Saints win napping contest

By Dan Rodgers

So out of depression I'm not going to talk too much about this one. The Saints won 14-9.

They did nothing but throw the ball in the first half. The game showed promise as New Orleans scored in two minutes on their opening drive. Brees threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Devery Henderson. Minnesota responded with a field goal in the second quarter, and then a touchdown to Shiancoe with under a minute to play in the half (XPT blocked).

The Saints punched it in again on a one-yard run by Pierre Thomas. Thomas got the bulk of the carries but Reggie had two carries and five catches.

Jon Vilma intercepted Favre on a play in which Brett got destroyed (see left). The INT didn't lead to any points because Hartley missed the field goal (46 yards). He missed another one in the second half (32 yards). Uh oh, issues in the kicking game?

Favre completed three passes in the second half, all on their final drive of the fourth quarter which amounted to no points. He was forcing balls into coverage and didn't seem to move around the pocket too well. It will be interesting to see if Favre continues to throw the ball 25+ times per game if he is having issues. AP only had 87 yards on 19 carries and three catches for 14 yards. Peterson will most likely see an increase in workload as the season progresses. Bodes well for fantasy owners.

Brees seemed to be mostly on point with his receivers. Checked down quite a bit but didn't take too many risks. He made a few really nice throws down field. One thing I did notice, the Saints had 25 carries. They seemed to want to pound the rock a bit more often than last season. It is a solid formula for victory, but they won't cover too many spreads that way.

Well, the rest of my week one picks end up a bit better than that.

Rodgers That