One NFC pro personnel scout who picks the Saints over the Bears on Sunday thinks the Saints defense is underrated.
“They have a sleeper defense. They’re pretty sound,” said the scout, whose team played both the Saints and Bears this season. “They’re hardly ever out of position. You don’t see a guy running scot-free because of miscommunication. Usually if a guy gets beat, it’s because of a receiver beating a defensive back.
“They play pretty good run defense. Will Smith is a Pro Bowler. He and Charles Grant are solid players. They can put pressure on the quarterback. They may not have a whole bunch of studs but they’re a pretty good group. Hollis Thomas has done well for them in the middle. The linebacker situation went from marginal to better than average. They got [Scott] Shanle and [Mark] Simoneau. If Chicago does it right, they should be able to run a little bit, too, but it will be interesting to see what happens.”
The scout gives the Saints a considerable edge in running, even though the Bears finished ahead of the Saints in both running and stopping the run.
“The one thing the Saints can do is run the football,” he said. “They have powerful guys up front. Their right tackle (Jon Stinchcomb) is their weak link, but the rest of them are pretty good football players. The center (Jeff Faine) can make the calls and is smart enough to make sure everybody is on the same page. They have a pretty good unit if they can cover up that right tackle and make sure he doesn’t get taken advantage of. Good fullback (Mike Karney) who can block. He’s really versatile enough to do more than block, but he’s basically a good blocker and that helps their running game. That’s going to be a real strength for them–their ability to power-run the ball.”
The scout likes Saints quarterback Drew Brees but believes stopping the run is the key.
“Their quarterback is smart enough to check them out and switch to a good play,” he said. “Similar to Chicago, they have the big receiver who can catch the ball in a crowd in the rookie [Marques] Colston. They have the speed guy in [Devery] Henderson, who must be accounted for on the deep ball.
“I think the passing game the Bears probably can handle if they don’t allow them to nickel-and-dime them to death, miss a tackle on a swing pass with Reggie Bush, who can turn a 5-yard play into a 35-yard play. Stuff like that. I really think if they can stop the run, they can have a chance.”
Peyton dues
It’s not enough for Peyton Manning to get the Colts into the playoffs in seven of his nine years. The simplicity of sports is also simplistic and cruel–you’re either a winner or a loser, never a great participant.
Two former quarterbacks now commenting for CBS added their opinions.
Boomer Esiason: “If [Manning] doesn’t win Sunday and doesn’t get to the Super Bowl, he might as well buy a house next to A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) because they’re going to be living in the same neighborhood. And that’s the neighborhood of the guys making the most money without the championships with the most stats in the regular season. I don’t feel that way because I think it’s horrific that these two great athletes have to be looked at in that vein. But that’s unfortunately the way it’s going to be perceived. If it continues to stay that way for Peyton, he’ll have to deal with it much like Marty Schottenheimer is dealing with it this week. As much as I hate it, and as much as I think it’s an injustice, the perception out there . . . [is] if he doesn’t win the Super Bowl his career is not going to be validated.”
Esiason quarterbacked the 1988 Bengals to the Super Bowl and lost.
Phil Simms: “There are ex-players who will say he needs to have [a championship] to validate [his career], but it’s because they’re jealous or they just don’t like him or something he does rubs them wrong. Any ex-quarterback is going to watch him play and say, `My God.’ I’ve said before it’s almost embarrassing to say I played quarterback in the NFL after watching him and [Tom] Brady and some of these other guys with what they do now. It’s not like the home-run record in baseball. In football it has gotten to the point where nobody cares what the numbers are or anything. It’s like, OK, Pro Bowls. That’s nice, how many Super Bowls did you win? It has been narrowed down and simplified to just that. And that’s it. It is a shame because no matter how good you are at that position, you cannot overcome all the other variables that go into a game.”
Simms quarterbacked the 1986 Giants to the Super Bowl and won.
Esiason points out the pressure on Manning takes the pressure off Brady, who already has won three rings.
“On Tom Brady’s side, he’s almost coming in with `house money,'” Esiason said. “I don’t see how he can lose in this situation. Even if he did lose and played badly, it doesn’t matter, the story will focus on [him] going to the Super Bowl.”
Loose Moose
Who says Muhsin Muhammad isn’t a deep threat? In eight career playoff games, the Bears possession receiver has 21 receptions for 448 yards, an average of 21.8 yards per catch.
The average was boosted by his 85-yard touchdown catch for the Panthers in the 2004 Super Bowl, but if he catches four more passes Sunday close to his 21-yard average, Muhammad will have the highest average yards per catch in postseason history, minimum of 25 receptions.
He’s in pretty good company:
– Charlie Brown, Washington, 20.74.
– Randy Moss, Minnesota, 20.66.
– Frank Lewis, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, 20.5.
– Tom Fears, Los Angeles Rams, 19.6.
– Paul Warfield, Cleveland, Miami, 19.3.
Delivery man
Ex-Bears linebacker Rosevelt Colvin of the Patriots grew up a Colts fan in his hometown of Indianapolis, where he will play for the first time Sunday.
“I have a lot of memories from the old Colts teams, with Jim Harbaugh and Eric Dickerson and Jack Trudeau, back in the day, guys like that, Eugene Daniel,” Colvin told New England reporters. “I think the most memorable experience was I was working one night [at the Hoosier Dome], a Monday night game against the Broncos, and I think they won like 55-10. It was a huge deal. It’s definitely a part of who I am today.”
Working?
Colvin was 11 years old in 1988 when the Colts beat the Broncos 55-23.
“A deacon at my church owned a concession stand,” Colvin said. “He still does–sandwiches and snow cones and cotton candy. I was the cotton candy guy.”
Apparently, Colvin didn’t look too sweet last week in San Diego, where Chargers MVP LaDainian Tomlinson and others objected to several Patriots dancing on the team’s logo at midfield and mocking Shawne Merriman’s sack dance.
Colvin made a choke sign toward the Chargers bench and shouted Merriman’s nickname, “Lights Out,” into the Chargers locker room as he passed by after the game.
“I did a lot of taunting after the buzzer went off,” Colvin admitted to the Boston Herald.
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dpierson@tribune.com
