BIG EASY LIVING
Saints have New Orleans hopping with excitement
THE FOOTBALL team that helped a city heal after Katrina, the head coach and the quarterback who were instrumental in helping drain a city that was flooded in despair, is giving New Orleans Mardi Gras on Sundays again for Who Dat Nation:
Drew Brees, the NFC version of Tom Brady, forever young at 39.
Sean Payton, reminding everyone that Bill Belichick isn’t alone at the top of the Bill Parcells coaching tree.
The 2017 draft class, drawing comparisons to the storied Class of 2006 (Reggie Bush, Roman Harper, Jahri Evans, Zach Strief, Marques Colston) featuring firstround picks Marshon Lattimore, already a shutdown cornerback, and offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk, second-round safety Marcus Williams and third-round running back Alvin Kamara.
And finally, a defense nowhere near as heralded as the famed Dome Patrol linebacking corps from 1986-92 (Ricky Jackson, Sam Mills, Pat Swilling, Vaughan Johnson), but no longer the franchise’s Achilles’ heel.
A six-game winning streak that makes the hurricanes taste even sweeter at Pat O’Brien’s. Bayou Gotta Believe. “Whether you’re in the grocery store, whether you’re just hanging out at a restaurant, whether you’re in a pharmacy, somebody’s gonna know that you are a Saints player,” legendary Saints RB Deuce McAllister said by phone. “And I’m talking white or black, does not matter. You’re talking about a city and a state that when you’re born, the babies, they get Fleur-de-lis. The bed that they get, it has a Fleur-de-lis on it.”
WDSU-TV sports anchor Fletcher Mackel is a seventh-generation New Orleanian.
“The connection between the fans and the city is pretty tremendous, and slowly but surely over this six-game winning streak, you’ve seen a lot of people jump back on the bandwagon,” Mackel said by phone. “I’m not sure when it’s gonna click, and it’s gonna be full blown Who Dat mania like it was in [2006], [2009] and ’11, but we’re inching closer and closer with each victory.”
Bobby Hebert grew up in Shreveport and played quarterback on the Saints’ first playoff team in 1987.
“It’s like big town-small city where they’re affected whether the Saints win or lose as far as I guess their productivity on Monday at work,” Hebert said by phone, and chuckled. “Who Dat Nation is alive and well.” Bountygate is a distant memory, and no one is wishing Payton away to another franchise.
“Sean Payton to me is a football genius, offensive genius if that makes sense,” Hebert said.
No one is questioning anymore whether Brees deserves a t wo- year extension.
“He’s the last of a dinosaur. ... He’s like a gator, right?” defensive end Cameron Jordan told Serby Says by phone. “You would never know it the way he plays. The way he wants to win every game, the way he takes after practice, you understand why he’s great.”
McAllister: “He’s never had the strongest arm, so don’t expect him to throw 60 or 70 yards. He beats you with his smarts. He beats you with his anticipation.”
Brees has a league-leading 71.6 completion percentage.
“Just like a surgeon, just cutting up a defense and knowing how to attack it,” Hebert said.
Kamara and Mark Ingram have given Brees and Payton such a formidable 1-2 punch that Adrian Peterson’s services were not ever needed. Kamara has been compared with former fan favorite Darren Sproles.
“He gives you the ability to not only play first and second down as a running back, but on third down, to be able to come in and make defenses declare whether they’re gonna treat him as a regular running back and/ or are they gonna treat him as a receiver?” McAllister said. “So you get a lot of what when me and Reggie [Bush] were playing.”
McAllister was asked if Kamara reminds him of anyone.
“You look at how Philly used [Brian] Westbrook. You look at how even [LeSean] McCoy was used in Philadelphia and up in Buffalo,” McAllister said. “He’s probably surprised me more as a runner, particularly inside, because we know that once he gets in space he can be a dangerous player.”
Kamara is averaging 6.0 yards per attempt and 9.2 yards per reception.
“Sproles at times might have been more shifty, but I think Kamara’s stronger, has great balance,” Hebert said. “I just don’t think he’ll be good, I think he’ll be a great player. ... He’s just a better version of Reggie Bush.”
Payton struck gold in defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.
“We’re a defense [15th ranked] that is hungry. Words like tenacious, words like aggressive off the line, these words pop up. We still have so much growth to do,” Jordan said.
Lattimore (10 passes defended, two interceptions) looks like the Defensive Rookie of the Year. Welcome to Lattimore Island.
“He runs a lot of the routes like the receiver runs ’em, so when he’s able to do that, that means he’s in that receiver’s hip pocket,” McAllister said. “He has allowed the Saints from a defensive standpoint to almost be able to say, ‘ You cover that one guy, and take away that half of the field, and we can cover the other 10 guys.’”
The football gods are smiling on the 6-2 Saints. A balmy 40 degrees is forecast for Sunday in Buffalo.
“Everybody is fluent in the language called ‘hut-hut,’” Mackel said jokingly. “For a generation of people this was it. Everybody lived and died with this team, and so everybody invested in it in some way. And then, after the storm, what they were able to do, coming back and winning immediately, with people that really seemed to care and be vested in this, that’s kind of a bond that will truly never be broken.”