New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Offense 2.5 fleur de lis (out of possible 4)

Drew Brees was his usual efficient self, going 7-of-10 for 65 yards. A drop by rookie Kenny Stills thwarted a drive, but overall No. 9 was sharp. The running game didn't get really lathered up until backups Khiry Robinson (12 carries, 52 yards) and Travaris Cadet (13-40) took over. Mark Ingram only carried three times for 12 yards and Darren Sproles twice for 3 yards. Ben Watson was used in a few two-tight end sets with Jimmy Graham and looks like another potential threat. Luke McCown was serviceable in backing up Brees, while the young receivers - Kenny Stills, Nick Toon, Preston Parker and Andy Tanner - all left their marks. The line was beaten a couple times of blitzes to pressure Brees, but the quarterbacks were kept clean and the Chiefs went without a sack.

Defense 1.5 fleur de lis

Not exactly a great first impression for new coordinator Rob Ryan and his 3-4 defense. Will Smith look stiff and uncomfortable in his drops at outside linebacker trying to matchup up with lightning-quick Jamaal Charles out of the backfield. Granted, the Saints didn't give up big plays, which was the problem last season, but Kansas City still managed to churn out a methodical 14-play, 80-yard drive on its opening possession. Chiefs starter Alex Smith went 7-of-8 for 68 yards with a QB rating of 102.1 in his only series. The Saints' backups fared much better, particularly along the defensive line, where rookies Glenn Foster and John Jenkins each had a sack. Rookie safety Kenny Vaccaro also looks to be a force. There wasn't much blitzing, which is expected during the season as most teams prefer to play pretty vanilla, but there were some audible groans of déjà vu in the crowd after the first drive.

Special teams - 0 fleur de lis

Poor coverage units pretty much negated an outstanding effort by punter Thomas Morstead. Morstead's 61-yard punt was basically wiped out by Dexter McCluster's 55-yard return in the first quarter, then a 57-yarder by Morstead and crushing tackle by rookie Kenny Vaccaro inside the Chiefs' 5-yard line was nullified by an illegal-formation penalty on Corey White. In the third quarter, Preston Parker fair caught a punt along the left hash but had just Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt between him and the goal line. To cap off the night, Knile Davis returned a kick off 79 yards in the fourth quarter. Garrett Hartley made his only field-goal attempt from 24 yards and added two extra points. If the Saints are going to win the field-position battle, the kick coverage units must improve.

Coaching - 2 fleur de lis

The atmosphere was electric for a preseason game as the crowd eagerly awaited the return of coach Sean Payton. Payton wanted to focus on the running game, but the Chiefs played more eight-man fronts than anticipated so Payton adjusted and took to the air. As noted previously, Ryan's defense, mostly the first unit, bent plenty but didn't break. There were some exotic looks, like the four-safety lineup, but not many pressure packages. Special teams coordinator Greg McMahon had the roughest night. His coverage units were undisciplined in their lanes, surrendering an average of 17.7 yards on punt returns and 45.3 yards on kick off returns.

New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades | NOLA.com

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

#1 ranked D in the NFL gets a 1.5... guess this should be titled 'ratings of the first drive'.
Typical drive-by media trying to stir the pot.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Our first team D looked like it picked up right where the beginning of last year left off. Things continue to look like that and we may actually be worse. That being said, I don't think that will happen. I was impressed with our second team D. I like the depth of this team. I think by the 3rd game when Ryan game plans a little bit you will see a little bit more of what we can expect. Our 1st offense did just ok, but Ill give them a pass, it takes longer for them to gel. Our special teams flat out suck. This needs to be addressed. I think one game is going to determine weather or not we make the playoffs, and they way they played against the
Cheifs, we will lose a game based on special teams alone.
We cannot afford to lose to any teams we are supposed to beat this year, like the Rams the last couple of years and the Chiefs last year.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

So it seems we are going to hand a defense out to dry for a 14 play drive in its first game under a new DC,system change,missing its best two OLB leaving aside Butler,probable ILB,just lost starting DE.

Well excuse me for not throwing them under the bus yet

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

It was evident after that first drive; the defense adjusted.

Now the Special Teams grading is well deserved. Vaccaro had the only ST highlight of the night, even though it was negated with a holding.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

What game did you watch? It obviously was not the game where the Saints defense shut down Jamal Charles running game. Period.

Attachment 7622

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

59 rushing yards in total(3.5 avg); we shut down everyone.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Whats messed up is we do actually have the number 1 ranked D now, bet we havent done that for a long time lol

Our run D was very good, still need to stop receivers getting YAC

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Yep.... I just didn't want to hear lip service about what is or isn't a RB worth stoping.


People say "first string" like its 11 players, and after that first drive all the players that participated went into the locker room and never took the field again.

FWIW after all 16 games Saints Defense ranked #1 / offense #5

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Oak I love your optimism. Don't agree with you but... That's what makes this site so great. We can disagree with being objectionable. :bng:

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Yes, the opening drive was methodical. Yes they scored a TD on the opening drive. Yes, the defense needs to work on defending against screens and the short passing game. HOWEVER, they didn't allow anything deep down the field which is already a huge improvement over last year. As the article and many of us members have said in preseasons before, the playbook is very vanilla. I'm not going to gauge how our offense and defense look after the first, or any, preseason game. There were a lot of bright spots Friday night. Having said that, the special teams needs to pull their collective heads out of their asses, because there is no excuse for that.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Not sure many would agree that
I am optimistic. In 2009 I was pointing out what we were not doing well.... That didn't go over well or get much agreement.

What I saw KC do in their opening drive was run plays they knew a basic defense the first run out would have the most trouble with. It had little to do with the game and more to do with a new QB and a new HC giving fans warm fuzzies. They knew adjustments wouldn't be made till we were off the field. They also knew what we were missing on D and capitalized.
Smith's self confidence was probably as high as Reed's confidence and cholesterol. There were no passes thrown further than 7 yards past the line of scrimmage, Smiths yards per completion are because of YAC.

I am in no way saying we looked good on their opening drive, I am saying that the first 14 plays tell a different story than the rest of the game.

Remember what RGIII did to us last year? I expected Charles to have at least one good run.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Defense adjusted or was it Chase Daniel? I'm not buying our first string Def at all at this point. We need young guys to step up.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Adjusted! Chase came out trying those same dump-offs across the middle just like Smith used. That's when the defense started getting consistent pressure and shut that down...

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

It was a PRE-season game. I didn't get to watch it until Sunday, and after reading stuff on the web (here and elsewhere) I was expecting the worst.

So I was surprised to see the team do what I consider to be quite well, especially with all things considered, and frankly even without.

And it doesn't really matter anyway. There are no trends. It was the first PRE-SEASON game, and so it was nothing to get excited about whether we won by 70 or lost by 70.

But I thought we did well and I'd say I'll be headed into the season, based on one PRE-SEASON game, as a "Sunshiner" yet again.

:-)

:bng:

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

I think Ryan was getting his feet wet, by game 1 he will have dialed most of the D in and by game 3 we will know just about what we have. I still think the ILB needs to be addressed. The next few games I would like to see our secondary tested time and time again to see what we have there. Practice and the exhibition game do matter but I want get to excited before game 1 when it really matters. I do like our 3 man front, they look solid.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Boy, I couldn't agree less about the evaluation of the D. The whole rating is based on 1 drive. The second drive, their offense did nothing, despite having the punt return give them the ball in excellent field position.

The D got like 6 sacks without tons of blitzes.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Most people judge pre season games on 1st string vs 1st string. After last year, for them to drive 14 plays for a TD is discouraging. That's perfect for the other team. That's what every team wants to do. Alex Smith never goes for the big play. He played his game, and it worked. So maybe we'll get a better look when the defense isn't so vanilla, and we swap out some of the starters for a couple back ups.

But if we go off the year we won it all, we dominated 1st string vs 1st string in the preseason. Offense and defense. So yeah, seeing what the back ups did was nice, but can they do it against people who are a lock to make a 53 man roster?

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Encouraging analysis.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Again... That first possession by KC was designed to give them confidence, 0 WR were thrown to... Nothing over 7 yards was thrown....

Smith - His confidence has to be in the dirt.. What happened in SF would have left anyone's dirk in the dirt.

Reed - Same...


Look at what our offense did, tested stills, tested ... Now, Drew could have 7 yard Graham them to death but we would have not learned what Watson, Stills could do.

If you follow after the first sting came in there was no mix and match... Looks like each non veteran player got a full drive.
Watch Kansas City Chiefs vs. New Orleans Saints [08/09/2013] - NFL.com

KC got a feel good moment, did they learn anything about their new QB or HC? Nope, not a friggen thing. Charles/Fassano/McCluster only went with veterans... You also notice they didn't put them back in after we had a chance to adjust after Reed gave a statement to a KC news paper stating that Smith would be in the entire first Qtr...

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Exactly... We were running scripted basics... No adjustments etc...

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Judging a football team by its preseason performance is like judging a musician by his sound checks.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

I had to listen to the game, during actual game time. I did not have a good experience and felt like the the D picked up where they left off last season (We all probably still have residual trauma from last year). However, actually getting to watch it the next day, I felt much more positive in their performance. They looked way better. The first drive was a series of nothing plays that during a real game would work for one drive, like it did, and the D would adjust and shut it down, like they did.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Very well played sir!

:airguitar: