The Crescent City Express
Against Green Bay, Houston, and New York, the Saints showed that two minute drills are for wussies.
Above: Drew Brees calls a timeout, which, when racing the clock to the endzone, he doesn’t usually have to do.
Three different scenarios: First, against Green Bay, during the Suicide Game, the Saints, down one score, found themselves without timeouts and with only 1:08 left in the game, 80 yards from overtime; second, against Houston, trailing with 4:13 left, 93 yards from paydirt; third, Monday against New York, with 1:09 before halftime, 88 yards from a game-commanding third touchdown. In two of the three situations, the Saints scored touchdowns. In the other, they reached the one yardline.
The average distance covered: 87 yards. The average time consumed to move that distance: 64 seconds.
But what’s truly terrifying is the Saints can effectively—and routinely—cross the full football field in 90 seconds or less without using a single timeout. The situation in Green Bay—68 seconds remaining, down a touchdown, 80 yards to go, and no timeouts left—is usually desperation time. It’s the kind of situation where you see a team reach midfield and resort to a Hail Mary with no time remaining. The Saints, however, found themselves on the goal line, where they made the ill-advised decision to try rookie Mark Ingram rather than keep the ball in the hands of Drew. (I should also note: not only did the Saints cover the field in 68 seconds without a timeout, they only spiked the ball once to stop the clock—and not until they’d already reached the Packers’ nine yardline.)
In Houston, the best pass defense in the National Football League became helpless as Drew struck receiver after receiver and maneuvered the offense into place for the easy go-ahead score. And against the Giants—well, what happened to the Giants defense was very nearly inappropriate for family television.
There’s no single consistent pattern to the drives, other than their extreme efficiency, no moment in common where, say, a receiver breaks free and covers fifty yards in one swoop. Rather, as usual, Drew plays point guard, distributing the ball to multiple receivers, distributed as follows:
Colston - 4
Sproles - 3
Graham - 3
Moore - 2
Meachem - 1
Add a smattering of runs—the Saints handed off to Darren Sproles against New York just because they had moved so quickly and so far by that point that they just could—and it becomes clear the distribution of receivers is limited only by how quickly Sean Payton can rotate his personnel.
Great football teams need identities. The identify of the New Orleans Saints is this: Directing the Crescent City Express on Monday night, not only did Drew Brees lead it down the field before the half for the team’s third touchdown, he did it with such frightening effect that, following the Giants’ next possession, the Saints got the ball back with 35 seconds remaining and tried to score again.
