On Monday evening, sources at ESPN were reporting that Deuce McAllister had torn his ACL during the 1^st quarter of the Monday Night Football game against the Titans. Obviously this proves disappointing for McAllister since he will miss the rest of the season, but worse yet, this could be the straw that broke the camels back for the Saints.

Last year when the Saints were ranked as the most prolific offense in the NFL and ranked amongst the best in almost all categories, many people had attributed their success to Drews Brees or Reggie Bush. The fact of the matter is that offense experienced that level of success by the power running game of McAllister. If you were to go back and look at the games where the Saints had passed for more than 300 yards or had scored more than 30 points a game, Deuce rushed for more than 100 yards or had at least 25 carries. Through his hard, smash mouth running style he would open up the middle of the field for Colston, because it would draw the safeties into the box to play the run. Also at the same time, Deuce could keep the defensive front seven honest in play action situations that would open up Reggie Bush in the flats. All of which would give Brees and the offense plenty of time to dismantle a defense throughout the course of the game.

This season the Saints have had almost no offensive power or explosion like they had experienced in the previous season. Once again critics are blaming the lack of effort on Brees, Bush or the offensive line. However, I believe it is due to their lack of utilization of McAllister. During each of the first 3 games this season Deuce has had less than 20 carries and 100 yards rushing, which based upon the previous paragraph would explain why the Saints offense is struggling so much.

Undoubtedly, after tonight’s loss to the Titans the 0-3 Saints have got to be feeling disappointed and let down. But now that their main offensive weapon may be lost for the season, it may be time to start hitting the panic button.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 12:27 am and is filed under Discussion, Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.