By The GOAT
GSEZ Founder
OK, this may be a little premature. But sofa, Davenport’s presence sure seems to make a pretty big difference.
| Opponent | Davenport Snaps | Points Allowed | Sacks | Total yards allowed | Passing yards allowed | Opposing QB |
| Green Bay (W) | 26 | 3 | 2 | 229 | 186 | Aaron Rodgers |
| Carolina (L) | 0 | 26 | 2 | 383 | 294 | Sam Darnold |
| New Eng (W) | 0 | 13 | 2 | 300 | 251 | Mac Jones |
| NY Giants (L) | 0 | 27 | 0 | 485 | 402 | Dave Brown |
| WFT (W) | 0 | 22 | 2 | 373 | 242 | Taylor Heinecke |
| Seattle (W) | 35 | 10 | 5 | 219 | 129 | Geno Smith |
MVP? I would not seriously couch it in those terms, and if I could divan the future I’d be out picking stocks and buying lottery tickets, but so far there’s a bit of a pattern here: when Davenport’s in we can crush a veteran QB, and when he’s not, random rookies and journeymen are going to have their offenses running up and down the field.
Now, six games isn’t a huge data set, but when you add in how strong he looked in preseason and the eye test of how he’s routinely demanding double teams and tossing OTs back into the backfield like a combination of Lawrence Taylor, Mongo and Bobby Boucher, it’s difficult to deny the impact.
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You know what sporks are, those plastic utensils you get at fast food restaurants that are essentially a spoon with a serrated front edge for stabbing things and picking them up? Sporks? Man, why the hell didn’t call them foons….what a huge missed opportunity.
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NFTs? It used to bad enough when we objectified players. Now between online gambling, fantasy sports and nonfungible tokens, we just digitize them.
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Not sure if I can quantify this, or if it was expectations, but it seems like our screen game had gotten a little sloppier and less productive the last couple of years – everybody just keyed on RB Alvin Kamara when he’s in the game, retired TE Josh Hill was really slow, other teams always seemed to know when they were coming, we didn’t have just-returned RB Mark Ingram, who was such an inside running threat it gave him more of a surprise advantage on the screen plays….
But they’ve seemed a little crisper and more effective this season, and in particular in the last couple of weeks. Might be something with the OL being healthy (at least for a half) last week. Will be watching closely this week.
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Back for another installment of our weekly feature, Winston’s Not The Problem:
NO, the Saints offense is not piling up the traditional yards and points under QB Jameis Winston to which we’ve been accustomed the last 15 years. But let’s step back a little here, he’s certainly better than former backup QB Terry Bridgewater, who seemed pretty popular at the time.
But we’ve been getting above-average play from Winston so far, while he’s throwing to as bad a collection of skill players (outside of Kamara) as we’ve had here. (To illustrate for those of us old enough, if we had a time machine last Sunday and brought back former (1971-1974) Saints WR Bob Newland, he would have started at WR. Dear god.)
Even in 2006, at least QB Drew Brees had WRs Marques Colston and Devery Henderson, who would be our #1 and #2 right now, and late-season Billy Miller was a nice TE. Also neither RBs Deuce McAllister nor Reggie Bush is Kamara, but at least one of them was always in the game.
Fast forward to 2009 and you add WRs Robert Meachem and an emerging Lance Moore, TE Jeremy Shockey and swap out an aging Deuce for young RB Pierre Thomas. The only two skill position players we have right now that even make even the 2006 team are Kamara and Callaway.
I’m not a blind fanboy. Winston right now is a good QB, not a great one. He plays like a golfer who’s in the middle of trying to rebuild his swing. He misses some throws, could use more touch sometimes, and also just doesn’t see the occasional wide-open guy. But he’s a hell of a lot more than a game manager, and on pace for 37 TDs against nine INTs throwing to as bad a collection of skill players (outside of Kamara) as we’ve EVER had here. And I am going back to the early 70s and beyond.
Thus ends this week’s edition with no further comment.
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And we’ll conclude remembering a little known song from The Clash on their first album, a lively little number about an Irish wake titled “Rock the Cash Bar.”
I’ll just see myself out.
WHO DAT.