Monday Afternoon Sports Page

Getting a late start today while still recovering from Dangerblond's party (where the cookies were delivered as promised) and yesterday's Saints game (where a long promised Reggie Bush touchdown was also delivered) and waiting around for most of this morning for the a/c guy to come out to fix my compressor.... just in time for fall. Since Katrina I have resolved to never ever ever again complain about my appartment in this space as the rent has remained reasonable at a time when it's become ridiculous all over town. Blake has linked to an interesting tool which uses google maps to track rents in your neighborhood. What was once average for my area has (with a modest increase) become a pretty good deal. It's still a quirky building in a.. um.. quirky neighborhood but I think the landlord is trying to do the right thing by us and believe me I appreciate it. Yeah yeah so what, jeffrey? Let's get to the football complaints.


The grace period is quickly running out on Les Miles whose LSU Tigers were gracious enough to help Florida attain the number 2 ranking in this week's AP top 25. This may be partially explained by the fact that Miles himself seems to be a pretty nice guy. In the past we have remarked that Miles's predecessor Nick Saban, who led the Tigers to a national championship in 2003, is in fact something of a jerk. We may be on the verge of discovering a relationship here. The bigger jerk the coach, the more successful the team. This needs further study.

Certainy it doesn't take a jerk to realize that while Jacob Hester is a scrappy football player and a guy who can help the team win, he's far from the best running back on the roster. Maybe Miles is too nice to let him know that.

Still, the "upbeat" Miles deserves to get through this season before he is judged too harshly. Next year will be a different story.



Meanwhile, the Saints have a head coach who is such a jerk that he occasionally physically abuses his players. While we can't say that this is confirmation of the jerk coach theory, it's hard to argue with the results so far.

Sunday's Highlights:

• This week's non-football related inactive list included Menckles, who was trapped at work for some sort of training bullshit, and r who was unfortunately involved in an automobile accident while driving a newly purchased vehicle Saturday night. She's okay.. just a little too pissed for football yesterday. Filling in for them this week was my brother who ably handled their quota of beating on the Superdome wall.



• The jerky coach Payton continues to get the most out of his offense by creatively moving rookie reciever Reggie Bush around in different formations to keep defenses off balance while Deuce McAllister and the Saints' shockingly overachieving offensive line plow people over. Deuce was the highlight of the first half.. and most certainly would have been the same in the second half if the Saints could have kept the Tampa offense off the field.


Deuce was most certainly "on the loose" in the first half


• The defense continues to be deficient against the run. This is a major harbinger of doom in the coming weeks if not corrected. Even more disturbing yesterday,was the lack of a consistent pass rush. The Bucs' rookie quarterback, Bruce Gradkowski (or something just as unlikely sounding) and his functioning spleen picked the Saints apart all day. Next week's visting QB Donovan Mcnabb must be licking his chops.


Hey look we got him! Who is this again?


• On the other hand, while the defense may lack for talent, it doesn't necessarily lack for smarts. Consider the following from Finney's column.

  On this Sunday, it's possible Bush's heroics would have been little more than a milestone, and not a game-winner, had it not been for cornerback Jason Craft.
  
  "They ran a pick play early in the game," Gleason said, a play in which one receiver puts his body into a defender to free another receiver. "Jason was the guy who got picked and he went to the official and told him what happened. He didn't scream. He said it in a calm voice. 'Please watch,' said Jason. Sure enough, there at the end, they ran another pick play. And who do you think they picked? They picked Jason. It was a blatant pick. And down went the flag. Instead of getting the ball near the goal line, they're back at midfield. Seems like they got Jason's message. Turned out to be a game-saver."

  While credit is due to Craft for paying attention and keeping his composure, is this not also a sign of good coaching? Payton may be on his way to Jerk of the Year at this rate.


We know he's got "soupy eyes" but is he a big enough jerk?


• Drew Brees's arm has yet to fall off. There's still plenty football to played however. But for now, it continues to be refreshing to watch a quarterback who actually seems to know what he's doing out there.



• Joe Horn continues to struggle. He even dropped a touchdown pass. This cannot continue.



• Let's see what else happened? Well we seem to remember the kicking game becoming a factor near the end. See how nicely things work out while you're not runing backwards?


My God he is so maddeningly tiny!


• Finally, the Saints have now won more games this year than in all of 2005. Simlarly, my Yahoo fantasy team, the Fat Guys, is also sitting pretty at 4-1... providing even further evidence in support of the jerk coach theory.

Note: All game photos shamelessly stolen from the excellent NOLA.com gallery.

Update: Payton is a jerk after all. From the WWLTV Saints blog:

Head Coach Sean Payton said he expected more out of his team and more out of the crowd at Sunday's game.

Payton said the crowd did a fantastic job on third down, but that he needed them more on other plays. He said his expectation level was high for the crowd.