NOW YOU CAN WORRY!
 

If you weren't worried about the defense, you should be now. Preseason or no preseaon, this defense has problems. The BIG problem is at cornerback. Dale Carter should be decent if not spectacular but after that there are problems.

Fred Thomas looked bad and I mean bad. Ashley Ambrose did OK at best but he's got problems.

You can blame the poor play of the pass defense on a lack of a pass rush, and sure, a good pass rush helps out greatly, and I only hope we have one because that's the only way our corners are going to be any good.

The positive thing about the defense is the run defense has improved GREATLY and looks real strong.

Word of caution though. I have been through too many preseason and have formed opinions both good and bad and when the regular season rolled around the weaknesses were actually strengths and vice-versa.

There is hope and I beleive the defense will be better than last year but the cornerback position looks terrible right now.

I've read the offensive concerns and I'm not worried at all. Repeat-AT ALL.




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[Edited on 24/8/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

NOW YOU CAN WORRY!
 

this was the game where everything should have been in place. I am completely miffed. How can a team be this disorganized. With a defense this bad you need to start worrying about the offense. Is it too late for Neuhiesel to come in?

NOW YOU CAN WORRY!
 

I realize that it\'s preseason and Haslett doesn\'t want to show all his cards. Maybe that\'s why he didn\'t blitz. But this defense certainly looks bad. I say fire Rick Venturi. Ever since he\'s been coordinator -- after Ron Zook left for Florida in early 2002 -- the defense has gotten worse each year.

NOW YOU CAN WORRY!
 

I agree the corner play has been bad. Understanding the need for time to gel and understand positioning in a new defense explains only part of the problem. Our corners frenquently just got beat after being locked up on a man. At that point it\'s a two man game and a game we lost often. Thomas is to small, it does\'nt matter if he has great position when they can just jump and catch over him. They went right at him when thay wanted to score and did. Ashley Ambrose has had several opportunities to make big plays and let them get by for big gains. Carter looks good and was strong in run support ,not supposed to be a stregnth of his. Carter broke TE Eric Johnsons collarbone on one huge hit. That loss will hurt the niners. Tebucky has not looked good in coverage either. Compounding the problem our LB have not done a very good job with the tight end and RB pick-ups in the passing game, the middle of the field has been exploited often. There were\'nt many blitzes but there was some pressure from the line. Kenny Smith was good as was Willie Whitehead. Sullivan made progress.Hodge used his speed and made some good hits. Ruff was not much of a factor while Smith played well again. He made a great cut through the blockers to smoke the RB for a loss and came up with a big third down play. There are some encouraging signs but overall the Defense has a long way to go.
I am disappointed but not fearful about the offense , they are moving the ball, it is there own mistakes mostly that stop them now.They have the ability to strike and show it ,then screw up and stall themselves.They have not been able to keep it together to sustain a drive. They should be able to clear up much of this but the lack of focus is frustrating.

[Edited on 8/24/2003 by saint5221]

NOW YOU CAN WORRY!
 

Fire Venturi during preseason? I can agree the D hasn\'t looked good since the departure of Zook. However, since Zook was with the team we\'ve also lost a lot of key players. Give us at least 5-6 regular season games before looking for Venturi\'s head. The D and its pass coverage will come around eventually...I hope.

Deuce looked good last night as usual. We are lucky to have a player with his magnitude of talent. He IS our offense. The mere threat of Deuce should allow our O to do anything they want this season.

NOW YOU CAN WORRY!
 

Our Defense, right now today, looks much worse to me. It could be the worst in the league RIGHT NOW. They are that f---ing bad.

To me, this is on Jimmy H. He needs to take over the defense - NOW! Otherwise, he\'ll be looking for a job at the end of the season after our offense scores the second most points in the league but our defense doesn\'t keep a team under 30!!

I know I sound doom and gloom right now - but this is exactly what I thought would happen months ago. Way back then I was screaming about how we weren\'t going after big-name established defensive players, and everyone said that they were doing what they\'ve always done. Find under-utilized players, steals, and using the draft. And after the draft, everyone was all excited.

Forget the fact that we have 6 new starters on defense - forget the fact that our corners are too old, our safeties are unproven, our linebackers are unknown and inexperienced, and our DTs are half inexperienced and half too fat. Right? Seriously, if you listen to the people out in Vegas - who are pretty good at determing a team\'s odds to win it all - they say the Saints will go 7-9 or 8-8 and that they\'ve done absolutely nothing to improve their defense. Get ready for a long season gentlemen.

NOW YOU CAN WORRY!
 

i wil agree we looked bad on defense but do any of yall think the corners are just playing soft b.c it\'s preseason...i hope they are b.c everytime i see a pass in the air it seems the ball is caught and the corner backs are 3-5 yards from the reciever..we can\'t be that bad huh????