NFC South
2011 PFF All-NFC South Team
I’m not sure if this article wouldn’t be better titled “All-Saints offense” and “All-Falcons defense” because of the majority each team is featured in those respective units.
It’s not all good news for New Orleans, however, as three of their best players are set to become free agents. The fact the Bucs have just two participants here goes a long way to explaining why Raheem Morris no longer has a job. The up-and-coming Panthers have four entrants which, while still pretty poor, at least helps to avoid Tampa Bay’s embarrassment.
With that said, lets train our gaze on the PFF All-NFC South team for 2011.
Re-Focused: Saints @ 49ers, Divisional Round
A finer playoff game you could never hope to see. This game had it all, big plays, stifling defense, periods of yo-yo scoring and a final two minutes that will live long in the memories of partisan and neutral fans alike. In the game the San Francisco 49ers couldn’t win they did just that–and in absolutely spectacular fashion. The 49ers had a narrow margin for error in this game and in a game they dominated with five takeaways and led by as many as 17 points, they only just edged out the victory with a touchdown in the final 10 seconds. The 49ers needed every advantage they gave themselves in this game and just scraped out victorious with some new heroes crowned in the great folklore of 49er playoff history.
For the defeated New Orleans Saints, the franchise is still without a road playoff victory and even though the offense came alive late, it was mistakes by the offense early that proved costly. Read the rest of this entry »
Focus Points: Jimmy Graham vs. the 49ers
Wow. What a game and if you, like me, are pretty stoked after such a thrilling matchup, perhaps you’ll excuse some rather excited rhetoric in this report.
After staying on the defensive side of the game last week, I decided to look to the other side of the ball and after three and a half minutes of the first quarter was regretting my decision. On a sideline go route, Jimmy Graham, my “Focus Point” for the day, banged his head and left the field injured to various calls from the commentators about concussions and how he may not return. Was this the flaw in my plan?
As it turned out, Graham returned on the next drive and played a fairly pivotal role in what, at the moment at least, appears to be one of the best playoff games ever. Read the rest of this entry »
Three to Focus on: Saints @ 49ers, Divisional Round
The first encounter of divisional weekend is the only game of the four that isn’t a rematch from the 2011 regular season, but it does provide the matchup between arguably the best defense in the league and the best offense. A true meeting of fire and ice.
Coming into the season, the prospect of the Saints travelling to an NFC West team on divisional playoff weekend would have seemed absurd, no one could have expected an NFC West team to secure a bye, but the 49ers have done just that and they will need their defense to be at its best to ensure the Saints leave the left coast with another defeat. The 49ers have faced some good offenses this season in the shape of the Eagles, Lions, and Giants but nothing comes close to the Saints’ explosive, deep, and varied attack. As good as the 49ers’ defense has been this season, this is a new test. Read the rest of this entry »
Why the 49ers Can’t Win on Saturday
The 49ers have a lot going for them this weekend when they face the Saints, but this game is going to come down to how each team fares in the red zone, and that will ultimately prove to be their Achilles heel. San Francisco is playing at home, and New Orleans does not have a road playoff win in the franchise’s history (0-4). The 49ers have the best defensive player in football (Justin Smith), and arguably two of the next three on that list this season (ILB duo of Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman). They will also field the player that led the entire league in our Pass Rushing Productivity metric this season in the shape of Aldon Smith. If ever a defense was set up to combat the Saints, it’s the 49ers.
Fantasy: Off-Season Depth Chart Outlook – NFC South
Our Off-season Depth Chart Outlook series continues today with the NFC South division.
What I’m doing here is going team-by-team and taking a look at each team’s roster situation at the four key offensive Fantasy Football positions (QB RB WR TE). I’ll also be speculating on a few potential off-season moves we could see each of these teams make.
Re-Focused: Falcons @ Giants, Wild Card Round
An eerie sense of déjà vu descended on MetLife Stadium as another playoff victory and another chance to prove their doubters wrong slipped through the fingers of the Atlanta Falcons. After a solid start where the Falcons spurned their chances to make early inroads on the New York Giants, they simply fell away and were comfortably picked off. The Giants got off to a very lethargic start on offense, but once they got into some sort of forward gear they never looked back and cruised to a rematch with the Green Bay Packers, harking back to memories of their last Superbowl run.
For the Falcons this was yet another crushingly disappointing playoffs loss in the Mike Smith/ Matt Ryan era where once again the promise they showed in the regular season failed to materialize in the postseason. Their offense looked slow and ponderous, making poor use of the offensive upgrades they acquired, while the defense (though solid for much of the game) wasn’t good enough to keep the Falcons in a slug fest. Read the rest of this entry »
Re-Focused: Lions @ Saints, Wild Card Round
The Detroit Lions will surely look back on this game with a mixture of frustration and disappointment as a mad five minutes in the fourth quarter saw them throw away their opportunity to hand the New Orleans Saints another Wild Card playoff upset. It was far from a surefire thing as their defense had hemorrhaged yards and points in the second half, but they were in the game and with Calvin Johnson firing on all cylinders once again, anything was possible. When the Saints picked up two touchdowns and a turnover in the space of just over two minutes, the game turned finally to the Saints. Missed opportunities were the key for this inexperienced Detroit team and they should come back next season hungry to better their first playoff game in more than a decade.
PFF Focus Points: Ndamukong Suh vs. the Saints
For the second of these articles, what better way to complete the Saturday set of Wild Card games than by comparing and contrasting another defensive tackle going against an equally accomplished line. Ndamukong Suh hasn’t had the greatest of sophomore years, but here was an opportunity to live up to the hype by making plays against a Pro Bowl interior. The Lions may have come up short but how did Suh measure up?
This season the Lions coaching staff has deliberately cut down on Suh’s snaps. Presumably the plan here is to either allow him more energy later in the game, give other players a chance, extend his playing career, or more likely a combination of all three. In his rookie year he averaged 90% of all defensive snaps, but this year that has been reduced to 78%. Interestingly, that is very close to what he got in this game too (75%), playing almost all of those snaps at left defensive tackle. He was used on two occasions as a left defensive end, but not once on the right side.
Three to Focus on: Lions @ Saints, Wild Card Round
One team is coming off breaking all sorts of passing records, the other wondering just how they gave up six touchdowns and 480 yards to a backup quarterback. On the surface of things, this is a rematch of the Week 13 encounter that saw the New Orleans Saints hammer the Detroit Lions which doesn’t hold much appeal here. After all, the numbers suggest the Lions secondary are likely to be on the wrong end of a Drew Brees-inspired beatdown.
However, we’re in the postseason now, and you don’t need to tell the Saints about how the playoffs can play host to shocks and surprises. It was a year ago the no-hope Seahawks ended New Orleans’ dreams of repeating with a certain running back entering Beast Mode. So why can’t the Lions cause the upset? Why can’t Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson decimate the Saints secondary? Why can’t this be where Drew Brees has an off day?
Let’s look at what the Lions will need to do to shock the world, and what the Saints will have to do to stop them.
 |
|