Drew Brees and Robert Meachem Face Their Toughest Challenge Yet

Tonight’s game between the Patriots and the Saints will for sure be full of firepower. You have arguably the two best quarterbacks in the league, Drew Brees and Tom Brady, facing off and two high scoring offenses. Brady has two great weapons to throw to in Randy Moss and Wes Welker but Drew Brees has a plethora of weapons in Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Robert Meachem, Jeremy Shockey and others. The matchups to watch will be the wide receivers vs. the secondaries. The Saints secondary is a little banged up with their top three cornerbacks ailing with minor injuries and going up against Moss and Welker could cause some problems.  When playing the Patriots your depth will be tested at corner as they try and spread the field and get the ball to their top-two receivers.

The Patriots secondary will be tested from the start of the game as Drew Brees will try and pick apart the defense and spread the ball evenly to his receivers. The hardest thing about playing the Saints is not knowing where Brees is going with the football and before you know it they have already put up 21 points. This game will come down to turnovers and both of these teams are two and three in the NFL at the turnover margin. Even though the Saints are undefeated and playing at home, it is hard to bet against Tom Brady and the Patriots. I think the Patriots win this one by a field goal.  Drew Brees and Robert Meachem joined WWL in New Orleansto talk about the big game tonight, Robert Meachem’s progress since joining the Saints, and the importance of capitalizing on turnovers made in tonight’s game.

Drew Brees: On the coverage Jeremy Shockey is receiving vs. the other tight ends on the team:

“Well you know it has just been a matter of opportunities and how they are playing different guys and we see it every week. Another guy will step up that maybe you didn’t expect to have all of the catches or all of the yards or all the touchdowns and all of a sudden that is the guy who ends up getting a lot of the action. I think that was the case for Dave Thomas he just made the most of his opportunities. You know really going back to the St. Louis game as well because I think he was our leading pass catcher in that game too. It just happened to be whether he was the primary guy or coming out of the backfield, in third down situations or just the second or third guy in the progression. He just happened to be getting the ball and doing a great job of getting open. Maybe the defense was just focusing more so on another guy and it left him with a good matchup.”

On Robert Meachem’s play last week:

“Yeah man he has done a great job and continues to get better each and every week. I am just excited that he is on my team.”

Robert Meachem: On how much time goes into working with Brees to develop that chemistry:

“You have to put in a lot of work. My first two years I didn’t really understand that. I just watched Drew and all of the other guys: Why are they always getting the ball? I want the ball too so I had to do things to help me get the ball and that is working after practice, going up to Drew and asking what he likes in certain situations because he gets us the ball. It is just fun now because Drew is going to tell you that he has got faith in you. If I throw you the ball I got faith in you. Just go and make a play. It is just great hearing that from the quarterback.”

Drew Brees: On the progression that Robert has made since joining the team:

“It is always good to see that good things happen to good people. Guys that work hard and are striving to be the best and you like to see those guys get rewarded and Meachem is one of those guys. Like he told you, from the first day he stepped into the Saints facility until now, he is one of the most improved players and he continues to get better each time out especially these last few games with some of the opportunities that we have been able to give him and the he has really created for himself. You have seen the type of plays that he can make and I think his role with just continue to grow and he knows just like we all do on offense that your opportunities will come. You are going to have those chances to make big plays. One week it is Meach, one week it is Colston and one week it is Devery but in the end they all know that they have a critical role on offense and they all create for one another and they are also going to get those opportunities to make those big plays.”

On the importance of capitalizing on turnovers made in tonight’s game:

“Obviously when you get a turnover especially against a team like the Patriots that just don’t turn it over very often. You certainly want to take advantage of that however you can so you want to get points and also just from a momentum standpoint. When you can take that and convert it into points especially touchdowns that just says so much for the psyche of the whole team especially the defense just knowing that they are taking it away and their offense is cashing in on it.”