stockman311

PRAISE:
Jason Craft: Made a great interception that put us in scoring position. Made a great tackle on Steve Smith one on one. Great game from our nickel.
Charles Grant: Unstoppable all day long.
John Carney: Clutch and very interestingly handling kickoff duties extremely well.
Aaron Brooks: What else can you say. He made all the plays when he had to and led us to 1-0. I'm glad we had him and not the guy on the other side of the field.
Fakhir Brown: Slowly earning his contract extension.

NEED IMPROVEMENT:
Colby Bockwoldt: Missed way too many open field tackles for a loss.
Mike McKenzie: Did make a pick but also dropped a pick at the goal line that kept a TD scoring drive alive for the Panthers, and made the worst defensive play of the day on the Steve Smith TD reception. Also dropped the ill advised pitch from Howard. Speaking of Howard:
Darren Howard: Did not come up big today. Made a bone head pitch that could have cost us seven if not for the out of bounds stepping of the Carolina receivers. Did not play up to par with Grant and Will Smith.
Jermane Mayberry and Kendall Jacox: Neither was impressive run blocking against Brentson Buckner and Kris Jenkins' backup. They need to step it up in run blocking next week vs. the Giants.
Any Saints third WR: Did this position contribute at all this week. When do we dump the Az Hakim experiment and sign a good veteren like Free Agent Troy Edwards.
Mike Karney: Needs to do a better job on taking out LB's. Will face a stiff test this week against Giant's Antonio Pierce.

BlackandBlue

Give a little love to Will Smith for outplaying Howard, and forcing a fumble.

ScottyRo

When Howard tried to pitch that ball to MM, I turned to my wife and said "we're paying $8 mil a year for $%#& like that."

Lifer

Some of the mistakes, like McKenzie playing for the ball and missing the tackle and Howard making a lateral after his interception were in some ways "good" mistakes. At least guys are pressing, trying hard to make plays. If McKenize succeeds in stripping the ball or Howard's pitch results in a big play everyone is jumping for joy and patting them on the back. I like a team that plays agressively and takes chances. Sure some of them will not turn out well. But if you don't try you will not make BIG PLAYS. Big plays change games.
In my view, worse mistakes were bad football, for example Buckwoldt missing tackles and not running Duece on the goal line in the third quarter! In the third quarter we go play action on the goal line and fumble. Bad mistake. In the fourth quarter Buckwoldt sniffed out the screen/flare pass and hits the Carolina back in the backfiled but does not wrap up and make the tackle. Next play Stephen Davis rips a huge gain and Carolina is right back in it. We score at the beginning of the thrid quarter and Buckwoldt makes that tackle and the Saints end up dominating, not just winning a close one.

kevinn1972

I'll take that McKenzie mistake. Like you said lifer, if he strips it everyone's talking about what a heads-up play that was. Howard's play, there's no excuse for that. It's not really the job of the D to try and score. They did their job by getting the ball on a fumble. Should have just held on to the ball and went down. Bockwoldt made some very coachable mistakes. He was usually where he was supposed to be and with a little work this week I think he'll be fine against the Giants. On that screen pass, he got stiff-armed. Sometimes players don't make plays because their opponents make better plays, and I think that's what happened here. For a second year player, week 1, with all that's gone on, I think he's going to become rock solid as the year goes on.

Euphoria

I am sorry was that Jason Craft getting some love up top???

McKenzie - yeah when your opponet is in scoreing range you have to get drastic and go for a big play and thats just what he did.

saintswhodi

Or you can make the sure tackle and hold them to three instead of 7, but whatever's clever.

AllSaints

Bockwalt did horrible he really stunk it up i mean my gosh he missed tooo many tackles... Jason Craft yeah he did good. I thought Mckienze did alright on Smith after he gave up that touchdown were he tryed to strip the ball. Darren Howard should have keep the ball and went to the ground... Deuce did goood in the first quarter OMG WE SCORED ON OUR OPENING DRIVE i was sooooooo happy....Joe Horn missed some balls but he did ok and our 3rd wr i mean what 3rd wrs ..... and the best player on the field was Ernie Conwell his hands were like glue just sticking to the ball...... stupid idiot that hit him who was that he should get FINED $$$$$

I just want a pass rush... Is that so hard to find.... Apparently....

jrmllb

Mad Props to Jammal Brown for not letting Julius Peppers make any big Plays. It looks like we have another potential superstar O-lineman with a helluva mean streak I have missed since Turley left. Watch out though lets just hope no one on the team knocks up his girlfriend or wife if he has one....Howard: Bonehead play....Brooks: Better but we need the ball spread out more...Hakim: Dump him and pu in Henderson, we can all watch the maker of the Blue Grass Miracle do his thing in the NFL...