Did you know the New Orleans Saints have won 23 straight games in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome when they enter the game have a winning record? It's true. The last time the Saints lost in the Superdome when they had a winning record was Week 17 of 2010.
Most people would just chalk that up to 'Good teams being good at home.' I'd like to throw out a different theory; The Superdome is one of the last raucous stadiums left in the NFL because it hasn't been overtaken with luxury boxes and corporations buying up the seats. In short New Orleans is one of the last cities where the die hard and rowdy fans haven't been priced out yet.
Combine a raucous crowd, explosive offense, and JUST enough defense and the Saints with Drew Brees and Sean Payton are damn near untouchable at home. The Saints 45-35 thrilling win over the Los Angeles Rams was exactly the product the NFL wants to deliver in 2018; as little defense as possible topped off with a fun celebration to wrap it up.
Somewhere Roger Goodell high-fived his butler knowing most of America was watching the Saints-Rams shootout.
We need to start at the end and Michael Thomas celebrating the greatest receiving day in Saints history by paying homage to the greatest showman in Saints history. Thomas breaking out the flip phone post touchdown party and going full Joe Horn 2003 was magical. After Thomas' 72-yard TD catch capped a franchise record 211-yard day, he should have used the phone to call a jazz band and then second lined his way out the stadium while leading said jazz band. It was arrogant, cocky, over the top, and I loved every second of it.
Cam Jordan summed it up perfectly, “"That’s a legend move, right?” You damn right.
The Saints are in swagger mode now. Or as my friend, a former and maybe hopefully future Saints blogger, who currently resides on Twitter @moosedenied likes to say, “We make the rules pal.” Michael Douglas' character in the movie Wall Street said it but Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints live it.
If you don't like the Saints stunting all over you with cellphone celebrations and Taysom Hill trick plays, you can stop them, or you can just shut the #$% up and take your beating. It's November 5th, the Saints are the best team in the NFC, and are 18-4 since starting 0-2 last year. The Saints are at their best when they combine aggressiveness and arrogance in just the right amounts. In a battle of NFC heavyweights they delivered more than enough of both.
The Saints put up 45 points, 487 yards of offense, and needed every damn one of them because the Saints defense was giving up 483 yards of their own.
Alvin Kamara does so many incredible things, I sound hyperbolic or maybe like a teenager describing the latest Taylor Swift record every week writing about Kamara, but his first touchdown, he caught a pass, was surrounded by 3 Ram defenders, disappeared, and reappeared in the end zone. It was some sort of Harry Potter/Game of Thrones type ridiculousness.
While Kamara was doing his weekly magic show, Michael Thomas and Drew Brees were burning the NFL's 8th ranked defense to the ground playing pitch and catch. Thomas is currently on pace to catch 133 passes for 1,529 yards. He's already 11th in receiving yards in Saints history. Think on that for a moment.
All Drew Brees did Sunday was go 25 of 36 for 346 yards and 4 scores. Oh and make a handful of ridiculous plays in the pocket that 39-year-old guys aren't supposed to make.
In all the fireworks, fun, and spectacular play of the Saints offense we sometimes forget how great the offensive line is. Drew Brees wasn't sacked by either the Rams Sunday or Minnesota Vikings last week.
Why do I bring up the Vikings? After not really coming close to hassling Brees they nearly murdered Mathew Stafford. Minnesota sacked Stafford 10 times yesterday. That ain't no typo kids. That's a 1 followed by a 0. The Saints offensive line is something special.
While the Saints offense continues to pile up the points, the glory, and the fun, the Saints defense is, well, it's doing enough. Barely.
The Saints intercepted Jared Goff, forced a field goal, and held them on downs late to wrap things up. It might be terrible or it might be plenty good enough to win a Super Bowl in 2018. I have no idea because the NFL has no interest in letting teams play actual defense.
PJ Williams again made two big plays late, even if they weren't as spectacular as last week. New Saints corner Eli Apple is very good at tackling receivers who don't have the ball but it's only been 2 weeks.
Please note, I'm not complaining, I love watching great offense anyway. Great offense is fun and it means you always have hope. If you watched LSU against Alabama Saturday, you know the hopelessness of experiencing football where your offense struggles to not go backwards.
The Saints are 7-1 and the only things currently not in their favor is the remaining schedule is difficult and they have the misfortune of playing in the one division in the NFC with more than one competent team. The Carolina Panthers are 6-2 and suddenly there is a real chance the 2018 Saints could go 12-4 and be playing a road playoff game against the 9-7 Philadelphia Eagles.
Those are concerns for another day. On this Monday morning the Saints rule the NFC with prop filled touchdown celebrations, playing 3 quarterbacks, and an offense doing whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Don't like it? Tough. New Orleans shall party until somebody shuts our football carousing down.
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. Oh and watch him every Monday on the WWL morning news at 6:45 a.m.