Here’s what’s clear and obvious: No one has devised a plan to eliminate Michael Thomas from the Saints’ game plan this season.
The law of averages seems like it should catch up with Thomas at some point in 2019. Maybe Thomas simply breaks all the laws.
“I’ve been getting open all year. Shit! Just keep getting open,” Thomas said after another double-digit reception, triple-digit yardage performance in another Saints win, this time Sunday’s 34-31 thriller over the Panthers in the Superdome.
Advertisement
Thomas ended with 10 receptions on 11 targets for 101 yards and one touchdown. It’s the sixth time this season he’s tallied 10 or more catches. It’s the ninth time he’s tallied double-digit targets. It’s the fifth consecutive games (seventh overall) he’s piled up more than 100 receiving yards — becoming only the fourth player in NFL history to do so in a single season (Isaac Bruce, six in 1995; Anquan Boldin, five in 2005; Calvin Johnson, five in 2012).
The Saints wideout moved his season totals to 104 receptions and 1,242 yards. Thomas becomes only the fifth player in NFL history to have at least 100 receptions and 1,200 receiving yards in three consecutive seasons, joining Antonio Brown, Marvin Harrison, Herman Moore and Jerry Rice.
Everyone in the building knows the ball is going to leave Drew Brees’ right hand about a dozen times per game in Thomas’ direction. And Thomas is more than likely catching all of them.
Going into Sunday’s game with a very familiar opponent in Carolina, I wondered if that trend might change. Would the Panthers handle Thomas differently? After all, Carolina actually managed to keep Thomas from completely shredding its secondary in last year’s two games.
Particularly, Panthers cornerback James Bradberry.
Bradberry shadowed Thomas in both meetings last season. In Week 15, I charted Thomas with two catches on three targets for 19 yards. Week 17 was what it was. Still, Thomas nearly played the whole game. The Saints wideout picked up three catches on four targets from Teddy Bridgewater for 19 yards.
Maybe, just maybe, Brees and the Saints offense would have to run through someone other than Thomas.
In the end, though, not even Bradberry would slow down Thomas.
The two went head-to-head on 24 specific matchups Sunday, via my real-time charting.
Thomas’ first three receptions on Bradberry came on a 5-yarder, 4-yarder and 15-yarder. Bradberry came into the frame on the one incompletion between Shaq Thompson and Bradberry, even though neither received credit for a pass breakup. The next time Bradberry defended Thomas down the sideline, Brees hooked up with Jared Cook on a 20-yard touchdown reception.
Advertisement
Maybe Thomas started to wear down Bradberry by the middle of the third quarter. Thomas lined up solo on the right side of the formation. The play screamed slant to Thomas. Bradberry could have known it was coming.
No matter.
Thomas shook Bradberry from the break on the slant. Brees hit Thomas for the 3-yard score with the Saints wideout open in the middle of the end zone on the middle of the field with 5:09 left in the third quarter.
You can't guard him, you can only hope to contain him.@CantGuardMike | pic.twitter.com/of4yJ19ROK
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) November 24, 2019
“Once the play came in the huddle and I knew what it was, I knew I had to make a play for my teammates no matter what the coverage was. … We prepared with that play all week long,” Thomas said.
Throughout the game, head coach Sean Payton called plays moving Thomas to the inside, forcing Carolina to adjust. Bradberry would still follow Thomas to his side of the field, but nickel cornerback Javien Elliott would end up covering Thomas. Only in the fourth quarter did Bradberry remain on his side of the field when the Saints placed Thomas in motion.
“Faceless opponent,” Thomas said. “Treat them like they’re all the same. I play for the Saints. I play for Drew Brees. When the play is called, I’m supposed to make them right, do my thing and get open. We play so many games. … You’re just treating them all the same. Don’t take anyone lightly, but just play fast.”
Thomas doesn’t seem like a player caught up in who’s defending him since he’s been dynamite since entering the league as a second-rounder in 2016. Yet knowing how hard Thomas strives for greatness, I find it hard to believe he doesn’t know the tendencies of the cornerbacks he faces each week, or when to know when he has them defeated.
By the sound of Bradberry after the game, Thomas basically pushed the Panthers defensive back into submission.
Advertisement
The Saints managed to put behind them a fourth-quarter Brees interception, a turnover on downs and an overturned no-call on cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson for pass interference, culminating in the unbelievable missed chip shot by Joey Slye to give New Orleans a shot to win.
First, Thomas bailed out the Saints after a first-down sack with a 14-yard reception (defended by Tre Boston, not Bradberry). Then Thomas stuck the dagger into Carolina. Brees hit an open Thomas for a 24-yard gain down the sideline to the Carolina 40.
.@Cantguardmike was just clutch 💪pic.twitter.com/GKEUZKUyli
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 24, 2019
“Third-and-6, he ran a double move,” Bradberry said. “Thought it was a double slant, and so that’s why I drove so hard and slipped a little bit when I was trying to speed-turn.”
Bradberry said Thomas ran double slants on the plays before, but Brees dumped it down to Alvin Kamara.
“So I was looking for it again on third-and-6,” Bradberry said.
Instead, Brees admitted he took a play he’d been holding in his back pocket all game for the right moment.
“I got open. I know how to get open,” Thomas said. “That’s what I did. I don’t know if I was supposed to be that open.”
Said Brees, “That’s the game within the game.”
Time to add another one to Thomas’ law of averages. He’s the law, and you’re average.
“If I look up, I’m about to beat you,” Thomas said. “That’s it.”
Jourdan Rodrigue contributed to this report.
(Photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)