Mid Season Evaluation
 

I was going to reply to a few threads that all touch on different items but figured the over all theme was a reevaluation of our Saints.

This is not for the weak at heart.

Leadership:
Drew is the best leader we have... Until Sean steps on the field Drew is the leader... While that sounds like I am blaming him.. I am not... Sadly enough Drew brees is in no position to lead in the places we need leadership the most. Far too many of our coaches have been made to look brilliant because of Sean Payton. It is a coaches job to LEAD. This points to Loomis, who should now see that you cant build a team on only 2 leaders. Some of our coaches need to be upgraded. It is pretty evident that Sean Payton has carried everyone in a position of leadership/coach/GM... Sean being so strong has allowed Loomis to assemble a bunch of dolts we call coaches. Yes, I am very hard on the coaches, they cant keep the team focused, they cant keep the team motivated.... MOST of our losses since 2009 have come because we walked on the field flat and unmotivated.. Not because the other team was better than we were.

Joe Vitt
Ill start with Vitt.. (let the hate start, it is what it is)... Joe Vitt has been in the league since 1979. If you cant be a halfazzed HC after 33 years its time to go, if you are an assistant Head Coach and do not have the qualities to be a HC then you have no business being an AHC.. You failed miserably against the Broncos. You sat and watched games for 7 weeks and on week 8 you showed up for work and didn't change a thing. Zero leadership.

I am no coach but here is something you need to see, your time management is horrible for someone that has 33 years in this league. Why in the hell did you not use your time outs before the 1/2 in the Denver game to try and get in position to at least kick a fieldgoal before the 1/2? You frikken quit on us also, you accepted going into the lockeroom down by 10, knowing that you were kicking off to Denver after 1/2 time and couldn't stop Manning.

Dan Darlymple
Out strength and conditioning are poor. You need to go. We are weak for the most part and slow. Players are possibly quitting in the middle of plays because they are just not ready to play all out for 60 minutes.

Ken Flajole
Our secondary SUCKS... You were brought in by Spags, after 35 years in the league if you are still riding someone elses coat tails you need to go.

Steve Spagnuola
Only because of his lack of leadership. We have defensive players quitting in the middle of plays and not one of them has yet to be benched. This is unfrikken acceptable, lack of skill is one thing but NO ONE should be quitting in the middle of plays and 1/2 azzing it.

Henry Ellard
Too many drops, you have to go.

Aaron Kromer
You have offensive linemen quitting during plays. You have been refocused on the line now and have 1 week to fix it or you need to go.

Defense:
As someone pointed out Spags has issues AND the players have issues. Coaches by nature are hardheaded, especially if they have had any success.

Spags knows but doesn't want to come to terms with the fact that he doesn't have the right personnel for "his way". He NEEDs to find something that will work with what he has, or go somewhere else that has what he needs. I suggest you run at a 3-4 for the next few games since you cant get penetration anyway, you may as well reinforce our backfield. One more linebacker couldn't possibly hurt, and losing a lineman couldn't possibly open us up to more run yardage.

Williams had success not because of his abilities or the abilities of his personnel but because he won before the snap, he ALWAYS kept QBs guessing. With the exception of the 4 down linemen everyone else was constantly moving around like jumping beans before the snap.

You do not line up across from Payton Manning and run with what you have before the snap... he is cerebral and will pick you apart like he did last night.

NOT Spags fault. This is what he was given.
White/Smith/Robertson/Patrick/Greer/Harper need to go. I have seen each of them stand around and give up on plays. At this point, I want to see ALL of them traded away for players that may be a little less talented but give 100% and do not quit.

After week 8 we have made every single Qb except for Castle and Rivers look like Payton Manning, and we have made every teams key back look like Adrien Peterson.

Offense:

What can I say but our Line is most of the problem. If we cant block, we cant run, if we cant run we cant set up the pass...screen.... basically everything we have the tools to do.

Its rotational groundhog day watching this offense 50% of the game... Dropped pass, stuffed run, penalty, punt.
Run for 3 yards, penalty, dropped pass, punt.
Dropped pass, run for 3 yards, dropped pass, punt.

You might look good in the productivity stats but 30th in the league at time of possession is horrendous.


As a Team:

Our strength is our offense, if the defense cant get off the field and force turn overs and or punts, and the offense cant find a way to be less predictable once they get the ball our best weapon stays on the bench. No need to lose the rest of the games to get a better spot in the draft... you cant draft your self out of this.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

I have to add one more excuse that has been repetitively used.. admittedly by my self as well...


Our Defense is as horrible as it is because we have a new Defensive coordinator.

The Denver Broncos have had a NEW Defensive Coordinator for what... 6 years in a row now? Only in 2010 were they less than 20th.

They stuffed our azzes last night with a ... wait for it... BRAND NEW Defensive Coordinator.

http://terryjamesresourcecentre.file...le_screen1.jpg

BUSTED!

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

What the real kick in the sack is the fact that Kromer went back to coaching the line and yet our O line had Drew running around the entire game. The run game looked aweful. I was to the point of saying screw the run, pass the ball. Our O-line obviously does not want to run block this year. We go from 6th in rushing last year to last place this year with the only change being Nicks.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

I remember we were at mid-field tied at 7.

1st and ten - PT rushes for 8 yards
2nd and two - Pass incomplete
3rd and two - Pass incomplete
4th and two - Pass intercepted
Wow.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

yeah i remember that, I thought for sure on 3rd we would give ingram a run, he was slowly getting going

on 3rd i said to myself its going to be the roll out pass to moore, and it was, if i knew what the playcall was, the broncos obviously did

thats how predictable we have become

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

I would add to the list of complaints from last night....

there was no reason Drew should have been in that game, taking hits and getting thrown to the turf, with the score at 31-7 with 5:27 to play. No reason.

I'm not saying play Chase the rest of the year...but at Drew's age you HAVE to look at it like, Drew only has so many times left in his body that he can get thrown down and pounded into the turf like that. It's a finite number of hits he can take, and it's counting down. With that arm and shoulder of his, his overall pitch count is eventually going to be come a longterm concern, as well. Don't waste them.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Did you listen to the commentary from the guys in the booth?

Drew was asked why Sproles being as productive as he is is not on the field with the ball for more plays.. Drew's reply was because "we do not want to put unneeded wear and tare on him"...

Looks like no one is looking out for Drew.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Bingo! The moral of the story is that he may not get but 2 yards per carry but its almost a guaranteed 2 yards per carry LOL.

Ivory would have made a difference also.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Yes, but you have a defensive minded head coach in John Fox who is in his second year with Jack Del Rio being DC who was also DC for Fox in Carolina for a while so I'm sure Denver's D has a lot of influence from Fox not to mention better talent.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Which has little to do with the players catching on and playing.

Explain the other 4 years with a new DC and decent defense?

6 years... Denver has had 6 new Defensive Coordinators... One every year.

Only one year were they crappy.

Myth about being crappy because we have a new DC.. Busted!

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

If we had a defense worth a spit we could afford to force the run game more - we might try, even at the expense of a drive or three in the first half, just to either get it going or at least make the other guys account for it.

We don't have a defense worth a spit though, so we go in to every game looking to hang 40 on people.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

That is the way we are built.

The contrast would be Dallas with a 4th ranked defense hoping to keep opponents from putting 40 up every game. Their O is about as fun to watch as our D...

Salary cap means you have to lean one way or the other to be a good team... If you balance it your mediocre at best on both side of the ball... Cant really stop anyone and cant really tally up the points.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

The O had no tempo. They needed to stick with PT for a series and get in and out of plays quickly. Too many RB substitutions.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Leaning one way or the other is one thing. We are completely upside down.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

I cant find anything to dislike about that statement at all LOL.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Lots of thoughtful replies that I agree with--I might add, in truth, Drew wasn't at his best last night, didn't have his usual accuracy.

I just think people give the 100 million dollar man too much of a break. I think he'd probably say the same thing about his performance. I saw three or four short passes miss by "yards" and a few long ones well off the mark too.

I wondered last year, how many good defensive players some of that hundred million would buy.

Like I said on another thread--I guess we hang our hopes on a fluke, or just take the spoiler role. I know it'd make me happy if we could beat Atlanta. They seem to be barely winning a lot of games.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

My guess is a lot of the teams would rather play 3-4 or 4-3 teams rather than the Saints' even at 2-5, because on any given day, they can rack up points.

I still am unsure of the wisdom of taking the bye week off. Does anyone know if they're completely off, or do they actually study film and do light, conditioning work?

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

My two cents from last night.

The defense is not the Dome Patrol. It is more like the Dough Patrol. Or perhaps the Doh! Patrol.

Our run defense was horrible last night. There were run plays where our entire defense was getting pushed 3-4 yards backyard from the outset. It was like watching Wisconsin run the ball against a Division II team. Not acceptable.

Vilma should have been benched, his mind was obviously not in the game. He looked like a zombie out there.

There were a few positive signs with our running game, but it didn't really matter. The play calling and execution on 3rd down killed us.

I also agree, Chase should have been put in the game to mop up for Brees and just hand it off to Ingram and bleed out the game. Would have been a good time to work on the running game and get Ingram some extra reps. Instead Brees, Sproles and Graham are out there trying to fill out their stat sheets, going for it on fourth down, etc. It seems that fantasy football is dictating our strategy and not a team-first, winning approach. Disgusting.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

I know this is cliche' but the man is human... a 1$ QB or a $100mm Qb.. they ALL have of nights.

I would rather have a Brees off night of
22/42 214 yards 2 TD 1 INT
then say a P Manning off night of
24/27 241 yards 1 TD and 3 INTs.

spend a little time looking at the bad nights of the elites... They happen more often and worse than Drew's... The moral is that they ALL have them.

As far as the 100mm man comments... Honestly bro.. our defense sucked before we had 100mm man.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Another comment.

To all those who claim our 100 million was too much for Drew and should have been spent on the defense...

We have a suckyish defense every year.... actually all of the last 5 years except for one and we didnt have a 100 mm QB then.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

It's just the number elite QB's are getting now. Next year someone will be higher. Can't hate him for pushing for his deal. For that matter, with the US 16 trillion in debt, there isn't a whole lot of good $ management anywhere it seems. His holdout was just one brick in the ****ty offseason this year.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Bingo regarding Vitt, Kromer & Spags the real Head Coachs are few and far between. If you think a team like the Saints can operate without someone like SP than you are delusional. RG knew what he was doing and the effect the suspensions would have on the team. The agony will continue for this team until next season. Our main achievement at this point will be to knock off Atlanta both games.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

Here is a thought.. maybe its not Spags or the players, maybe Spags defense is a bad fit for the Saints?

2006-2011 Super aggressive defense and offense - Good Match
2012 Aggressive offense and French defense - Oil and Water

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

I agree that the coaches need to be held responsible. We have talent on the team. But apparently not football talent. Either way our coaches need to be coaching or working on their resumes. Benson needs to hire someone to reevaluate our coaching staff. Why the hell is our special teams coach still here?(McMahon) We've been calling for his head for years. Sproles made him look good last year. Look at us this year.
Loomis(who I still think is brilliant) needs to shake things up and bring in some fresh ideas.

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

That's on Charmichael, plain and simple.:dunce:

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

I fixed it for you... :-)

Re: Mid Season Evaluation
 

"Williams had success not because of his abilities or the abilities of his personnel but because he won before the snap, he ALWAYS kept QBs guessing. With the exception of the 4 down linemen everyone else was constantly moving around like jumping beans before the snap. "

Totally agree with this. I think Spags calls a defensive play and they stick to it. Sort of a read and react. GW had the Offense trying to read and react to the defense. I don't see our defense taking charge on teh field like Vilma has done in years past. It's like here is the play and stick to it.