I was confident, confident Tom Brady and the boys had what it would take to match up against the hot and undefeated New Orleans Saints. I was confident that we had what it would take to shutdown Drew Brees and his receivers. I was confident Bill Belichick knew more about the Saints than I did. Apparently, not that much more. Sean Payton and Drew Brees absolutely trashed this Patriots Defense.
More after the jump.
In one of the toughest games of the season, our New England Patriots made every mistake they could possibly make. Interceptions, O-line fails, lineup confusion, you name it. But the biggest mistakes of all were from our young secondary. Brees is very good at redirecting inexperienced players to a different part of the field and then gunning it to someone else, someone who beat coverage. This young secondary fell for all of Brees's tricks hook, line, and sinker.
On the Patriots, we seem to have 1 or 2 deadly targets: Randy Moss, sometimes Benjamin Watson, and sometimes Sam Aiken. Not the Saints. Brees was able to spread the ball to no fewer than 5 guys for touchdowns. That's silly. There was simply no coverage on the Saints receivers. Our young backfield simply got torched by a quality team. And there was almost no pressure on Brees, one of the fastest QB's in the backfield with a super quick release. No pressure + inexperienced backfield = embarrassing loss.
I now know how our '07 rivals felt.