It has been rare since 2011 to see such a perfect day out of the Saints on both sides of the ball. But Sunday as the Saints handled the Arizona Cardinals in a decisive 31-7 victory, it seemed like the team had been playing together forever. They partially have Rob Ryan’s scheme to thank for that. They had forgotten how to get after a quarterback – Ryan had to remind them.

XBuddy Dee’s Ghost, Staff Saints Writer/Analyst

Arizona is probably above the average team on offense, don’t laugh. I consider them better than Miami (who we play next Monday) and probably even better than the Failclowns. They came at us with multiple offensive weapons and a decent run game. Last year, a combo with Larry Fitzgerald, Rashard Mendenhall and Andre Ellington would have torn us a new bung-hole and made the Saints defense stay on the field all day. But Sunday the Saints managed to hold them to 7 points allowing only 26 minutes of possession.

This is a tremendous accomplishment for the Saints who sported the worse defense in football history last year. But this is not the same Saints defense. They are having loads of fun on the field and it shows. Sunday, they all did the fat man dance in perfect unison.

Defensively, the new guys are coming into their own. Cam Jordan, Akiem Hicks and Junior Galette are starting to get called out by national announcers as part of a defensive front teams don’t want a piece of. The addition of Keenan Lewis and Kenny Vaccaro to our secondary has prevented the long ball effectively. Depth abounds at several defensive positions from new faces like veteran Parys Haralson and rookies Jonathan Jenkins and Glenn Foster.

I don’t think I recall the Saints shutting down a run game that effectively since the Haslett team of 2000. Not only are they doing it today, but they seem to be doing it consistently.

Offensively, the Saints are still the same Saints they were all along and they proved it against a great defense Sunday. We remain a pass-heavy offense that uses the pass to open up running lanes. The only problem thus-far has been baiting teams into committing to the straightforward run because we haven’t had a reliable N/S running back since Deuce retired.

Today, the outside runs by Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles were just effective enough to make the Cards play honest ball. But the real thrill came in the last 5 minutes of the second half when we announced damn good and loud that we were running the ball and they had to stop it. We brought in rookie UDFA Khiry Robinson to take some hits and we ground some important time off the clock.

What then happened was a display of straight ahead power running that the Cards could not stop. Robinson proceeded to punch holes in the middle of the Cards defense, picking up nearly 10 yards per carry and at least 2 first downs.

Sure, some will say it was “junk yardage” and that the Cards had given up hope at that point. Others will say that Bree’s 14 yard TD scramble in the 4th quarter got the Saint’s running backs all geeked up. Personally, I think Khiry is knocking on the door of NFL stardom. He is an explosive runner – expect to see him get a few touches next Monday night to see if he can keep it up.

As for Mark Ingram (who was grinning on the sideline during the first quarter) – expect his mysterious “turf toe” to continue…

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