GOOD, BAD AND UGLY
Saints vs Redskins: Observations as Brees sets all-time passing yardage mark
Oct 9, 2018, 6:40 am
Drew Brees is the king of NFL passers. Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Monday Night Football has given us lots of great moments over the years. Tonight’s 43-19 Saints win over the Redskins gave us a moment we may not see for quite a while. The Saints are now 4-1 and in control of the NFC South. Here’s a glimpse of what I saw:
The Good
-Drew Brees broke Peyton Manning’s all time passing yards record in spectacular fashion. Only needing 30-something yards, Brees hit rookie receiver Tre’Quan Smith for a 62 yard touchdown pass and the celebration began.
-Mark Ingram being back for the Saints paid off on their first possession. He caught a 27-yard screen pass, then scored on a two yard run the next play as they took a 7-0 lead. The Saints are glad he’s back. He added a second touchdown with just less than four minutes left before halftime.
-The Saints were up 43-19 with a little more than two minutes left. Ingram ran for a first down and slid to keep the clock running down to the two minute warning. Brees needed one more touchdown pass to reach the 500 mark for his career. Instead, they took him out for a standing ovation and knelt out the clock. Sportsmanship still exists.
The Bad
-Saints’ receiver Cameron Meredith fumbled and the Skins recovered with a minute and a half left before halftime. Sure they were up 26-6 at the time, but giving up the ball at that moment, then a touchdown on the ensuing drive to make it 26-13 going into the half could have been worse had the Saints not gotten the second half kickoff.
-The run game didn’t pan out as expected because this was another game averaging less than four yards per carry. This team is operating on all cylinders when the run game is averaging north of four yards per carry.
The Ugly
-Saints All-Pro corner Marshon Lattimore left the game early on and was placed in concussion protocol and missed the rest of the game. It’s unsure if Lattimore will be cleared to play any time soon. This means more to their defense since the depth at that position is lacking severely.
-Brees was sacked twice in this game. The first drew a roughing the passer penalty on Ryan Kerrigan. It was a routine sack. Nothing looked malicious about it. But the enforcement of the body weight rule called for a flag on the play. Again, this is stupid and needs to be changed.
Those of you that follow my writing of these observation pieces will have noticed I cut one off of each the Bad and the Ugly. Well, when you see a game in which a future Hall of Famer breaks an all time record in prime time and the score wasn’t indicative of how the game turned out, you too wouldn’t have many bad things to say. This game was all about Brees. He torched the Skins defense, which was one of the top units in the league so far this year. Hats off to Brees. Not only what he managed to accomplish on the field, but what he’s meant to the city of New Orleans off the field as well.
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Winning consecutive series over last place teams does not mean all is well again in Astroworld, but taking five of seven games from the Orioles and Rockies stopped the bleeding which saw the Astros stumble through an awful 14-23 stretch. The regular season is now in its final month, the Astros are in the middle of three different playoff races. The high-end goal is finishing with one of the two best records in the American League to secure a bye past the two out of three lightning round Major League Baseball calls the Wild Card Series. Entering the holiday weekend the Astros sit four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, three and a half back of the Detroit Tigers. If the Astros can’t overtake either the Jays or Tigers, they at least want to hold off Seattle to win the American League West. Winning the division for an eighth consecutive full season would be its own accomplishment, for the postseason it would at least assure the Astros of homefield advantage in a best-of-three. The race the Astros hope to need to pay little attention to is holding off Kansas City for the final wild card spot. That would be necessary should the Astros lose out on the division title to the Mariners, and finish behind both the second and third place finishers in the AL East in the wild card race, presently the Red Sox and Yankees. The M’s, Bosox, and Yanks all finishing ahead of the Astros is a clear possibility. The good news on that front is the Astros holding a five game lead over the Royals with 28 games to go, though Kansas City does win the tiebreaker should it come to that. The Astros have a significantly easier closing schedule than do the Royals. The Astros have just six games left against teams that would currently qualify for the postseason. The Royals have 12. So to miss the playoffs entirely the Astros basically have to fold, and/or the Royals need to play four weeks of spectacular baseball.
Yordan Alvarez’s looooong awaited return is a big boost to the lineup. Even if he isn't peak Yordan, his presence matters. His missile of a home run to centerfield was the wow moment of his return series, but Alvarez drawing five walks in nine plate appearances speaks to what opponents think of him. Still, offense remains an Astro struggle all too often. The Rockies have the worst pitching staff in MLB. The Astros managed nine runs in three games against it. At least that was enough to win two out of three. 67 times this season the Astros have scored three or fewer runs, equaling their three or fewer total of the entire 2024 season. For a good while this year the Astros were winning an amazing percentage of their games where the offense did little. At one point the Astros were 19-27 when scoring three or fewer, which was stunning success and as I wrote at the time, wholly unsustainable. Since then, the Astros have lost 20 of the last 21 games in which they failed to score four.
Christian Walker’s power surge has been a boon, of late helping offset Jose Altuve’s slump (just 10 hits in his last 60 at bats heading into the Angels series) and Carlos Correa’s lack of thump (just two extra base hits and a sub-.700 OPS over his last 15 games). Over 46 games played from July 1 through Thursday, Walker has been very good hitting .279 with an .859 OPS. That doesn't undo his being wretched through June, but credit where credit is due.
Alvarez is the big bopper (remember the ex-Astro who had that nickname?) addition to Joe Espada's lineup cards, but Jake Meyers could be a lower key big return as well next week. To call Chas McCormick and Jacob Melton poor offensive players this season would be an understatement along the lines of saying Yao Ming is above average in height. When Meyers blew out his right calf it short-circuited what was his breakout big league season. Even if Meyers can't regain that form, by accident he'll still be better than what McCormick and Melton have provided.
After finishing up with the Angels on Labor Day, the Astros get the Yankees for three big games at Daikin Park starting Tuesday. Hunter Brown starting Sunday means he will not pitch against the Yankees. That's not a mistake, it's just how the rotation falls. It will be a mistake if the Astros' brain trust doesn't properly map out starting pitching ahead of the massive matchups against the Mariners September 19, 20, 21 and make sure both Brown and Framber Valdez start games in that series. After this homestand wraps, the Astro have only six home games remaining versus 15 on the road.
Oh yeah. Glenn Davis was "The Big Bopper."
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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