Offense

Pass Offense: A+

Jimmy Graham emphatically dunks with two hands after his second touchdown reception Monday night.

The air attack went just about as perfectly as it possibly could have on Monday night. Drew Brees nearly produced a perfect passer rating, settling for an outstanding score of 144.5. His 413 yards and 4 touchdowns came way of a fantastic 77% completion percentage. The receivers played great, yielding only one drop. Nick Toon quite possibly had his first NFL touchdown in his hands, but he couldn’t hold on to an easy catch. The Dolphins were kept off balance all night, despite the Saints rushing attack being non-existent. Coach Sean Payton had Brees use the short passing game to supplement rushing attempts, which led to big plays down field and in the middle of the field. Darren Sproles was extremely effective out of the backfield and proved to be a match-up nightmare.

Rush Offense: D-

Once again, the rushing offense fell flat on it’s face. The Saints attempted 24 rushes, only to gain 68 yards on the ground. Factoring out Drew Brees’ 4 rushing attempts for 2 yards, the trio of Darren Sproles, Pierre Thomas, and Khiry Robinson combined for a 3.0 yards per carry average. If not for Sproles’ 7.0 YPC, that number would be even worse. They did try to get rookie Khiry Robinson going after a few nice runs in their Week 3 win vs. Arizona, but his success did not carry over. Miami defensive tackle Jared Odrick constantly beat blockers and congested running lanes all night. The offense line struggled as a unit once again, leading to Coach Payton’s decision to abandon the running game completely. Even with a large lead with under 5 minutes to play, the Saints were still throwing the ball to try and move the chains to run out the clock. If that doesn’t show the lack of confidence in the running game, I’m not sure what does. 

Saints

Drew Brees

It’s no surprise that Brees’ name shows up on this list, yet again. This was easily his best game of the season and will likely be one of his top-3 performances for the entire 2013 campaign. He showed just how good he is at making every receiver in his arsenal a great weapon. With Jimmy Graham’s early success this year, the Dolphins chose to bracket him from the start. Brees adjusted without hesitation and made Sproles his main target. Once Miami caught on, they then started giving extra attention to the running back. Brees then went Graham’s way for a 27 yard touchdown, which was his first throw to the tight end, coming halfway through the 2nd quarter. The Dolphins made their halftime adjustments and came out of the locker-room with the decision to give both Sproles and Graham extra attention. Brees then found a wide open Marques Colston repeatedly. It doesn’t matter who teams choose to guard in this offense, because when Drew Brees is on his game, they’re unstoppable. His performance certainly solidified his new nickname from the likes of the experts at ESPN, Mr. Monday Night.

Darren Sproles

Sproles finally produced his first big game of the season, looking like the weapon Coach Payton used him as in 2011. I’ve talked about how misused he was last season without their head coach and how I expected him to become a big factor once again this year. This is the type of game I was insinuating. He gained big chunks of yards as a pass catcher out of the backfield and also added a phenomenal 7.0 yards per carry average. He found his way in to the end zone for his first and second touchdowns of the year, through both the ground and the air.

Jimmy Graham

Graham is becoming more and more of a permanent member of this list, much like Drew Brees. The Dolphins tried to keep him quiet, but it’s impossible to keep this guy down for long. Seeing double coverage for most of the game, Brees finally decided to just throw it up between the two defenders and Graham showed just why that’s not a problem. Last week he proved that he could beat a team’s #1 corner-back. This week he proved that he can beat double coverage. What’s next?

Sinners

Nick Toon

Toon was able to make his first NFL reception, but unable to hold on to the ball for his first NFL touchdown. Drew Brees put the ball right in Toon’s hands with what would’ve been a sure score if he had held on. Thankfully, the Saints were able to still punch it in for six points, but if Toon is going to be on the field with Lance Moore or any other receiver out due to injury, he’s going to have to convert easy opportunities, rather than squander them.

Defense

Pass Defense: A-

While the front-7 played another fantastic game as they have every game so far, the secondary had their best game of the season. Still missing strong safety Roman Harper, they provided two of the Saints’ three interceptions off of Ryan Tannehill. Jabari Greer and Chris Carr both picked off the Dolphin quarterback, as part of four takeaways from the defensive unit. The pass rush turned up the heat in the second half, netting all four of their sacks after halftime. Junior Galette, Cam Jordan, Tyrunn Walker, and Martez Wilson each got themselves a sack as part of a furious pass rush that gave Tannehill fits.

Rush Defense: C-

This is the first game that the run defense struggled for a good bit of plays. In weeks 1 and 2, I mentioned how large chunks of the rushing yardage that the defense surrendered came on just a few big plays. On Monday night, the Dolphins were able to move the ball on the ball on the ground up until they were forced to air it out once the Saints swelled the lead to multiple scores. Lamar Miller was able to gash the Saints for 5 or 6 yards on most of his runs, leading to an 11 carry 62 yard performance for a 5.6 yards per carry average. He also punched in the Dolphins first touchdown on a 5 yard run in the 2nd quarter.

Saints

Curtis Lofton

Lofton finished 2nd on the team in tackles with 6. He also had a pass defended and a forced fumble. Although those numbers aren’t gaudy by any means, he made the plays in big moments. The pass breakup came on a third down to help stall out the Dolphins’ drive and the forced fumble came on a big scramble from Ryan Tannehill in to Saints territory. The quarterback had already picked up 26 yards on the run, until Lofton delivered the hit that jarred the ball loose for Rafael Bush to recover. Miami was in the process of driving down the field on New Orleans, with the chance to take the lead in a 7-3 ball game.

Keenan Lewis

Lewis provided three tackles on the stat sheet, but what you won’t see in the stats is what was most important from his performance. Lewis shut down his longtime friend and former teammate Mike Wallace. Wallace is a speedster and has the ability to get behind secondaries in a hurry. Lewis provided great coverage and although he didn’t get credited for any passes defended, he was the reason two early attempts to get Wallace the ball fell incomplete, disallowing the wide receiver to get in sync with his quarterback.

Cam Jordan and Junior Galette

Just another game and just another sack for each of them. They both dropped Tannehill once each to add to their season sack total. Jordan now has 4 sacks, which is tied for 7th in the NFL. Galette now has 3 for his season total. Both are proving to be tough to block and even when they are not sacking the quarterback, they are hitting him and/or causing him to get rid of the ball early.

Sinners

There are no particular players that stand out as a sinner, which no matter how many times we say this season, will never get old. I’d like to see the front-7 do a better job stopping the run early in the game, rather than letting a team move the ball on the ground like Miami did on two of their early drives.

See you soon for previews of the Saints’ next match-up with the 3-1 Bears in Chicago this Sunday. The Saints will take their unbeaten record to a place they’ve never won under Sean Payton and Drew Brees. Keep on cheering, Who Dat Nation, it looks like we’re in for a fun ride this year!

Who Dat?!