Saturday, October 23, 2010

Week 7: Cleveland, Coaching And Other Stuff


Since my weekly Saints post are the only time I really blog about sports I have a few lagniappe items I want to talk about.

I was going to tell you about how I didn’t like the NFL fining and potentially suspending players for violent hits. I changed my mind because I watched the story on the young man from Rutgers that is paralyzed after his injury last week and it made me sad. Somebody really could die playing football for our entertainment. You’ll never get all of the violence out because everyone is just moving too fast and there are too big. However, I guess they could try and eliminate some of the danger if they can. I hope Eric LaGrand gets well soon.

Texas Ranger fans can make that official thank you to New Orleans any day now for spreading some of our local sports mojo over to Ron Washington who managed them to their first World Series. Avery Johnson is the coach of the New Jersey Nets in the NBA. A Nets-Lakers final seems reasonable to me.

LSU is somehow 7-0 despite being involved with some of the craziest games in college football history. As I write this they are Auburn and possibly the future Heisman winner Cam Newton. There is no way a man is supposed to be that big AND that athletic at the same time. It should be a fun game to watch as long as LSU quarterbacks don’t give it away. Louisiana should consider making Les Miles president of all state colleges. With the recent budget cuts you need someone with that kind of luck.

Back to the Saints…..

Chris Ivory made me look like I didn’t know what I was talking about last week and I couldn’t be happier. It’s not like the running game had given much too optimistic about and it was only one week so I stand by what I said. The offense will still be working through things until Reggie and Pierre get back. Something tells me that Pierre Thomas is a lot more injured than it appeared when he ran off the field against Atlanta. I’m not sure when he’s coming back but if we can hold on for these next few weeks while everyone gets back in form no one is going to look forward to playing us the second half of the season. I’m not sure what’s going to happen against Pittsburgh next week because we are still getting things in order but I smell about a six or seven game winning streak coming on.

The group I need to apologize to is the best coaching staff in the league lead by Sean Payton. I can honestly say that the last few years I have watched players get better week by week because of this staff. If you look at the Saints roster it’s a lot of mid round picks and undrafted free agents that have worked with to become better and be a great team. I always figured if we were going to be a championship team that’s the way it had to be because our market size. As long as we have this staff we will always be competitive because they can turn kids like Chris Ivory into good players.

It’s hard to say what’s going to happen Sunday against Cleveland. Colt McCoy is making his second start. Peyton Hillis is on one of my fantasy teams so I know he’s having a good year. James Harrison almost destroyed their other playmakers last week. There’s no telling what shape they are in. I don’t think Cleveland has anyone to take advantage of our injuries in the secondary. I won’t disrespect them because they have been playing games pretty close before last week. I saw we give Scott Fujita a standing ovation for being part of the dream team then send him back to Ohio with a lost.

Saints 27 Browns 14

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