Saints ticket holders got a major boost to their confidence last night as Mike Bell put a pounding on the Houston Texans with a 10 carry, 100 yard perfprmance that included a nice 46-yard touchdown run. Coming on the heels of a season that saw New Orleans completely unable to finish games with a ground attack, the effect has Saints fans riding high. Not to worry, the passing attack is still in good shape, and may in fact be better in 2009 than it was in 2008. As I’ve mentioned before, the improvement in the running game could result in Drew Brees stats being less spectacular, but the Saints record making up for it.
Now it’s time to start thinking Raiders vs Saints, the 3rd pre-season game on the Saints schedule. Unfortunately, the Raiders have become a sort of third world NFL team, and don’t offer as much of a challenge to New Orleans. Local fans will be looking hard at the Raiders JaMarcus Russell, as he battles for a starting spot against the savvy veteran Jeff Garcia. In fact, Jeff Garcia may offer the Saints secondary a test, as he has always been great at finding the open man and is not prone to making dumb mistakes.
But what we’re really looking for as Saints ticket holders, is a repeat performance of the running success we found last night. We want to know this is not a fluke.Let’s get this thing going, and keep it going all through the NFL regular season. We’re going to need it.
