Saints beat Eagles Week 11: Observations from the cheap seats

Observations part one

Sean Payton’s win over Doug Pederson marked the 60th unique coach Payton has defeated. The Saints wore their white “color rush” uniforms for this home game instead of their traditional home black jerseys. Pederson defeated Payton in a golf tournament this summer, and won the privilege of wearing their normal home jersey in the Superdome. Didn’t help.

Eagles center Jason Kelce was injured early as Alex Anzalone blitzed and caught his arm. Reports are that his elbow had to be popped back into place. This played into the Saints hands, as his replacement was quite a step down.

I understand Sean Payton is working many angles with Taysom Hill. He wants to explore the possibilities. But first down and 10 yards to go at our 25 yard line (and at the time we were only up 17-0) is a questionable time to go for a Taysom Hill pass. That said, I have to say the play with the Wildcat snap to Alvin Kamara was brilliant.

When the offense is working well, everything seems to work. Brees was hitting some passes in very tight windows. Even though his completion percentage was not what it usually is (tough talk for a guy who threw for 73-percent!), he was simply a magician.

There was one particular instance of his brilliance that may not have been quite as noteworthy, but from the cheap seats, it was amazing to watch. Drew Brees hit Michael Thomas on a route down the left sideline. It was a nice gain of 30 yards, but it was the pass that was incredible.

We watch QBs often throw balls leading their receiver. But Brees threw the ball in a manner that the defender was actually in better position to make the catch. He didn’t turn his head though as he was in trail mode and Thomas simply snatched the ball that passed the defender on it’s way to him. It can’t really be described well in words, but to see it was absolutely stunning and showed how in tune this offense is.