This is a trend with the Saints, I've noticed it myself. Every play Vilma changed they went to the spot the line shifted from. Greer and Porter looked rather normal and we consistently don't get a push from the front four alone. Overall we won and and at moments gave me flash backs but your right the game shouldn't have been that close. I personally think it should have been a blowout.

Shanle is terrible in coverage and has been his whole career.

Kawika Mitchell

He's got to have pictures of someone there cause they seem to bring people in to replace him and he keeps his job, I really hope they find someone to take his place this offseason either in the draft or free agency ... he's the reason why tight ends are killing the Saints this year

Shanle plays the WLB position. It isn't his job to cover the TE. The SLB handles those duties. And once again, the team knows a lot more about a players value than does us fans. I repeat, Scott Shanle was voted (by the team) the defensive MVP last season.

I was going to say thats because they do not have to watch Shanle play... But then I remembered they do watch tape.

The other players have been noted as calling Shanle the perfect team player. He isn't going to be making the big play or racking up the big stats, but his positioning in the defense allows the others to make those plays. It's like that inside LB in a 3-4 that funnels the runner into the play making ILB.

I tend to think that a lot of why Shanle looks so "bad" to some people, is actually the same reason that Porter & Greer have occasionally looked less than spectacular, this year compared to last -- it's really lack of pass rush. If you give the opposing QB ten, fifteen seconds to stand there in the pocket like it's a sandlot game and watch his receivers run around, somebody somewhere is eventually going to get open. Even with supposedly "lockdown" corners and safeties.

The Saints defense requires every man to do exactly his job -- if that happens, if everybody executes their assignments, it actually works really well, without requiring mega-stud athletes at every position. You simply can't have elite one-of-a-kind, superstar Hall Of Fame players at every single position on the team, that's not realistic. And when the rest of the defensive scheme works, Shanle looks fine. Is he the best Saint out there? No. Is he the weakest player on the whole team, and yet they voted him MVP last year? Kinda ridiculous to think he is really that bad, when the players and coaches obviously think otherwise.

Don't you just love preseason video.Who cares.