Take this one to heart: The Saints are averaging 33 points every time they step on the field, while our Titans have crossed the 30-point mark just once all year. What does that tell me? We're going to have to bring the Saints down to our level, because there's almost no way we're going to keep up with them otherwise.
The one thing that does play into out favor is that the Saints haven't played outdoors since October 16th, which was a loss to Tampa Bay. While they're 7-1 indoors this year, they're only 2-2 under the blue sky.
I said on MCM Radio that I was hoping for some nasty weather to create a sloppy natural grass field on Sunday, but the forecast right now is 41 degrees and sunny. Maybe we'll get some more of that wind that affected the Bucs game a few weeks ago.
Regardless of the weather or the field conditions, this offense is only going to go as far as Chris Johnson can take them on Sunday. Given how badly the Saints struggle to stop the run that could be pretty far, but we need to walk away from this game calling him CJ2K again if we're going to pull this one out. I just don't have any faith in the passing game right now to hold up it's end of the bargain.
Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are all on track to smash Dan Marino's 17-year-old single season passing record. What's crazier: if Brees ends up being the only one to surpass 5,084 yards, he could very well be first and third on that list.
Everybody loves Colin McCarthy.
Jason McCourty hasn't returned to practice since suffering a concussion last week, but he and the trainers are still optimistic that he'll be ready to go against the Saints. As much as I want to see him out there, and we're going to need every DB we can muster, concussions are a serious issue and hopefully he won't be allowed to go back out there until he's 100%.
Nate Washington is also still not able to practice, though Munchak says he could practice as early as today.
PFF released their mid-season evaluations of all 32 offensive lines, and ours miraculously graded out 7th overall. I'm very surprised that the Titans are still tops in pass blocking, as it looks like it's been slipping over the past month, IMO. Still, I this line is the one that really confused me:
Fair to say Leroy Harris is one of the most improved players in the NFL this year.
No one throws more passes between the numbers than New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees. He's hitting 72.4 percent of his passes to the middle of the field, for an average of 8.2 yards per attempt with 14 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Mark Ingram has turf-toe, and could give way to the return of the Saints' best running back of 2010, Chris Ivory, on Sunday.
The scramble for the last spot in the AFC playoff picture is a damned mess right now.
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