Saints disassemble Motor City Lions

Drew Brees makes good players

The Detroit Lions have a new coach, a real talented young quarterback, an elite talent at wide receiver in Calvin Johnson, but it was not enough to break their losing streak which is now 18 straight games.

The New Orleans Saints totally dominated the Lions in the 45-27 win in the Superdome.

The story of this game starts and ends with another great performance from quarterback Drew Brees and the continual emergence of halfback Mike Bell as a real weapon in this high-powered offense.

Brees tied a Saints single-game record with six touchdown passes, two touchdown receptions by tight end Jeremy Shockey, as the All-Pro signal-caller completed 26 of his 34 throws for 358 yards.

It’s been over three years since the Saints signed Brees away from the San Diego Chargers and he continues to amaze me with his accuracy and his ability to get virtually every receiver out on the field involved.

Brees connected with 8 different receivers against the Lions and 5 of those receivers came down with touchdown passes.

While Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have dominated the headlines in the NFL over the past few seasons in the same manner that LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have in the NBA, Brees has become the NFL’s version of Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash.

The former Purdue star performer is the consummate pro, very intelligent and he has a degree of football excellence that is rarely matched out on the field.

Brees also makes everyone else around him a better player.

He’s that good.

And maybe that brilliance is rubbing off on other players.

In training camp and the off-season workouts halfback Mike Bell quickly caught everyone’s attention because of his cutback skills, his ability to get to top speed quickly and his excellent inside running ability.

This is a player that a year ago was completely out of football and looking for another shot to play in the NFL.

Against the Detroit Lions Mike Bell rushed for a career-high 143 yards on 28 carries and at times looked like a bigger version of former LSU Tiger and Saints standout running back Dalton Hilliard.

Bell is a hungry football player and driven to excel when given a second chance to play in the big leagues.

Remember this is a guy that came into the league as an undrafted rookie from the University of Arizona and then promptly gained 677 yards on 157 carries and scored 8 touchdowns as a rookie for the Denver Broncos.

Attitude problems and a tendency to lay the football on the carpet too much had him on the sidelines before the Broncos tried to move him to fullback.

A disgruntled Bell sulked and was released in late July of 2008. Days later he was signed by the halfback-starved Houston Texans, but again a less than stellar attitude got him released less than 10 days after he was signed.

Due to injuries at the halfback position late last season the Saints took a shot on bringing in Bell and he was impressive in the final four contests of the 2008 season.

Now Bell is on the verge of becoming the bellcow runner on this football team.

Name another running back in the NFL that came into the league as an undrafted free agent and then was cut by two different clubs before he developed into a standout performer.

You would have a hard time coming up with a name with both of those issues in their pockets.

The 45-27 win was not a win without flaws.

The Saints front four got very little pressure on the rookie quarterback with their defensive linemen and four crucial special team plays, a Reggie Bush fumble on a punt, a blocked field goal attempt, a 43-yard punt return by Dennis Northcutt and Aaron Brown’s 87-yard kickoff return..

Those special team breakdowns are something to be concerned about, but this was a very impressive offensive show and I can’t wait to see another version of the Brees/Bell show.

Sometimes it is not who you play in the NFL, but when you play them. This coming Sunday the Saints face the Philadelphia Eagles who defeated the defending NFC South champions Carolina Panthers 38-10. In that contest star Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb left the game late in the third quarter with a broken rib and his status for Sunday’s game is questionable.

Maybe the Football God’s are smiling on this franchise.

For Saints fans there are only two words to say, finally and Amen.

 

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