into Week 17 then Sean Payton can rest players during the season finale AND during the bye week of the playoffs. The last time the Saints had two weeks of rest before a playoff game they scored 45 points against the Arizona Cardinals in 2009.
The Saints are 10-2, I’ll overlook the fact all the Cowboy fans in Houston will make my life miserable until Dallas goes back to being a disappointment, and know the 2018 Saints are still on track to accomplish everything we hope they might.
Ralph Malbrough is a Saints fan living in Houston. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SaintsForecast or download his podcast at Itunes