LKelley67

I like to see everyone's capsulized thoughts about the game rather than 10 different threads. Give it a try. Here's mine-

1. Even in losing I felt good about the team. They had a shot, they played competitively, they never gave up. There were mistakes but not total self implosion like so many Haslett coached games were.

2. The Carney missed FG could have made a diff but I still cannot fault the guy for his performance so far this year- especially when I dissed him so bad in preseason.

3. Brees looks better and better to me. I continue to keep thinking... could there be anymore antitype to Fumbles the Clown than this guy?

4. More penalties in this game than the first 3 but they did not stand out as the game changers or terribly stupid ones still.

5. The big losing points- missed FG, Bush fumble in the redzone, 90yd 6 min go ahead drive by CAR in the 4th qtr, the 43yd Foster TD instead of getting the ball back down 14-10 with a minute and a half to go.

6. Many of us considered the O-Line a great cause of concern starting the season. They have been a good surprise story. Even before this game though, I think the pass blocking has been REALLY surprising and good. The run blocking doesnt seem to be near as good though.

7. The Bucs game will show a lot about Payton as a leader and motivator. Okay, we lost. But we still lead the division and a team is coming into our house that is ripe for the picking. This is one we will be favored to win and should.

8. Is Colston now the frontrunner for R-O-Y beyond our opinions now?

9. After the great pass rush in past weeks and the banged up Panther O-Line I was disappointed in not having more sacks. Jake does show good pocket presence though in getting rid of the ball.

10. I heard multiple more times on all networks than in previous weeks that "the Saints are for real". The quality play upgrades my outlook to 8-8+ and Payton as a Coach of the Year contender.

FLSaintsFan

Aikman was saying that, even though they lost, he is still impressed with the Saints. Now that could have been because he said that so many times in the game that he had to keep it up afterwards. But it was good to hear anyway.
Also, they never would have made that 2 point conversion last year. IMO, of course.

yasoon

My key point is that this was Payton's worst coached game.

I was screaming to call a TO on that Keyshawn catch. I saw live that he may have trapped it. It's worth risking it to have a big momentum swing and force the FG attempt. I think that call would have been reversed and we give up 3 instead of 6.

I didn't really care for the playcalling most of the game. I thought we pounded the middle too much based on the lack of any real success doing it. The Bush fumble was a result of this IMO.

Speaking of the Bush fumble....those jacknuts blew the whistle while the ball was still laying on the ground and nobody tried to get it. That should have been the old "inadvertant whistle" and we should have kept the ball. Yes, it was a fumble. But they blew the damn whistle while the ball was laying on the ground. The announcers totally missed that detail.

We didn't stretch the field. In this regard, they looked a bit like the old Saints. All the throws were in the less than 20 yard range, other than the desperation TD to Colston. I think we have to take at least 2 shots early in the game to loosen up the Safeties and open up the running game.

Having said all this, we still look like a well coached team. It was just not a real good day for us. We moved the ball well between the twenties and are still not scoring like I think we can.

Let's give the rookie hell on Sunday and go to 4-1.

shackney

Duece is a former 1600 yard rusher who can control the clock. He is a workhorse who can pound out the tough yards. Why did Payton start our third down back and play him like he's an everydown back. Reggie is great..right now he's a third down back, a slot reciever and a punt returner. I'm sorry to say this, and I love N.O. to death, but that loss is on the coaching staff...

jdiggy

I agree with all of you. I think our passing game would've benefited quite a bit with more Deuce up the middle.

LKelley67

agree with those good points-

*too much pounding (especially with Bush) without enough success.

*ya do need to air one out at least once a half IMO. Even with fast Devery out still give it a shot to keep the DBs honest.

>>>also, there were so many borderline calls both ways I wonder if it was just that crew. I read an article last year that tracked the officiating crews. Some were much more let'em play and others had higher amounts of calls. Kinda like umps with strike zones. I wonder if this is well enough established that teams prep for it? As in, say, this week you need to be really careful how tight you bump receivers or don't be afraid to jam this with this crew. Eh?

saintfan

I'm most concerned with the fact that we gave up 167 yards rushing, considering their o-line is patchwork and one of those guys left the game early. Our run D still has a LONG way to go.

saintswhodi

Wow, I couldn't agree more with the playcalling. I am making this very point on another forum. We NEED to at least take a shot or two deep a game. You can't give a good defense such a small area to defend. We had 407 yards of offense, 60 something of it rushing. That is WAY out of balance for a game we were in up until the end. This is due to Carolina being able to play the safeties and LBs closer to the line, cause we won't throw a pass over 7 yards. And when we did cause we were forced to, and Carolina knows we were focred to, Colston makes a huge play. He is not the fastest guy, but I will take him one on one against any DB in the league right now as a good match up for us. But by not even taking a shot all game until that point, we never cleared any running lanes at all. Everyone on the defense was playing for the run and the short stuff. We have to put a shot up once in a while to keep the defenses honest, especially with the defenses we have to play this year. We don;t wanna give them any more advantages. But damn, the whole chat I kept saying we need to take a shot or two deep to open things up. It came too little too late.

WVSaint

i agree yasoon about the whistle being blown while the ball was still on the ground. i wasnt too happy with that call, as well as not trying to review the keyshawn "catch"

one thing no one has mentioned that i think is a problem is carney on kick offs....ill admit i trashed him in the preseason and ill openly admit ive been wrong (so far) for his FG attempts....kicking off however he doesnt seem to have the leg strength he once had, i dont think hes kicked one into the end zone yet and too many times hes kicking it to the 10-15 and giving the other team a chance for a return and setting up good field position. anyone else notice this?

LKelley67

The big Colston gain wasn't exactly a fly pattern either. Same thing with Horn last week, it was more run after the catch. (Colston did show some speed there also!) It serves a lot of purposes as noted. Personally I love three downs running for a first then play action the next first and toss it up down the sideline.

I'm continually impressed by the degree of insight found in these devoted fan forums. I wish we could have a roundup of our points that could forwarded to the OC, DC, and ST coaches. I'm also still enjoying that our thoughts are still of the relatively minor variety. Payton brings both creativity and the unknown factor being a new full fledged signal caller in the league. Sheez, those last three Haslett years were driving me nuts. I may not have the expertise but I know I had more creativity than they did.