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The Buckles Report: Saints Dominate in the Black Hole

On November 19, 2012 / Featured, Kevin Buckles, saints, Saints News, Saints News Radio / Leave a comment

THE GOOD

At last, a stress-free Saints game! The Saints did exactly what they were supposed to in Oakland Sunday, absolutely dismantling the Raiders, 38-17. This was the type of play that Who-Dat fans, along with the rest of the league, are accustomed to seeing from New Orleans. Drew Brees had the offense clicking and was sharp as usual, completing 74% of his passes and throwing for three touchdown passes. But it was ultimately the running game that continues to impress the most. Since Joe Vitt returned from his suspension he’s made a clear effort to get back to running the football often and effectively, and it has resulted in three straight victories for the Saints.

Versus the Raiders, the running game compiled 153 yards on 28 carries, making it the third consecutive game the Saints have rushed for over 140 yards after only rushing for over 100 yards once in their first seven games. As I predicted in my Saints/Raiders Game Preview (http://www.saintsnews.net/2012/11/16/the-buckles-report-saints-must-avoid-the-trap-game-in-the-black-hole/), Mark Ingram had a big game for the Saints with 67 yards on 12 carries, including a breakout 27-yard TD in the 3^rd quarter. It’ll be very interesting to see how the Saints will utilize their running backs once Darren Sproles returns from injury, especially since it has peaked in his absence. Nevertheless, the new found efficient running game is a welcoming sign and should garner more wins going forward.

THE BAD

Under Sean Payton’s regime, the Saints have been a damn good well-disciplined team. However, vs. the Raiders, New Orleans committed an uncanny 11 penalties for 109 yards. That’s just careless football and there’s no way it would fly if Sean Payton was on the sideline. Fortunately for the Saints, they were playing lowly Oakland but this is definitely still something from this game to improve on moving forward. If New Orleans is serious about surging their way to the playoffs, they must remain sharp. Their margin of error is already very slim so it’s vital that they cut back on the mental errors.

THE VERY GOOD

Man, I never thought I’d be talking about the Saints defense in my “The Very Good” section, I suppose the Mayans were right about world ending soon. Granted this was vs. an extremely less talented Oakland Raiders team, the Saints defense displayed flashes of the ’09 opportunistic defense that helped lead the team to a Superbowl victory. Although two forced turnovers were blasphemously called back by the referees, the Saints still managed to intercept Carson Palmer twice, one that was returned for a TD by Malcolm Jenkins and the other by Roman Harper in their own endzone. The defense still unfortunately continued their streak of giving up 400 yards but most of the yards came in ‘garbage time’ when the game was already well in hand. This just goes to show that no matter how many yards the defense gives up, as long as they make timely stops and produce turnovers, the Saints offense will do the rest and the team will remain very tough to beat.

THE TURNING POINT

After the Saints offense failed to convert Roman Harper’s interception into points early in the 2^nd quarter, Carson Palmer proceeded to drive right down the field and cut the Saints lead in half making the score 14-7. All of a sudden, despite clearly dominating the game thus far, the Saints lost all momentum while letting the Raiders hang around in the game. On the ensuing possession, Brees was able to lead the offense to fairly decent striking distance for points until he was called for a critical Intentional Grounding on 2^nd down pushing the Saints out of field goal range. However on a huge 3^rd down & 13, Brees made a stellar play by stepping up in the pocket, and delivering a strike to WR Lance Moore in the endzone for 38-yard TD. From there the tides completely turned in favor of New Orleans and they never looked back, outscoring Oakland, 24-10, for the remainder of the game.

GAME BALL

SAINTS’ SAFETY TANDEM

I could not bring myself to choose between Malcolm Jenkins and Roman Harper, so I chose them both. This was undoubtedly the best game these two have had as a tandem in the secondary; hence it being the first time they’ve both had an interception in the same game in their four seasons together. That is what Saints fans envisioned the safety play to be like this season under new Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo; making plays on the ball, rather than doing heavy blitzing and playing inside of the box all too often like they were in Gregg Williams’ scheme. They were both very aggressive and impressively played just as well vs. run as the pass. More consistent play like what we saw Sunday from these two defensive captains, and we can expect big improvements from this defense.

UP NEXT

Saints have a critical stretch up next with the 49ers coming to town Sunday then four days later having to travel toAtlantato face a very vengeful Falcons team on Thursday Night football. The result of these two games can and most likely will shape up the Saints’ chances of making the playoffs season. Coming out of that stretch with a potential 7-5 record would have them on a very fast track to earning that coveted postseason spot. One game at a time, fellas.

WHODAT!

Kevin Buckles – Saints News and Saints News Radio Analyst

The Buckles Report: SAINTS must AVOID the TRAP GAME in the BLACK HOLE

On November 16, 2012 / Featured, Hot Gumbeaux, Kevin Buckles, Saints News / Leave a comment

START FAST

If there was ever an example of a ‘trap game’, the Saints’ game this Sunday at the Oakland Raiders is the epitome. The lowly Raiders are sandwiched between two perennial playoff contenders on the Saints’ schedule and are very easy to overlook with the 49ers coming to New Orleans in just over a week. Oakland is coming off of arguably the two worst weeks of football in a long time, allowing a mind-boggling 97 points over that span. To (literally) add injury to insult, it’s looking as if Darren McFadden, Richard Seymour and now Darrius Heyward-Bey will all not suit up for Sunday’s game which can do nothing but lower the morale of the team even more.

However, to start the game I still expect the Raiders to be very fired up at home with ‘The Black Hole’ fans behind them, looking to pull an upset. The only way the Saints can counter that is to do something that they have struggled to do all season long, which is to start fast. Drew Brees & Co., for whatever reason, has struggled mightily to produce anything offensively particularly early in the 1^st and 3^rd quarters, unless their backs are against the wall. That is no way to play the game and I speak for us all when I say Saints fans’ hearts simply can’t take anymore late game dramatics. If the Saints were able to fend off the Raiders’ early emotion and take a 1^st half double digit lead, it’d essentially put them out of their misery and they’d return to their usual inept selves.New Orleans can’t afford to let Oakland hang around especially with how suspect the Saints defense is with allowing quick, easy points. The Who-Dats are unfortunately always good for an annual letdown against an extreme lesser opponent; let’s just hope it does not occur this Sunday.

BLITZ CARSON PALMER

Despite that the Raiders look horrid from the surface Carson Palmer is quietly having a decent year under the circumstances. He’s 3^rd in the league in passing yardage and, unbeknownst to me, has six more TD passes (15) than interceptions (9). Palmer still has the talent he had when he was in Cincinnati, but a lack of healthy, reliable weapons surrounding him on offense has definitely hurt his production. As a result, Palmer has turned the ball over five times the last two weeks and hasn’t looked very sharp at all.

Enter the Saints Blitz

Similar to in the Eagles’ game, Spagz should turn them loose vs. Carson and remain aggressive. With Oakland’s best WR in Heyward-Bey being doubtful as playing in Sunday’s game, the Raiders don’t really have a consistent receiver who can doom the Saints’ secondary. With that being said, an aggressive approach to a weak Carson Palmer-led offense with slim talent around him Sunday could and should produce early turnovers for New Orleans, putting this game out of reach early.

STAY BALANCED

The Saints have done an exceptional job at committing to the run the past couple of games and it has definitely paid dividends with two huge W’s. The commitment will definitely need to continue this week at Oakland, especially with iffy weather conditions on the horizon. The Raiders’ run defense has been pretty hot and cold lately, allowing 278 rushing yards vs. the Bucs two weeks ago, but then holding perennial Pro-Bowler Ray Rice and Co. to only 78 total rushing yards this past week. Nevertheless, staying the course with the running game will force Oakland’s defense to remain honest, which in turn opens play-action plays up for Drew Brees where he is absolutely deadly. Methodically wearing down the beat up Raiders defense with consistent offensive balance throughout the game would almost guarantee a Saints victory.

KEY MATCHUP

JABARI GREER VS DENARIUS MOORE

Assuming Heyward-Bey will be out Sunday with a recently sustained hamstring injury, Carson Palmer will likely heavily rely on his other favorite WR target, Denarius Moore. Moore is actually having a pretty impressive sophomore campaign with 575 yards on 34 catches and 5 TD’s. With Moore being primarily a speed receiver and generously listed at 6’ tall, Jabari Greer shouldn’t have much trouble delivering solid coverage on him seeing that he usually only struggles vs. bigger, taller, stronger receivers. This matchup will almost single-handedly determine the fate of the Raiders offense Sunday with Denarius being virtually the only weapon Palmer will have at his disposal. If Greer does his job well, this game would be over for Oakland much sooner than they’d like.

PLAYER TO WATCH FOR

MARK INGRAM

Former Heisman winning running back Mark Ingram has certainly come on strong in recent weeks along with the rushing game in general. There’s no doubt the Oakland Raiders defense will have their eyes peeled for the beast himself, Chris Ivory, whenever he’s in the backfield, but I think Ingram will have a significant impact on this game similar to what Ivory has been the past two weeks for the Saints as well. He’s been consistently getting good chunks of yardage every time he’s ran the ball the last two games, and it’s only a matter of time before Ingram will display the explosiveness he possesses on a huge run. This game would is a signature setup for some potential long, devastating runs for Mark. After all, the Raiders did just allow TD runs of 45, 67, and 70 just two weeks ago.

PREDICTION

Simple logic tells me that the Saints should blow this team out, no problem. But then again, these ARE the Saints aka the ‘Cardiac Crew’. I would not be surprised one bit if New Orleans won by 33 points or just 3 points, but a win is a win, and at this stage of the season they’ll take one however they can get it. The Raiders will ultimately hang around early, but Drew Brees will be just too good. In his last six games vs.Oakland, Brees is 6-0 with 13 TD passes, ZERO interceptions, and a 120.7 passer rating. Not bad. With that being said, the Saints will dominate the Raiders overall, still give up more points than they’d like, but win big 45-27.

WHODAT!

Kevin Buckles – Saints New and Saints New Radio Analyst

The Kevin Buckles Report: Saints vs. Niners Playoff Edition

On January 13, 2012 / Drew Brees, Kevin Buckles, New Orleans Saints, NFC Playoffs, NFL News, playoffs / Leave a comment

Keys to the Game:

Drew Brees

ESTABLISH AN EARLY LEAD

As I stated in my Playoff Preview, the San Francisco 49ers may just be the most fundamentally sound team in the league. They are built like an old-school NFL team that is a run-first offense, committing very few turnovers and committed to playing very stout defense on the other end. However, they are NOT built like a team that can play “catch-up” such as Detroit Lions team that kept Saints fans on the edge of their seats on Wild Card weekend. If the Niners were to fall down 10-0, or 14-3, for example, they would almost have to completely abandon their offensive game plan, in an effort to keep pace with the points the Saints’ explosive offense put up. It would immediately take Alex Smith out of his comfort zone and could make him force more passes down the field, which could end up being potential turnovers for the Saints defense. But to accomplish this, it is vital that Drew Brees have the offense in sync early and stress not turning the ball over on promising drives as they did (twice) vs. the Lions in the first half.

PRESSURE ALEX SMITH

Saints vs. Niners

Although Alex Smith has had somewhat of a resurging season, it hasn’t all been “peaches and cream.” Smith has been sacked an eye-popping 44 times this season, leading the league. The Niners might try to come out and pass the ball early to get the Saints defense off balance so that should open up an early chance for Smith to get pressured. If New Orleans’ blitz-happy defense can hurry Smith early, he can start becoming jittery in the pocket and start throwing errant passes which will play right into the Saints hands (literally).

Malcolm Jenkins stopping Vernon Davis

CONTAIN VERNON DAVIS

The Achilles-heel on the Saints defense this year has been Roman Harper covering tight ends over the middle of the field. A tight end has caught a touchdown pass in nine of the Saints seventeen games this season, a pretty staggering stat. Vernon Davis was the 49ers’ second leading receiver in receptions and yards, and led the team in touchdown passes this season. Davis is definitely a security blanket for Alex Smith, and the focus needs to be on him when trying to defend the pass, especially on play-action plays. Helping Harper blanket Davis in coverage could mean that Smith would be forced to move the ball more vertical with Malcolm Jenkins roaming deep ready to make a play on long passes.

Key Matchup:

JIMMY GRAHAM/DARREN SPROLES VS PATRICK WILLIS & NAVARRO BOWMAN

There is no doubt that the emergence of Jimmy Graham and Darren Sproles have propelled the New Orleans Saints offense to another level this season. In only his second season, Graham just finished up having one of the most prolific seasons for a tight end in NFL History while Sproles broke the record for most all-purpose yards in a season that stood for ten years. And although no team has been able to really contain the duo, the 49ers may have the personnel to get it done. Perennial All-Pro middle linebacker Patrick Willis is widely considered the best in the league at his position in all facets of the game. Navarro Bowman is a budding star playing alongside Willis and proved that he is a legit player when he stepped in admirably for Patrick when he was out for about a month with a hamstring injury. They are extremely athletic, agile, strong at the point of attack, and have great closing speed; all ingredients of being able to keep Sproles and Graham under wraps. That could be a huge bonus for the Niners and somewhat of a setback for the Saints offense seeing that those are Brees’ go-to-guys. The side that dominates this matchup for the majority of the day will have an excellent chance on winning the game.

Player to Watch For:

CHRIS IVORY

Marshawn Lynch, who is the main cog on a one-dimensional running offense in Seattle handled the 49ers run defense in Week 16 with his bruising running style. He became the first guy to rush for over 100 yards as well as being the first guy to rush for a touchdown vs. them. The reason I bring up Lynch is because him and Saints running back Chris Ivory have very similar styles of running. They are rarely, if ever, brought down off of first contact, and they always seem to fall forward after being tackled. By no means am I saying that Ivory is on the same level as Lynch, but if he can bring his normal level of toughness and tenacity to the Saints offense like he’s known for, it can really pay dividends for the team. It would loosen up the Niners defense for sure as well as provide great balance for the Saints offense, preventing them from becoming predictable and one-dimensional. If Ivory can consistently gain tough yardage on the ground during the game to keep the 49ers defense honest, it will be another big game for the Saints, and they’ll be most likely on their way to their third NFC Championship game in six years.

Saints Win Against Niners

Prediction:

Something tells me the Saints wont have as much trouble scoring as people would think early in the ball game, and I think they will take control early. The 49ers simply don’t have enough firepower to keep up with the scoring of New Orleans and will find themselves scrapping near the end of the game for points. Alex Smith has been the mot inefficient quarterback in the league this season in the redzone, leading to kicker David Akers setting the NFL for most field goals made in a season through only 14 games. Field goals just won’t win it vs. the Saints on any football field, indoor or outdoor. With that being said, I predict the Saints will defeat the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park by a score of 34-26.