Game Rewatch

[purple4life]

I'll skip the first half in detail, but in summary, it was pretty damn good... 

You could see that N.O. was a tough matchup with the number of offensive weapons, but our blitz package (1st half) was awesome.  Very deceptive and effective, they couldn't get a read on who was coming.  Our blitzes consistently got to Brees
Offensively, Case played well above average and the game plan was sound outside of the goaline.  I kept seeing a different outcome with Dalvin Cook running the ball, but Case was able to convert on 3rd down over and over again.  Case is a gamer and he did surprisingly well in the second half.

Second Half:
Different story on D, mostly due to the blitz and personnel.  Offense was consistent.

New Orleans Coaching staff...
Made seasoned, experienced adjustments in the second half.  Instead of trying to determine who was coming when we blitzed they moved the pocket consistently right and/or left.  They didn't know exactly where we were coming from, but they were able to negate any disguises and turn our blitzes into man on man looks and generally made the block .  This gave Brees enough time to find quick reads and curls, oh and they went after Mr. Alexander.  N.O. also picked up the pace dramatically.  Perhaps the crowd noise affected us as well, we were rarely set, players moving around right before or during the snap.

Injuries...
Losing Shamar and Sendejo hurt, no blaring deficiencies, but you could see the front getting tired and Brees completing many more intermediate routes. 
The matchups were the biggest change. 

• • 1st half 
    • Thomas, Ginn, Snead, Hill, Kamara, Ingram vs. Rhodes, Waynes (played stellar game), Newman, Smith, Sendjo
    [*]2nd half 
    • Thomas, Ginn, Snead, Hill, Kamara, Ingram vs. Rhodes (lost his mind), Waynes , Newman, Smith, Alexander.  Harris seemed lost consistently and Alexander was scared.  This needs to get fixed, the N.O. pace was difficult for the newbies.  
    • Didn't notice much change on the defensive front other than a tiring group.

Case's ability to get us in position for the go-ahead field goal and the  Diggs game winner (obviously) showed me this team has what it takes to win a Super Bowl.
The field goal that put us up by two was clutch and all Case and Thielen.  No doubt about it, Case is our QB of the future and I think we crush the Eagles this Sunday.

We already beat the most talented offense in the league.

[Guest]

ive watched it a few times. the D got tired. having the INT and blocked punt kept our D on the field the entire 3rd quarter, with newman, shepard, griffen, and rhodes hurt our D wasnt the same. plus NO had short field’s, attacked our slots (newman and a flustered alexandered) and brees made some AMAZING throws to a covered kamara that foles and bortles cant make but brady maybe can. 

why zim went into prevent is beyond me, why our o played conservative for awhile is beyond me. we went into “final 5 min mode” coming out of halftime. hopefully we learned to keep our foot on the gas. 

we are the best team left

[Guest]

@"Neptizzle" said:
why zim went into prevent is beyond me, why our o played conservative for awhile is beyond me. we went into “final 5 min mode” coming out of halftime. hopefully we learned to keep our foot on the gas. 

we are the best team left

This is my biggest problem with Zimmer. He likes to sit on even small leads and dare the other team to score a point against his defense. I assume he learned this from Parcells.  It may have been effective 30 years ago, but not today, not against a good QB.

[Guest]

Zimmer got conservative when he got up by 17....but I get why. The blocked punt and stupid INT were instrumental to them worming their way back, without those no miracle is needed at the end for Minnesota to win. Also them converting the 4th and 10 was sickening. 

[Guest]

@"StickyBun" said:
Zimmer got conservative when he got up by 17....but I get why. The blocked punt and stupid INT were instrumental to them worming their way back, without those no miracle is needed at the end for Minnesota to win. Also them converting the 4th and 10 was sickening. 

I feel like Alexander allowed two big plays on the drive. One he was playing way back, and the 4th and 10. Giving a WR, and vet QB that much cushion will get us shredded.