SAINTS-EAGLES GOOD, BAD AND UGLY
Saints serve up another 40-burger combo meal in blowout win
Nov 18, 2018, 6:48 pm
Saints train continues with a 48-7 win against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles. This game was a laugher since the first quarter. Here’s how I saw it play out:
-The Saints offense scored 17 points on its first three possessions. They lead the Eagles in total yards 190 to 15 after the first quarter. The Saints offense reminds me of Forrest Gump when he decides to start running.
-With all the attention paid to Alvin Kamara, Mark Ingram is sometimes not as looked at as a weapon in this offense. He totaled 103 rushing yards and two touchdowns. People tend to forget Ingram was a 1,000 yard rusher before the Saints drafted Kamara.
- Seven different Saints caught passes from Drew Brees against the Eagles. But rookie receiver Tre’Quan Smith had his breakout game today with 157 yards on 10 catches and a touchdown. Drew Brees has shown he can go to anybody in a Saints jersey and make them a star. Smith reminds me lot of All-Pro receiver Michael Thomas.
-Every so often, the Saints will have a brain fart on offense. It happened in the second quarter after an eight yard gain on first down. They got called for a delay of game which made it 2nd & 7. Stuff like this can be a problem when it comes playoff time.
-Eagles rookie running back Josh Adams ran for 53 yards on seven carries and a touchdown. Had he not gotten banged up, and the Eagles been able to stop the Saints, he likely would’ve gone for 100 plus yards on the league’s best run defense.
-Eagles fans were too loud in the Superdome for my liking following Corey Clements’ kick return after the Saints field goal early in first quarter. This was my mood watching and hearing that.
-The penalty against Eagles safety Corey Moore on Saints receiver Tre’Quan Smith seconds before halftime was another example of over-refereeing. Graham went in for a hit as Smith caught a touchdown pass. When Smith crouched after the catch, it appeared as if Graham hit him in the head. Defenseless receiver penalty because of slight accidental contact to the head should ALWAYS be reviewed! It’s football dammit!
-Eagles starting center Jason Kelce went down with an elbow injury in the first quarter. His absence showed on a sack by Sheldon Rankins and a bad snap that led to an incompletion on a third down. Hate to see an All-Pro go down.
-The Saints ended the game with a couple subs on their offensive line. While it may have just been to give guys rest ahead of their Thanksgiving Day showdown with the Falcons, it is concerning; especially given the fact that they have had starters along the line out at one point or another.
When the season started, this was a game that could’ve tested either team’s stake to the claim of NFC supremacy. Instead, it ended up being yet another 40 burger this Saints has served up this year, their sixth such game this season. When their defense plays this well, the run game is on smash mode, Brees will always do his thing, this team is hard to stop. Not ready to call them NFC favorites to reach the Super Bowl yet, but they’re getting close to me saying so.
Looming over baseball is a likely lockout in December 2026, a possible management push for a salary cap and perhaps lost regular-season games for the first time since 1995.
“No one’s talking about it, but we all know that they’re going to lock us out for it, and then we’re going to miss time,” New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso said Monday at the All-Star Game. “We’re definitely going to fight to not have a salary cap and the league’s obviously not going to like that.”
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and some owners have cited payroll disparity as a problem, while at the same time MLB is working to address a revenue decline from regional sports networks. Unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, baseball has never had a salary cap because its players staunchly oppose one.
Despite higher levels of luxury tax that started in 2022, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets have pushed payrolls to record levels. The last small-market MLB club to win a World Series was the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
After signing outfielder Juan Soto to a record $765 million contract, New York opened this season with an industry-high $326 million payroll, nearly five times Miami’s $69 million, according to Major League Baseball’s figures. Using luxury tax payrolls, based on average annual values that account for future commitments and include benefits, the Dodgers were first at $400 million and on track to owe a record luxury tax of about $151 million — shattering the previous tax record of $103 million set by Los Angeles last year.
“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identify a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.”
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2026, and management lockouts have become the norm, which shifts the start of a stoppage to the offseason. During the last negotiations, the sides reached a five-year deal on March 10 after a 99-day lockout, salvaging a 162-game 2022 season.
“A cap is not about a partnership. A cap isn’t about growing the game,” union head Tony Clark said Tuesday. “A cap is about franchise values and profits. ... A salary cap historically has limited contract guarantees associated with it, literally pits one player against another and is often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence. It undermines it from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about a fair versus not. This is institutionalized collusion.”
The union’s opposition to a cap has paved the way for record-breaking salaries for star players. Soto’s deal is believed to be the richest in pro sports history, eclipsing Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million deal with the Dodgers signed a year earlier. By comparison, the biggest guaranteed contract in the NFL is $250 million for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Manfred cites that 10% of players earn 72% of salaries.
“I never use the word `salary’ within one of `cap,’” he said. “What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue that’s real we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a players’ perspective.”
A management salary cap proposal could contain a salary floor and a guaranteed percentage of revenue to players. Baseball players have endured nine work stoppages, including a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that fought off a cap proposal.
Agent Scott Boras likens a cap plan to attracting kids to a “gingerbread house.”
“We’ve heard it for 20 years. It’s almost like the childhood fable,” he said. “This very traditional, same approach is not something that would lead the younger players to the gingerbread house.”