Your thoughts about the Browns game.
 

Although one can't predict a season from one game...I can at least say that I was impressed by a lot of things in this game today. First off, I can't say enough about our defense. I'm sure they may have tougher tests ahead but for today.....the flat out KICKED ASS!!!! I can only pray for consistency because they gave Clev. (especially the running game) all kinds of hell. Our offense was a little slow to get going but as the game went on I noticed that Brees was beginning to feel a rhythm and the offense was slowly feelin it with him. Bush was outstanding, McAllister was punishing and.....the most impressive thing about today had to be......Payton. How you lose all your FB's and still come up with an effectyive offensive scheme is....nothing short of genius. We basically lost our ability to run short yardage running plays when both FB's went down and yet he still called the necessary plays needed to get yardage and put points up. I know this is still only the first game but hey.....at least for today.....they looked pretty damn good. GO SAINTS!!! :saintsfan:

They played hard for all 60 minutes.
They won.
I'm happy.
We will see.............

in no particular order-

*the play calling, yes, effective with the loss of FBs but the mix was fantastic, everyone got a little bit and there was no predictable play whether it was short or long yardage.

*more change from the past- the 5 penalties for 44, though not sterling did not seem glaringly bad. Were there any false starts?

*defense in general but especially the run D. How many YEARS has it been since we have seen anything close to that. Fujita had an All Pro game. He, Shanle, and Simoneau had 17 combined tackles! Droughns is no slouch to shutdown. If I was picking our 2007 first draft pick by position today I would say a cornerback.

*Both lines were impressive. The fears of how the O-line looked early in camp faded. They weren't great on pass protection but good enough. Cleveland has a good D too. Was that the same Bryant Young that has been here for a while??? He was visible, active, and penetrating. We have needed a Hollis for a long time. Good pressure came from both ends. I can't believe a homer in my fantasy league had the Saints D and scored more than I did with Philly.

*The more you see Reggie the more you know he is the real deal. Nice to see a NO player on national ads all over the place on other games too.

*I loved the mix-implementation-scheme of how Bush-n-Deuce were mixed... just as I had envisioned.

*I'm sorry for bad mouthing you so much Carney.

*The Browns are bad. It looked like we were playing the 2005 Saints in how much they self-destructed.

*There were few if any bad drops by the receivers. Brees is definitely still tuning up though both in timing and touch.

*certainly improvement in the red zone will be needed to beat any better teams

Oh...and another note.....McKenzie did a pretty damn good job today as well so lets give the man a little slack. Just a little eh?

Reggie and Deuce might lead the league in rushing, together. But both can catch also.

Payton gain alot of respect from me, I was very critical over the draft picks & free agency...but he forming a great discipline team. I was so pumped just waching him chew into Melton A$$ for that stupid face mask penality..WE GOTTA COACH!! That wr Colston, I am just in awww, I can see him being the one to replace Horn.

I'm still concerned about the way our team starts. We were down by 6, just nine seconds into the game, if that touchdown didn't get called back. And I don't want to see that stuff anymore.

We were down by 6 because of the hold, if they don't hold Will Smith he's sacking Frye A$$.

Patdog typed the letters right out of my keyboard. I looked at that play carefully. If that lineman didn't hold Smith....Frye would have never gotten the ball off. That game was just downright fun to watch.

**In Review, just about all the Browns plays that were called back on the were plays that wouldn't have happened without the penalty. The announcers kept calling it self-destruction on the part of the Browns, but it was just damn good defense by the Saints.

** Roman Harper is mean, and I like it, but he needs some self control...after seeing Payton disclipline Melton afer the facemask was SO un Hazzlike, I loved it. Harper will be addressed by our new coach...

**Bush is Great, but none of the sports shows say anything about how great a game Deuce had. If Bush hadn't been there, Deuce would have had MONSTER yardage. I hope Deuce doesn't need the spotlight, cuz he's gonna be overshadowed by Reggie all year, no matter how well he does. He's going to need to be the definition of "team player"

**The Browns aren't that good, and we had trouble scoring TD's, but considering it was the first game, and that Brees' timing with his receivers will only get better as the season progresses, I'm so excited I get the dry heaves thinking about it!!

** Shame on all you long time saints fans that picked the Browns to win, and have been badmouthing the Saints all week....and have been silent since the win.

Great game, good overall performance. The team will hopefully only continue to gel and get better. In a few weeks Drew will be converting those red zone passes and those FG's will be TD's!

I thought the coaching was fantastic. The team was composed throughout.

The Deuce fumble would have signaled a meltdown in the Haz era. This team nutted up and finished the job. That was a HUGE stop.

I will skip echoing the thoughts of the others as we all know what we saw and we all know we liked it.

The one thing that I haven't seen mentioned is the turnovers. This defense forced turnovers, something that it has been very bad at of late. The fumble at the end of the half, the pick to seal the deal, all the sacks.

In the past, when you heard that a team had a weakness (like the Browns line), you almost knew that we would not exploit it. We took it to their o line. We beat em up worse than the score said. If it weren't for Frye's legs, they would not have scored.

I am still realistic about our playoff hopes, but when this team loses, I don't think it will be self inflicted. I have ultimate respect for the way Payton put together a team and a gameplan.

They really looked sharp. Let's see what we can do against a GB team that just got embarassed at home.

Pessimistic thoughts:

First thought: It was the Browns and we barely won.

Second thought: Winslow owned Roman Harper.

Third thought: Too many FGs not enough TDs.

Optimistic thoughts:

First: We dominated. Plain and simple

Second: Our offensive line looked stout

Third: Deuce and Reggie are gona be dynamite.

Fourth: I agree with whomever said previously, that Deuce fumble woulda been a team killer. The defense sacked up and held. Nice to see.

Fifth: Fujita ia a beast. Wow was I impressed with him.

Not too much to be down about. I really wanna see how we fare against better teams though. We coulda beat Cleveland with our old team.

A few observations in no particular order.

1. I was really pleased with the playcalling and the presence that Coach Payton brings to the sideline. As many of you have mentioned, I love that mistakes and penalties are simply not acceptable under our new leadership. I also enjoyed watching the use of Deuce and Reggie. I generally enjoy the ground game more and really liked watching us pile up yards on the ground. It's also great to have two backs who are great safety valves coming out of the backfield. I wouldn't be surprised to see Deuce and Reggie rush for 1000 and catch 500 each.

2. I've been second guessing my support for the Brees move as Culpepper had looked so good during the pre-season. I was wrong to do that. Brees has done what he does his entire career, he's smart with the football, knows the offense and executes. He wasn't flashy but he got the ball to the playmakers. A QB who seems to know what's going on around him and takes care of the ball is a welcome change.

2a. I'm loving that it looks like Miami got sold a bill of goods. Culpepper looked confused and awful the other night.

3. I was thrilled with the defensive line play. For us to shut down the run is a huge difference. Hollis Thomas looks like the key addition. He isn't a long term solution but he appears to be a major asset for our run defense.

4. I was pleased and surprised with the offensive line play. It wasn't great, but I was almost expecting it to be pourous. Brees came out the day with no sacks. I hope they continue to play so well.

5. Nice to see LBs getting into the plays.

6. Colston--strong rookie outing. He didn't play like a rookie and I liked what I saw. This is hard to evaluate since Stallworth just exploded for Philly, but I'm going to trust that the coaching staff knows what they're doing. I'm looking forward to see what Colston makes of himself this season.

7. Roman Harper--was beaten like a small child against Kellen Winslow all day. Seemed like a huge mismatch and Harper didn't come off well to me. He was the only negative on a really strong day. Drafting him in the second round continues to rankle me. He seemed a little lost at points. I'm going to take a wait and see approach with him.

Overall, I was very pleased with our new direction. It shows a lot of promise.

Roman Harper did get beat by Winslow several times, yes. A few things to keep in mind, Harper is a rookie and this was his first game ever in the NFL. He has some learning to do. Also, Winslow is a freaking beast! He is the best thing the Browns have going for them. He plays with huge attitude and clearly has something to prove and is possibly the most physically gifted TE in the league.

I think Winslow will be owning a lot of Safeties over his career.