National Football League

Breaking down NFC, Saints, Cowboys

Published Oct. 14, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Every week, the experts of FOX NFL Sunday will candidly reveal their observations and make their opinions known as they prepare for football's top-rated pregame telecast — seen each Sunday at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT. We'll share some of the highlights from Curt, Terry, Howie, Jimmy and Michael grabbed from their weekly conference call with insider John Czarnecki.

This week, Czar probes the FOX NFL Sunday crew on the wacky NFC, the New Orleans Saints and the Dallas Cowboys.

Czar: After five weeks, this has already been a very unusual season. Who are the best teams out there?

Howie Long: I agree that the Jets, Ravens and Steelers have played very well. I would throw Atlanta in the fourth spot and the Giants as a wild card. The Giants right now look almost like Michael’s year when they beat the Patriots. They really struggled with a new defensive coordinator early, but they seem to have figured it out on defense right now.

Curt Menefee: They have been playing three safeties a lot, starting Deon Grant with Antrel Rolle and Kenny Phillips. How much of a difference has that made.

HL: I think it depends on who they are playing when they use a look like that. But the last two weeks, their defensive front has been dominating.

Michael Strahan: That’s the whole team right there — the defensive front. They don’t have linebackers where you would say, wow, look at that guy. The cornerbacks are good players. I really like Rolle. They went to four defensive tackles last week against Houston because they are such a good running team.

HL: One of the keys for them is how they line up their linemen. They have varied it a lot.

Terry Bradshaw: Using three safeties is a very average coverage defense. As a quarterback, you should eat that alive throwing the ball. But it is very good for run support if you have a very good tackler at strong safety.

***

Czar: Are there any teams in the NFC that you see coming on as the season progresses?

TB: I have to think a couple will. Maybe it is Tampa Bay. Maybe they come on. I have to think that Washington will get better than how they’ve played. Detroit. They finally won a game and I love how they play. They play hard each and every week. Chicago is 4-1 and has an easy schedule down the road. They should stay around all year.

MS: The only thing that bothers me about the Giants are their inconsistencies and also how well will they handle winning. They have to keep their heads straight. Detroit might be a tough game for them because the Lions have been in the dumps, but like I said on the show last week they are like a bull in a cage. I love watching Detroit play and I can’t wait for them to get Matthew Stafford back at quarterback.

HL: It’s not that Detroit is going to be a playoff team this season, but they have a lot going for them. They have a rookie running back that is a matchup problem for teams as is Calvin Johnson. The defensive front is very good, too. The two defensive tackles come every play.

***

Czar: Does anybody think that because Randy Moss isn’t around anymore, that New England will actually be better on offense? Now, that he doesn’t have to worry about throwing X amount of passes toward Moss?

TB: I don’t know how you can think like that. I don’t think Tom Brady is the kind of quarterback who would have even worried about how many passes he throws to Moss. Tom reads the coverage and goes where the coverage dictates he should go with the football. I don’t see that as an issue at all. The Patriots have a lot bigger problems over there than getting rid of Randy Moss.

CM: What kind of problems?

TB: Well, when they were winning their first two Super Bowls, they really had a lot of hard running. Does anybody see that from them now? The last two years they threw the ball all over the field and now this year they are dinking and dunking. I don’t think they believe they can adequately protect Brady now.

HL: I think the Patriots are going to be fine. I don’t think Tom felt any pressure to get the ball to Randy. But I do think that Brett felt a lot of pressure to feed Randy on Monday night and he forced a couple passes to him.

MS: How the Vikings opened that game against the Jets, with all the talk about Randy, Randy, Randy all week, was a great idea. Against a dumb team that reverse with Randy throwing the ball might have worked for a big play. The Jets had the receiver covered deep. The Vikings took a chance at it and if it had worked, it would have been a great start.

***

Czar: Why are the Saints struggling so much to score this season?

HL: They miss Pierre Thomas running the ball and Reggie Bush on matchups. They run a lot of uniquely designed plays for Reggie to get him into space or pick the defender. Matter of fact, they may even block a defender in order to get him free into the secondary. They might bring the tight end from the other side and block the defender covering Reggie. He can turn that swing pass in 15 or 20 or sometimes 30 yards. Both Reggie and Pierre are great catching screen passes, and their screen game was so good last season. A couple weeks ago, this team could have run for 220 yards or more, but I’m not sure Sean Payton is patient enough to do that. The two guys replacing Reggie and Thomas really run hard, but they lack the explosive burst to turn a short gain into a long one. I haven’t seen the ball going down the field a lot. A lot of dropped balls and penalties right now. They still have a bundle of really good receivers.

TB: I don’t think Drew Brees is playing as well as he did last season. They are missing their explosive plays and Brees doesn’t seem to have as much time to throw deep as he did a year ago. I know Reggie is important and all that, but they should still be able to throw deep and they aren’t.

Jimmy Johnson: The other thing, though - after five games last year, they were plus-9 on turnover ratio and this season they are minus-1. Their running game has been cut in half, plus points are way down. They averaged 33 points after five games last year and only 19 this year.

HL: I also think that opponents are saying it’s going to take 12 plays to score against us and the Saints have struggled doing that. They have made mistakes like two interceptions in the red zone. The injuries and maybe a lack of focus here or there have hurt them.

TB: It is almost like they are asking themselves right now whether or not they are a good football team. It’s like they’ve forgotten that they just won the Super Bowl. It’s like they don’t know that they are really good and still maybe the best team in the NFC right now. I don’t get it.

***

Czar: Dallas and Minnesota. This is a must win game, but who needs it more?

TB: I would say Dallas. But, golly, flip a coin.

HL: Look at the divisions. The North has been up and down, although the Bears have a 4-1 record. The East has some good teams and the Giants are getting scary. Washington is winning. I would say the East is a tougher place to play right now.

TB: If Dallas goes up to Minnesota and plays like they did last week, and lose again, don’t you think heads would roll in Dallas? The players are confused. They are firing Wade on every page in the Dallas newspapers.

JJ: But we all know that Jerry likes Wade.

TB: We were talking about this a couple weeks ago. But it may come around that this is the way for Jason Garrett to get his head coaching job and for Jerry to find out whether or not he wants to keep him on for next season if they decide to let Wade go.

HL: But who would coach the defense?

TB: I don’t know, Howie. Wade being Wade, he would step down as head coach and stay on as defensive coordinator.

HL: As bizarre as that sounds, that may not be that far-fetched. Jerry has always said after hiring Bill Parcells that he would never again cede so much power to anyone again. If he wants to bring in, fill in the blanks, Bill Cowher, Jon Gruden or whoever it is, then he can do that while knowing what he just had. The key for the next coach is to somehow limit the distractions for this team. I mean not to have training camp in three different spots, stuff like that.

MS: The trouble with the Cowboys this season is that they have been playing well, but they simply don’t know how to finish games.

HL: The penalty that they gave up on the kickoff that subsequently got them pushed back on the rekick and gave Tennessee a big kickoff return, that penalty was just dumb. That was just ridiculous. Stuff like that has been happening at key times all season.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League