Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

Saints could not get the plays when they needed it and the Saints fell to the Eagles 15-12 on Dennis Allen's birthday. The Saints played their sloppiest game this season and appeared to read and hear their own incredible press this week.

What are your observations from the game?

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

I fired up the grill early… hot dogs, burgers, steaks, corn…

Threw up all the the crow I’ve been eating by the end of the 4th quarter.

No lie. All of it.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

A little too much listening to our own good press this week. The FEMA emergency alert was over the top. One sloppy Saints team, two players moving at once, wrong formations, wasted time outs, turnovers, and we were on their side of the field and couldn't score. Lack of EXECUTION.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

= POOR COACHING.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

Klint Carmichael

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

NO WAY this team was going undefeated.
NO WAY can we gauge this team based on 2 games. I disagreed with most talking heads and thought everything said was premature.

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Pitiful offense led by Carr. Back to the old Saints. Dennis Allen on his way out. Sorry game in front of the home crowd.

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We had a good week 1 and 2. I’m not gonna throw in the towel yet just as I hadn’t anointed them Super Bowl Champs after 2 weeks.

It was a ****ty game. One that followed 2 great games.

We’ll see how they respond next week against the Falcons.

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If you would have said to me before the season started that we’d be 2-1 after the first three games, I would have taken it with a smile, but for some reason, I’m a little queasy right now.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

Tough game against a tough opponent. I’m not disheartened nor discouraged by the loss… just a little disappointed.

A few things:
- We need some physicality at WR. They are not good run blockers. Having someone that can get up and win a 50/50 ball or make a tough catch is needed.

- I know some were disappointed with play calling but I thought it was fine. It’s up to the players to execute and we didn’t. The plays were there to be had.

- They literally had one guy they were throwing the ball to and not being able to adjust defensively to it was really disappointing.

- Successful teams capitalize on mistakes. We didn’t do that today and we lost. No shocker there. The fact that we still could have won has to be a little encouraging. We just finished game 3 in a new system and the results so far have been positive.

We weren’t going to win very game. Had we gotten blown out that would have been gut wrenching. Chin up, next game.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

What a hard-fought game. Depsite the loss, some things to really feel good about.

The bad:
- Not being able to stop Goedert triggered all kinds of Vernon Davis PTSD, even before the long play.
- Running to the right side was painful to watch. Penning and various others to blame.
- The terrible run fit and bad safety play on Saquon's long TD run.
- Eagles were able to key in on Kamara. Taysom or any other running threat was sorely missed.
- Some bad tackling and too many 3rd down conversions allowed.
- Klint had some goofy calls, the two-point conversion attempt being one that stands out.

The good:
- Except for a few untimely mistakes, team played with a lot of poise.
- Bresee and Granderson were playmakers.
- Olave showing clutch ability.
- We stopped the tush-push cheese!
- Honey Badger looking much better this year and doing Honey Badger things.
- Almost won the game thanks to special teams. Anytime a punt gets blocked in the Dome like that it's still special, still emotional.

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We're fine.

Hopefully, we will get Erik & Taysom back in the next game. The Bucs also got a wake-up call today against a previously winless team. It happens—Week-to-week league. Credit Philly, they're a contender too.

We'll bounce back against Atlanta.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

WE CERTAINLY BETTER BE BETTER.

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The defense kept us in it however we have to do better covering TE's.

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Gotta get INTO THE END ZONE against better teams. It IS a numbers game.

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I'm not over-reacting either way.

This was a vintage Saints home letdown. I've seen too many just like it.

Once McCoy went down, the entire offense seemed to change. Too much talent on Philly's d line and were challenged all week long. They responded by applying pressure at the right times, affecting our QB too much.

Our defense with their numerous missed tackles and wide open players reminded me of Brandon Browner and Jason David.

Today the entire team truly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and today we have the answer to "let's see how they handle adversity"...

Now I want to see answered; "How will you respond?"

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Every team has those sh*t the bed games, and this was ours. We may have a couple more along the way. I’m not really that surprised. We faced a good team that just came off an embarrassing loss against a lousy Falcons team. They came in with a chip on their shoulder and ready to play against a hot team. We fell flat. It happens. As previously mentioned, I’m glad it wasn’t a blow out. We played like garbage and still only lost by 3.
If we continue to do this the next few games then I’ll start to think out hot start was a fluke, but I don’t think that’s the case. We’ll see

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

I had some concerns that this offense might not be well built for playing from behind, or when the running game wasn't quite clicking. Today did nothing to ease those concerns. Defense played well overall, but they were clearly gassed about midway into the third quarter. Hard to blame them when the offense had only generated 80 something yards all day at that point. Can't help but feel like that was a major contributing factor to all the sloppy tackling and blown assignments.

It's one game, and it won't make or break the season..But they're gonna need to figure out a way to make adjustments on offense when the run game isn't working. You know future opponents are gonna watch this performance and use it to their advantage, you'd better have an answer. Otherwise, this whole season could go off the rails quickly. And while we're on train metaphors, Lucas Patrick at center is a train wreck. Better hope Mccoy doesn't miss much time.

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If that “lousy Falcons team” makes us look bad, we’re BAD.

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Offensive line depth is not good in NO.

Udoh was bad bad today.

Same goes for Patrick.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

My main concern coming into the season was the performance of the O line. My second concern was the depth…

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

Yeah, it was obvious how much they missed Taysom, and as others have pointed out, once McCoy went to down, the O-line looked lost. All of sudden they couldn't run or pass block.

Still, if you told me before the season started we would be 2-1 at this point, I probably would have taken it.

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Seems over a number of years that there are certain teams that are just nightmare matchups for the Saints no matter players or coaching staff. The Vikings and Eagles both fit the profile for some reason. I mentioned in another thread after the panthers game that this game, not the cowboys game, would be our gauge. No doubt it was a bit of a letdown today but as a Saints fan are you totally surprised? Good news is we play one of the teams we seem to own over the years next week and I will be more disappointed with a bad showing there.

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The team we face next week handled the team we just lost to. Should be an interesting game and gauge.

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We knew this team was going into the season on a razor's edge and that a few key injuries could derail the entire season and O Line was our #1 concern.

McCoy was a huge loss, forcing changes to center AND left guard paving the way for their interior defenders to wreak havoc.

The loss of McCoy also left Ruiz exposed and he was repeatedly beat on critical plays.

Maybe Taysom could've provided some help but why wasn't Jamal Williams used more often??

I'm willing to bet Kubiak won't be happy with his play calling come Monday.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

It’s all about match ups. Styles make fights. Eagles have an elite group of DT’s and a great defensive line while our offensive line is shaky and downright abysmal when McCoy goes out. Couple that with the fact our QB is really just a game manager and you’ve got some cause for concern. Not to mention the Eagles are an extremely talented team that didn’t want to fall to 1-2. They just seemed to want it more. They played hard and schemed very well defensively. The Falcons beating them doesn’t mean anything. Every single game is an individual test because individual position battles can change the outcome….IE our safeties vs Dallas Goedert.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

-The good teams who are there at the end, find a way to win games like the Saints lost yesterday.
-The loss of McCoy was huge. Patrick is a much better guard than center. Udoh was terrible. Hergel needs to be called up.
-Sirianni tried his best to give the Saints the game by not taking points and Allen gave it right back by not taking points. Terrible coaching all around.
-Granderson gives 110 percent on every play. Bresee not so much.
-Kamara and Olave were the only two offensive players to show up yesterday.
-Shaheed makes a big play or no plays at all.
-You have to make sure you have Goedert covered on 3rd and 16. Their only weapon in the passing game. Terrible.
-The run defense moving forward has to be tightened up.
-Big game this week on the road. The Saints can take early command of the division. Pressure all day on Cousins. Double cover the TE. Don't let Robinson have any big plays.
-The NFL as a whole has been almost unwatchable so far this season.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

Was at the game and it was very evident from the 1st snap the Eagles Defensive front out match our Oline and played Bully Ball all day. That was when McCoy was in and it just intensified when he went out. You could point at the guards just being run over but but both our tackles were on skates.

Only good tackle block I saw was Trevor on the sideline blocking Darius Slay. 🤭

Without Hill and after losing McCoy the offensive play calling looked very generic like Kubiack had lost 60% of the playbook. The shuffling on the Oline did not help.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

“ -The good teams who are there at the end, find a way to win games like the Saints lost yesterday.”

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

We are still a contender and should not over-react. But we are still also one of the most salary cap over leveraged teams relying on many older players and we should not drink the kool aid either. What that means is lets enjoy the season without getting into a 'pay the man' bravado series of mistakes that make the future a diminishing rerun of this season. Stay the course but dont double down. Cheer for the team but dont go extending anyone until they have proven they still have it.

The Eagles are a team that anyone could easily see making it to the Super Bowl. A close game against them is good. I still see the possibility of our team going deep in the playoffs but Carr and DA's lack of playoff experience/success is a handicap for that.

Injuries can't be an excuse. The Eagles had similar injuries and it was a close game. One key to overcoming injuries is depth. The key to having depth is having more draft picks and adding depth in value free agents. The key to having more draft picks is trading down, not making blockbuster trades up, and not spending all the free agent cash on a few high priced players. In recent years we have traded up a lot and made Carr the highest priced free agent, but last offseason we finally stood our ground with out early draft picks and went with value in free agency. If we keep doing that, we will have better depth down the road. And we will be in a better position to keep depth pieces we have.

I think Carolina and Dallas has lousy running games. We are build to shut down star receivers and passing games but not so much on running games. We might have better odds against the the Chiefs (lousy running game) than the Falcons (at least decent RBs) but fortunately the Eagles may be the toughest running game we face all year.

Cam Jordan is invisible. His $12.5m salary guaranteed on March. If he wants to join the front office or broadcast crew thats great but we cannot pay him $12.5m in 2025 or kick the can and owe him $30m dead money when he retires while acting like $12.5m is a great value if we put it on the credit card in 6 easy payments of $1.99m or whatever. There could be an argument to minimize Jordan's usage late in the season, unless he will renegotiate to remove that early guarantee, otherwise if he gets a knee injury in December we cant cut him in March because he won't be able to pass a physical.

Rotating oline is stupid. It doubles the disruption in case of injuries. Patrick should not be out backup center if he is out starting LG.

Granderson has been a great player.

The Eagles only have Jalen Carter because we made a stupid trade that gave them the pick. Time to say never again.

At least our team has upside and can be fun to watch. That is good. Lets just enjoy the show and not feel that we have to give everyone blockbuster new contracts to prove to ourselves we are the true believers and elite. Lets just play football and let the oldies have one last farewell tour shot. Then at the end of the year we move on from Ram, Jordan unless he takes a massive pay cut to like $4 million a year or less, and evaluate Kamara, Lattimore, etc. If we dont sink so much money in aging players and we seek trades that give us more depth not less, we can win with this offensive system.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

Yesterday's game probably proved how important McCoy is to this team.

Assignments, line movement, combo blocking etc.

Timing has got to be right. I just hope he doesn't miss an extended period of time with the groin injury.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

It’s a darn tough league and it can be darn tough to score sometimes. I brought it up during the game and I’ll allude to it now; When you get the chance to have three points, you generally should take the three points. We lost a game 15 to 12 in which both teams went for it on fourth down in Chipshot field goal ranges and did not succeed.

I’m not too surprised by the outcome. I predicted we’d hold them to about 17 points. Our O line was overmatched. D made some good plays and surely screwed up some others. Shaheed had a TD drop on a good throw by Carr. Sort of a trap game before the Atl showdown. Still see us winning 10-11 games this year.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

Defenses generally start to catch up with offenses in weeks 3-4ish, they have tape to plan with so a slight fall off should be expected.

We have the same problem that we have had the last few years, a double D problem. A Decision and Discipline problem.

- The unnecessary roughness on Pennington outside the lines is a tough pill to swallow.

- Miss-use of timeouts.

- Play calling.. Burn a little clock don’t leave them 3 minutes on the board to score the final points. Going for it on 4th would have been smart last week, not this week.

-QB decisions (that interception should have not been thrown)

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

It warms my cockles to see someone that understands the gravity of being synchronized. Raw power and great scheme can not fill the gaps caused by a de-synchronized line. Those get filled by safety’s and line backers.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

THIS ^^^ is a clear and more rational description of what I have been saying for two years, which usually gets me personally attacked and called a “Hater” by some on this forum. Thank you for framing it so eloquently.

Re: Observations from Saints and Eagles game in the Superdome
 

It's one game in the third week of the season. I'm not panicking yet.

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The O line is going to be our Achilles heel. I was surprised that we started the season with only eight linemen on the roster. I'm still not ruling out a trade for another lineman.

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This is where (trenches) the Saints LOST the game.

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Keep an eye on Demario Davis this week.

You can tell he was having some difficulty with lateral movement late in the game. IIRC, he missed some time at camp nursing a sore groin.

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We got our asses kicked in the trenches, on both sides of the ball. Plain and simple.