Welcome everyone to another edition of #4Downs!
1st Down: Turning the Corner
During Rob Ryan’s teleconference on Tuesday, he said that he knows that his defense is close to turning the corner. At first when I heard this, it was that typical coach speak you’d expect from a 1-4 team. But based off of this performance, this team has turned the corner. From stopping the Falcons early on 4th down and short to forcing three turnovers, this defense proved to be too much for a team that had been unbeaten up to this point. The best part of this is that there was only one flag on the defensive side of the ball. And it was only an offsides call. After weeks of penalties shooting this Saints team in the foot, this may have been the cleanest game the Saints defense has played in a long time.
2nd Down: Is Watson the Answer?
All throughout this season, all of the talking heads discussed how Brees doesn’t have a target when it comes to the redzone like he did when Jimmy Graham was part of the team. Perhaps Brees found the answer in Ben Watson. Watson was the main target on Thursday night catching 10 passes for a career high 127 yards and a score. Brees was without one of his favorite targets since he arrived in New Orleans with Marques Colston being out with a shoulder injury, so perhaps it was a matter of Brees needing another target to throw to and thankfully on a lot of the passes to him he was wide open.
3rd Down: Failure to Capitalize on Opportunities
Another week, another game where the Saints could have had a blowout game against Atlanta. The Saints defense set the tempo early with multiple turnovers in the first half, but the offense failed to get any points off the turnovers. All these turnovers should have led to points regardless if it was a field goal or a touchdown. Perhaps this is nitpicking because they wound up winning anyway, but it’s still a big issue for this Saints team.
4th Down: 2006 Superdome Game Redux
Regardless of the outcome, having a blocked punt returned for a touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons was pretty special. The greatness of the moment was amplified because of Steve Gleason, the person who as everyone knows blocked the punt in the Monday Night Football game against the Falcons in the Superdome for the first time since Katrina. But what put it over the top is what Steve Gleason put out through social media.
This was the icing on a cake that was already pretty awesome because of how eerily similar it was and it got the Saints crowd, who hasn’t had much to cheer for so far this season, to make some noise.
Thanks for reading!
-Clint Domingue