(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
In the first five weeks of the season, the New York Giants had the best pass defense in the NFL. So the chatter leading up to today’s marquee match-up between the Giants and the also undefeated New Orleans Saints focused mainly on the passing offense of the Saints, which had been on a cold streak for two straight weeks, and the pass defense of the Giants.
What analysts failed to mention about that Giants miraculous pass defense had played against the likes of Jason Campbell, Tony Romo, Byron Leftwich, Matt Cassel, and JaMarcus Russell. You could argue that Campbell, Romo and Russell are in the bottom five of the NFL’s QBs (We know Romo is last.) and Cassel is not nearly as good as he was last year without the offensive line and set of receivers he was gifted with in New England. That means Byron Leftwich was the best QB they faced, and he was benched mid-game for Josh Johnson, a second year quarterback out of the University of San Diego. General point: Stats don’t tell the whole story.
Drew Brees made every single person that thought the Giants would come into the Super Dome and take care of business look absolutely positively foolish, torching a very overrated Giants secondary that was constantly lax on coverage and poorly coached. The Saints battered the big blue, 48-27, and it was much worse than the final score indicated.
Brees, after two straight games with no passing touchdowns, tossed for 369 yards and four touchdowns on 30 pass attempts. That put him at a near perfect 156.8 QB Rating. The New York defense was confused all day as Brees spread the ball out to multiple outlets. Marques Colston had a beast eight grabs on eight targets for 166 yards and a touchdown (he was ruled down at the one yard line on a play that should have given him another score). Lance Moore caught six of the seven passes thrown his way for 78 yards and a TD. Tight end Jeremy Shockey also had a big day playing against his hated former team catching four passes for 37 and a touchdown.
That’s enough of a beat downs right there, but that wasn’t the only part of the Giants team that the Saints exposed as a fraud. A side effect of playing all of those bad quarterbacks in the first five weeks is that they had horrible defenses behind them. Thus, Eli Manning looked superhuman against some really bad teams, amassing a QB Rating of at least 93.5 in every game.
A very underrated Saints defensive group held Manning to 178 yards through the air and stopped Eli from completing 50% of his passes (14 of 31). Manning through for just one touchdown while turning it over twice on an interception and a fumble.
[Note: David Carr, in garbage time, was 4/5 for 72 yards and a TD. How about that!]
The Saints are now 5-0 and they certainly have that championship feel to them. Amazing quarterback, complete group of offensive players and a very good defensive unit. This may be a stretch, but New Orleans’ toughest opponent the rest of the year, which is certainly a beatable team. Could we be seeing a 16-0 team? Hey, anything is possible with Drew Brees as your quarterback.
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