Quote:
Originally Posted by Saint Troy
It was pretty much the Saints/Vikes game from the previous season in reverse, where the Saints went up and down the field only to turn the ball over at bad times, ultimately costing them the game. I thought the Vikings played well but not overly smart.
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One area of the game where I think the Saints dominated and hasn't gotten enough attention is on special teams. Morestead forced explosive guys like Percy Harvin into taking a knee in the endzone on seemingly every kick-off. The Saints were also tackling very well on punts, something I was very impressed with considering arguably our best ST player in Malcolm Jenkins was out. Meanwhile, the Saints were getting big returns from both Courtney Roby and Pierre Thomas all game, setting up great field position, including on what ended up being the game-winning drive.
For the Saints fans on here, I think we all remember how in the '06 NFC Championship, Chicago punter Brad Maynard basically turned the game around for the Bears in the 2nd half with constant coffin corner kicks, I've never seen a punter play so well. In fact I think where the Saints finally fell apart was on that Brees safety, which started when Maynard forced the Saints to start their drive on their own 2.
As we all know, games can easily be won and lost on ST play. The Saints were clearly the better team in this area, so its not surprising they won the game.