Heath's Random Thoughts

Attn: Saints - Use Pierre Heavily!!!!

Those of you who know my sports affiliations know that I have been a huge New Orleans Saints fan since a young age. After last season, I, like many other Saints fans had high hopes and high confidence coming into this season because we have a young, talented team that is essentially returning the core from last years NFC Championship run. Well if you haven't heard the Saints have now started 0-3 and been beaten soundly in each of those games. On top of that, our workhorse halfback, Duece McAllister was injured in week three, tearing his ACL, knocking him out for the rest of the season. The Saints are now coming out of their bye week looking for some sort of spark to get the sputtering offense, an offense that was tops in the league last year, going again.

I am proposing that the Saints use their rookie running back Pierre Thomas, to replace the carries that Duece would have normally gotten. Now, I know they have media darling Reggie Bush at their disposal, but this guys just isn't built or has the mentality to be a pounding, between the tackles runner that the Saints need to wear down the D line of opposing teams. He is more of a cut back runner that works better when is used in open space. Pierre is a perfect fit for a number of reasons.

1. He played for the University of Illinois during a time when they had a terrible team and an awful Offensive Line, yet he was consistently among the top rushers in the Big Ten each year. He is used to dealing with losing teams and making opportunities from nothing. Given the poor performance of the Saints O-Line so far this year he would be right at home.
2. His story is one of the underdog, which fans and players love. He came out of UofI an undrafted free agent and signed with the Saints in hopes of making the team. Keep in mind that the Saints have 2 of the top backs in the league (Duece & Reggie), Aaron Stecker, and had just drafted "The" Ohio State's top rusher, Antonio Pittman in the early rounds of the draft to be one of their backs of the future. Pierre had the cards stacked against him. But he came in and showed a solid work ethic in practice and in the preseason he rang up a couple hundred yards rushing and 3 TD's in just 2 preseason games. He was averaging 6.3 yards per carry. So what did the Saints do? The cut Pittman, whom they had drafted high and kept the underdog from UofI.
3. He knows how to overcome adversity, playing for losing teams but finding a way to excel at his position and he is not afraid to go right at defenders rather than get cute and try a bunch of fancy moves that NFL caliber defenders don't fall for (Reggie).

I truly believe if he is given the chance he could really become a solid contributor on this Saints team. If that happens you will see a noticeable difference in the offense because Pierre will be keeping defenses honest and will translate in Brees getting more time to throw the ball. Who knows, but the end of this season you may see an MVP on the Saints and it won't be Reggie, it will be Pierre!

Gueax Saints!

Labels: Illini, NFL, Saints

posted by Heath @ 10:50 AM