GBag Nation
Saints Beat Writer Luke Johnson joins the Nation to talk Saints vs Dallas
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(upbeat music) - Hour three of the G back nation, we are now just an hour and 15 minutes away from Brian Broadus' little nitro gummy bear payoff as we roll on here, pregame Sunday, nine o'clock with the kickoff at noon, New Orleans Saints in town to take on your cowboys. And joining us now for more perspective on the Saints is New Orleans times pick a youn rider. Luke Johnson covered the Saints down there in a good afternoon, sir, how the heck are you? - I'm doing great guys. Thanks for having me on. - So how much of the Saints getting it figured out here in the post, Peyton and Breeze era? - Well, I mean, it looked really good last week. Another big question is how much of that was a panther and how much of that was a Saints. You know, I mean, I think a lot of us were really excited to see what this new offense would look like with Clink Coopie at column plays. You know, you brought over a lot of the same concepts that they used with great success over there in San Francisco and you've seen that branches of that tree have a lot of success across the league. So yeah, then they go out and they score in their first nine possessions and everything looks great against Carolina. But I think you're talking about a whole different animal here with the Dallas Cowboys. I think a lot of us are intrigued to see what it looks like against them. How's the personnel gone about learning that new Coopie X style? - Well, you know, it's interesting. I mean, obviously they went through all their big installs this offseason and then everybody talked about how, you know, it was pretty player friendly, pretty easy to pick up. You know, the verbiage was a lot less chaotic than the stuff they use under Sean Peyton where he had these, you know, 25 word salad play calls that don't make any sense to anybody who's not inside the building. So it's kind of stripped down. And I think the thing that is most interesting is that it's taking a lot of stuff off their car's plate. Yeah, you look at some of these offenses and what they've done across the league and you see it obviously in San Francisco with what Shanahan's doing with Brock Purdy and he's, you know, he's the guy, right? And then you look at, you know, Mike McDaniel's gotten a lot out of it to a tag of Aloa and Bobby Sloak had CJ Stroud playing like one of the best NFL quarterback rookies in NFL history. So, yeah, I think one of the things they do is they say, like, look, this is all gonna work within the scheme of the offense and we don't want you to be doing, you know, a bunch of stuff up at the line scrimmage and making checks and calls and having all this stuff on your plate. A lot of it is gonna be taken care of for you. And, you know, we're gonna be doing this, like kind of pure progression system where it's like one, two, three ball out. And, you know, I think for a guy like Derek Carr who for the majority of his career has had a lot of control at the line scrimmage. This has actually allowed him to kind of free things up and just kind of play within the system and it looked really good in week one. Now, again, they ran for 180 yards and they didn't, you know, I think they only allowed five pressures the entire game. I think you could probably, you'd probably knock both of those numbers way down or way up depending on what your perspective is. It gets Dallas Cowboys in their front. - Hey, Luke, you know, sat down and watched the defense and I really don't know which way they're going to attack in this game because I don't know if it was about Carolina and that quarterback or is this a coordinator in Dennis Allen that's trying to create pressure because he doesn't think he could get home with four? Is, do you have any ideas which way this thing might go? - I mean, I think it would be, I think it was more kind of who they were playing. You know, he's a young quarterback. They feel like they can kind of throw some stuff at him that he's not going to expect and I think they know they're not going to get that with Dak. So look, any Dennis Allen defense, you know, going back to any of his teams here with the Saints, like they all want to win with four. - Right. - And they don't want to blitz if they can help it. And I think that's going to be the case this week. It would be really surprising to me if they just send a bunch of pressure packages at Dak. You know, they want to see what Chase Young can do. You know, whether it's Tyler Geiden or Dak. - Or Steel. - Yeah, yeah, sorry. Thank you. - No problem. - You know, they want to see what he can do and they want to see what Carl Granerson can do. And, you know, I think they have an interesting, you know, third down package where they've got four passbrushes on the field. They'll slide Cam Jordan on, you know, into the inside. You know, guys probably going to be a Hall of Fame player. Not definitely not the same player he was five years ago. But, you know, they'll slide him inside and they've got Brian for his user first round pick last year. Really nice interior pass rusher. So I think they can win with four. I don't know if they can do it against this Cowboys offensive line though. You know, I think they're a really solid unit. I think Geiden and BV were both really strong additions to that group. And, you know, they've obviously had a ton of success. You know how to coach those guys up, but I do think that that's how they're going to want to approach this one. Chad with Luke Johnson here, Saints writer in the GBAG Nation 105 through the fan. You brought up, you know, offensive line there. Fuwaga questionable hasn't practiced the last two days. And then March on Lattimore as well also questionable hasn't practiced the last two days. Those would be two huge losses for the Saints. Any update on their status possibly for Sunday? Well, we talked to Denzel on the after practice today. And, you know, he seems like he feels like he's in a pretty good spot with Fuwaga. You know, this is something he dealt with in training camp as well. And he missed a preseason game when they were doing that. But I don't know if it was just because it's a preseason. I don't want to throw him out there for that. You know, it might be a situation where they feel kind of comfortable with him going out there. And for a rookie, he's a guy they actually feel pretty okay with if he misses some practice time, which is kind of a big departure from the way the Saints have traditionally done business. Like if you didn't practice, you don't play. I don't think that's the case with them anymore. So he could be out there and they, I mean, they desperately need him. You know, for a guy who's only playing in his second NFL game, you might be their second best offensive lineman. They're really, really thin there, really talented, deficient. It could be a problem for him if he doesn't play. Lattimore, I'm a lot less optimistic about it from a Saints perspective. He said he was feeling okay after the game on Sunday. But you know, he didn't practice all week and I think a hamstring is a thing where you don't want to aggravate that and have it be a lingering issue. So they said he's going to be kind of like a game day decision, but I'd be kind of probably leaning toward him not playing. And they can weather the storm a little bit better at corner than they could at offensive tackle. You know, they've got Kool-Aid McInster, their second round draft pick, who they really like, they can fill him in for Lattimore. You know, and still feel pretty good. I mean, Lattimore missed, I think, 10 games last year and they still finish, you know, top 10 passing defense. So, you know, that one's a little bit easier to manage. But one of the things that they do with Lattimore is they have them, they haven't tailed the opposing team's number one. And obviously that's a big deal in this game. So you're talking about, you know, potentially a Lante Taylor, their slot corner, having to go up against one of the NFL's best wideouts, that's a mismatch. You know, that's something they've got to consider. But I just, I'm just kind of leaning toward him not being available. Alvin Camara had a bit of a turn back the clock game on Sunday. What do you think about the way they're using him in this new offense? Man, it's so exciting. It's been really frustrating watching him have to play in this offense the last couple of years. It's like they didn't really know how to use them. They were trying to use them as kind of the traditional bell cow back. And you wondered whether he still had it, you know, you wonder whether he still had a fastball because, look, it's been two years since he had a 20 plus yard run. And, you know, seeing them get him in the open field, it was awesome. You get to see what the guy could still do. And he's still clearly a very good player. I think it's something that we were all kind of anticipating because he looks really good in training camp. You just never really know until you see him go up against another team. And you didn't really do much in the preseason. I just feel like this run game is always going to be... You're talking about like a Kuberic offense, even going back to what his dad did with the Broncos and the Houston Texans and Terrell Davis and Harry and Foster. And, you know, these running backs have huge years in the system. And you can see why. Yeah, they were... For all the talk, their offensive line has gotten in. It's been a lot, especially locally. They've been kind of trashed all off season. They were paving some big holes. And they were getting out of the Camara in space. And lo and behold, he looks great. So, can they do it again this week? I don't know. But, like, I think in terms of, like, the overall season, we're going to see something a lot closer to, like, the 2020 out in Camara than we have in a long time. And I think that's really exciting for Saints fans. So, Luke, in NFL cities where the team isn't running something like a McVay or Shanahan or now Clint Kubiak, style offense, you know, there's people there who are following the trends and looking at the metrics of what kind of an advantage you get with this motion at the snap and these kind of concepts. How powerful and exciting is it to see it, you know, taking root inside the organization that you cover? And what's been sort of the reaction from the fans as this thing is coming to fruition? Well, I'll tell you just from my perspective, it makes it a lot more entertaining to watch the game. It's a, it feels like it's a lot harder to predict what they're going to do. Yeah, they were running the same offense from 2006 to 2023. There are variations of it. And you can do that when you've got Drew Brees pulling the trigger and, you know, he's like a human supercomputer back there and he makes everything go. But when you take a whole thing quarterback out of that and ask somebody to go do what Drew Brees is doing, it just looks, it looks boring and flat. So yeah, it's been great. I mean, they were, I think number two or number one in the NFL and pre snap motion usage this week. Hey Mike Vlini here hosted cash to ticket alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcast claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcast that claim they hit 80% of the games? When really they just lose like most of us. Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent. We're having a hell of a good time with it. And we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to cash the ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Dead last in the NFL last year, they were top five in play action usage. They were dead last in the NFL last year. It's just refreshing to see some new ideas. I can tell you confidently that the Saints fan base is all about it because it was so apathetic here this offseason. Like nobody cared just because they've been kind of the same boring version of the mediocre NFL team for the last couple of years and it's just injected some life into the fan base. Do those fans have any love for Dak? You know, I don't know. I think there's a lot of people around here who just like with anywhere just like kind of the rationally hate to Cowboys. So even though he's a Louisiana product, you know, they're like, well, he didn't go to LSU. So any place for the Cowboys. So like, you know, no love lost here. But I'm sure, you know, if Dak didn't sign that mega contract and he was a free agent next year, everybody would have been like, let's please go get Dak. He's a really good player, man. Hey, you mentioned the fan apathy. How critical is this season for Dennis Allen and Derek Carr? I mean, it's huge, you know, if you would have told me before the year that they would have gone like, you know, 10 and 7 and and, you know, one on mediocre NFC South and gotten into the playoffs, I think people would have been pissed off, you know, because they don't like they had so much dislike format or at least the, you know, we'll call it. Let's call it the vocal minority, right? The people you see on Twitter or, or, you know, whatever. Talking about the team, they just couldn't stand either of those guys. So, you know, they've got a lot of work to do both both Dennis Allen and Derek Carr to just kind of like reset what the fan base thinks of them here. But, you know, a really, really good first step. Yeah, people can say all they want about how much they, they don't care what the team does. They want those guys out of here. But like, if they go out and they're their top five NFL and scoring and they're fun every week and they're, you know, competitive and pushing for real legitimate playoff spots and positioning. I think people change their minds, but it's up to them to do it. And this is really where they're going to start to be tested. I mean, the first like five, six weeks of the season are pretty brutal. I mean, they open up Carolina. Great. But they go to Dallas and then fill a Delphia. Then they got to go on the road to Atlanta. And then they got Kansas City and Tampa Bay right after that. It's, that's tough. They can get through that stretch looking okay and, you know, not looking like they're heading for another losing or mediocre season. I think people feel pretty good around here. Luke Johnson, New Orleans times pick a you and thank you so much for your insights at terrific reports, sir. My pleasure guys. Talk to you soon. He's out of here. That's good one right there. Yeah. Yeah, it's good to get a good information there on this football team trying to emerge here. Obviously you get excited about beating Carolina. They finished last year strong, but they haven't beaten anybody good, you know, so they're looking at this as a huge opportunity, but they're a touchdown dog coming into AT&T Sunday kickoff at noon pregame at nine top 10s. Next, we'll check what we got. Shannon with Eric about potential ID and we're going to do a top 10. Most disgusting foods in the world. What's the most disgusting thing you've ever put in your mouth? Eight, seven, seven, eight, eight, one, one, five, three. We got some big CMC news and Drew Brees talking about that. Mike Zimmer defense. That's next in the nation. Hey, Mike Fellini here host the cash to take it alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcasts claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcasts that claim they hit 80% of the games? When really, they just lose like most of us. Think cash to tickets, the spot for you. We're real. We're transparent. We're having a hell of a good time with it. And we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash the Ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music)