Observations from a fan at the Saints Game

I usually make one or two trips a year to a Phins game in Miami.  Leaving the Chicago area to go to South Florida in the late fall / early winter every year is a way for me to decompress, to forget about work and watch my beloved Phins play football. 

It is a guys weekend with my brother from Memphis and a cousin from Orlando.  We leave the wife and kids at home and do what old married guys do:  play golf during the day (drinking as much beer as possible), go to some clubs at night (drinking as much beer as possible), and then end up at a nudey bar (drinking as much beer as possible AND tucking a few bucks).  But the trip is always highlighted by a Phins game!  Just a great time year in and year out!

So now we get to the Saints game.  In all my years going to a Phins game, I have never been in the stadium that was rocking like it was in the first half!  The place was electric!  Then the second half hit and the place went dead!  It was simply amazing.

Here are some observations that I had from the game.  Some of these have been covered to death by others on the site, but hopefully I will be able to give a couple that have not:

OFFENSE

• Ricky Williams is still a stud!  The move he made on the DB during the long TD run was awesome.
• Ronnie Brown is a beast!  He is undoubtedly one of the hardest running RB's that I have ever seen.
• Ted Ginn Jr. sucks monkey balls!  Not only did he not catch a perfect pass from Henne, he tipped it up into the air for Pick 6!  Unreal!
• Brian Hartline is SSSLLLLOOOWWW!  He finally got off a bump at the LOS, makes a nice catch, the safety takes a bad angle, and he is off to score a long TD, right?  Wrong.  He got run down like a dog while watching the video board!
• Brian Hartline is a world class sprinter compared to Camarillo!  He is simply not right.  Until he is fully recovered from his injury I wonder how much he can help the team.
• The Phins WR’s Suck!  Enough Said!
• Fasano was non-existent for the entire game until he dropped a pass!  I wish I could say he blocked well in the running game, but I didn’t see it.
• Henne is going to be a stud!  I felt he played a very good game but didn’t get any help from his pass catchers.  See above!
• I was not impressed with the O-Line for the most part!  Their day was uneven at best.  Sometimes they played well, others not so well.  Not very consistent, especially in pass protection.

DEFENSE

• Creating 4 turnovers in any game is awesome!  The combination of pressure and ball hawking (See Nate Jones Below) was tremendous!
• JP and JT are not every down players!  When they are fresh, they are beasts, like in the 1st half.  It was obvious that in the 2nd half they were a step slower and not as quick.  20-25 plays a game for each of them would maximize their production.
• Y. Bell is simply awful in pass coverage!  He bites on every play fake (long pass to Shockey) and can’t cover when he doesn’t bite.
• I am done with Crowder!  Another game and the only impact he had was negative.  That 15 yd penalty was stupid.  But playing ILB on a QB sneak from the 2 yd line, he didn’t move out of the end zone.  Ayodele did, why didn’t Crowder?  Look at 3:25 of the video link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylwmUVA3ia4
• Even though Mike Bell had a decent 2nd half, the run defense is very good!
• It was nice to see some blitzes that actually worked for a change!  Y. Bell was a stud on the blitz.
• Nate Jones is a play maker!  That INT was unbelievable!  I hope he starts playing more, especially with Will Allen being out.  He was very good in coverage most of the game.

COACHING

• Great Game Plan to start the game!  The Phins were well prepared to begin this game.
• Shitty 2nd half adjustments!  It took the Phins the entire 3rd quarter for the offense to adjust a Saints defense that was putting 8-9 men in the box and playing man behind it. 
• Horrible defensive call on the 2nd to last play before the half!  The Phins were in a 3 deep zone.  They should have been in quarters and kept everything in front of them.  This isn’t 2nd guessing, I said it at the game, called the pattern by Colston and everything.
• WTF was Sparano thinking calling a TO before half!  The crowd in my area was stunned.  Might be one of the dumbest TO’s I have ever seen.  It just gave the Saints 4 points.
• Great coaching move by the staff to take Ginn out of the 2 minute offense after his drop!  He was hanging his head and wasn’t going to make a play.  After the drop, the Phins 3 WR set featured Hartline, Camarillo, and Bess.
• Awful coaching move by the staff to have Williams in for the 2 minute drill instead of Brown!  Ricky was great on Sunday, but he is not a dependable pass catcher (his drop was huge).  Brown is much better in that situation.

Well that is all I got for this game.  I am going to be at the NE game on Sunday Night in December.  Hopefully the results will be very different!