Give The Game Ball To Pierre Thomas

The unsung hero for the Saints in their 45-28 wildcard victory over the Detroit Lions last night was running back Pierre Thomas.  Drew Brees continued his record setting streak by throwing for the most yards in a playoff game with with 466 and completing 33 out of 43 passing attempts with no interceptions. 

However, the game ball should definitely go to Thomas.  While the offense sputtered in the first half as the Lions outplayed them, it was Thomas who kept making the big play and bailing the Saints out whenever they dug themselves in a hole.  His statistics were impressive, but not eye-popping as Brees' 466 passing yards.  Still, he was the Saints leading rusher with 66 yards on 8 carries and also caught 6 passes for 55 yards.  Pretty good average yards per touch.

What was most impressive though was that he seemed to make all of his plays in traffic.  Seldom did Thomas touch the ball last night when there were not already three Lion defenders all over him.  Yet, regardless of whether he got the ball on handoff, pitch out or on a screen pass Thomas continued to out muscle the would-be-tacklers to pick up the necessary yardage for the first down or even more, as it should be pointed out most of the plays that Thomas made were on third down and led to a Saints conversion.

The Saints offense resumed to its natural form in the second half putting up a 35 point onslaught, as Brees was able to utilize more of his weapons with multiple running backs and wide receivers scoring touchdowns.  As one of the few members of the Black & Gold to contribute for all 4 Quarters, I was glad to see Thomas get in the end zone too, becaming the final Saint to score on a one yard touchdown run with 3:36 remaining in the game.

Between now and the NFL Draft in April, increasing attention will be given to prospects as they go through workouts at the NFL Combine, play in all star games and see television reports on where scouts and media pundits such as ESPN's Mel Kiper, Jr. and Todd McShay rank them.  Sometimes you have to wonder how valuable all this ranking of draft prospects is.  Thomas was an undrafted free agent out of the University of Illinois in 2007, and he has certainly proven to be more valuable than that.