blacksaint

Posted by Jeff Duncan, Staff writer
August 11, 2007 10:04AM


The headline on the front page of Saturday's Times-Picayune summed up the Saints' 13-10 exhibition loss to Buffalo perfectly: Home Improvement.

The Saints were much better against the Bills than they were against the Steelers. Much better. The first-team offense riddled the Bills starters. Drew Brees looked in midseason form, completing 12 of 14 passes for 118 yards. And the offense did this without starters Jammal Brown and Jeff Faine. The defense held the Bills starters to two first downs. Charles Grantwas a beast. Any thoughts that he would get complacent after signing his big contract have been put to rest this preseason. He was everywhere on Friday night.

Some other observations and deductions:

Tyler Palko is going to be the No. 3 quarterback. This is just a prediction. Nothing official. But the rookie from Pitt is a favorite of Coach Sean Payton so he would have had to play really poorly to blow his opportunity. On the contrary, though, Palko played well. He led the Saints to two scoring drives, including a picture-perfect 2-yard touchdown pass to Robert Meachem on a fade route. All in all, Payton had to be pleased with his effort. Payton won't like the interception he threw in the end zone but he had to love the way the rookie competeted and led the offense. Those are the kind of things Payton wants to see out of his young signal caller. As Drew Brees said last night, he was benched three times as a young quarterback for throwing interceptions. Decision-making will come in time.

The Saints receivers were much improved. Devery Henderson (5 catches, 50 yards), Terrance Copper (4 catches, 48 yards) and Lance Moore (3 catches, 52 yards) had good games, bolstering the confidence of the coaching staff. Those three, coupled with top target Marques Colston and veteran David Patten, give the Saints a deep core of talented wideouts. Joe Horn won't be missed.

That said, Henderson should had the post pass from Brees near the end of the first quarter. He mistimed his jump or it would have been six points. The pass could not have been thrown any better, perfectly placed between two defenders.

The running game was shaky for the second consecutive game. You had to expect that with Brown and Faine sidelined, but still, you'd like to see more running room. It's never a good thing when your leading rusher is a quarterback. Subtract Palko's 47 yards on four carries and the Saints mustered just 55 yards on 19 attempts.

Antwan Lake has filled in nicely for injured starter Brian Young. He made two good plays on back-to-back snaps in the first quarter, batting down a J.P. Losman pass then dropping Anthony Thomas for a short gain on a stunt with Charles Grant.

In his first start, Jason David made a nice pass deflection on a key third down play to kill a first-quarter drive. It was exactly the kind of big play the secondary has failed to make in recent years.

Did you notice the Saints' commitment to stop the run on defense? On the Bills' first drive, safety Roman Harper and Josh Bullocks were lined up at linebacker on separate plays. On one play, cornerback Jason David even cheated into the second level, giving the Saints nine men in the box.

Ever the stickler for details and mental toughness, Payton won't be happy with the seven penalties for 50 yards in losses. The only positive is that most of them were committed by backups.

saint4life
(504)

FireVenturi

nice read, i agree with everything.