JOESAM2002

Not much positive in Saints 27-12 loss to Niners
11:39 PM CDT on Saturday, August 23, 2003

WWLTV.com


Deuce McAllister and Michael Lewis will be no worries for the Saints in the coming season, but Saturday’s performance against the 49ers suggested just about every other area is a cause for some concern as San Francisco beat the Saints 27-12.


McAllister ran as if in midseason form, gaining 74 yards on 15 carries and catching three passes for 20 more. He also had a nice 24-yard gain called back by penalty. As for Lewis, after two returns of over 40 yards, the Niners elected to squib the ball on the ensuing kickoff.




WWL-TV
Deuce McAllister gets loose on one of several nice plays Saturday night
However, in the first half, when most of the first teamers played, the Niners nearly doubled the Saints offensive yardage output.


The Saints defense seemed to be challenged again as the combination of 49er quarterbacks Jeff Garcia, Tim Rattay and Ken Dorsey hit on 22 of 25 passes on the evening for 264 yards and one touchdown. The Niners scored three touchdowns in the second quarter on drives of 52, 64 and 80 yards to take a 20-9 halftime lead.


“I think it’s the little things,� said cornerback Ashley Ambrose of the defense’s continuing struggles. “I think we stepped back a little bit from last week, but it’s because of the little things.�


The Saints could only add a field goal in the second half, and the starters, despite playing almost three quarters, could only manage 12 points. Aaron Brooks hit 14 of 20 passes for 118 yards and an 18-yard laser scoring pass to Joe Horn. But Brooks missed badly on a few key third down pass plays that cost the team scoring opportunities. His backup, Todd Bouman fared even worse by hitting only 3 of 8 passes and having one picked off.


“We were able to move the ball up and down the field but we couldn’t get points,� said receiver Jerome Pathon. “It’s preseason, so we weren’t showing much of what we could do, but we had the opportunities and we kept missing them.�


I think these two paragraphs pretty much say it all.

BillyCarpenter1

Aaron completed 70% of his passes last night while being uder a lot of pressure from the defense. He has yet to throw an interception in the preseason and his completion percentage is over 60% for the preseason.

I\'m not making this up. Really!!

Does he get no love from the Brooks bashing crew?

WhoDat

Nope - he does not. And after reading those two paragraphs that\'s what you bring up? How can you not talk about how screwed we are right now...

and if you want total honesty - the thing that stood out to me most was \"But Brooks missed badly on a few key third down pass plays that cost the team scoring opportunities.\"

BillyCarpenter1

Here are some positive things that I saw in the game last night.

Zach Hilton looks very impressive and should be a great weapon.

Dale Carter looks good and I\'m sure he will get better, cosidering this was his first action of the season.

Kenny Smith has been the most impressive on defense period. He\'s done it against first, second, and thrid sting offenses.

Grady Jackson has been living up to expectations.

Aaron Brooks has looked very good- Pay no attention to the Brooks haters-

Defensive Line has shut down the run-which was the major problem last year.

Duece looks like he\'s ready to win the rushing title this year.

Michael Lewis looks like he\'s going to take it to the house every time he touches the ball.

Ernie Conwell looks like a legit tightend.

Mel Mitchell has played pretty good and should get better.

Derrick Rodgers looks like an upgrade.

Johnathan Sullivan is starting to come on.

Charles Grant and Darren Howard will get their sacks this year.

See- it\'s not all bad. We just need to get the secondary to step up.

Memnoch_TP

I don\'t care if he completes 100% between the 20\'s... Completion percentage doesn\'t win games. I want to see more compleions in the red zone. I want touch downs... Until I see those... Nope, no love.

nocloning

Predicting Billy\'s next post: At the end of last season you all said: \"Yeah, okay, he threw for all those touchdowns. But his completion percentage was killing us.\" Now he has a good completion rate and all you say is: \"Completion percentage doesn\'t win games. I want TDs.\" No fair! [end of post] And he has a point.
But statistics are statistics. What I really wanted to see from Brooks and the offensive unit is that they worked on some of the things he couldn\'t do last year (screen pass) - no, have to wait for 2004. He took some time on some of his throws to go through all of his options instead of forcing the ball into double coverage.
Our red zone offense should be good (WILL be good). Once Deuce smells the end zone he\'s a beast and Conwell is an added target where it counts.
Bash Brooks when he has actually lost a game for us, not when he has done okay in a pre-season game. That way it might sound more convincing.

\"What is Wal-Mart? Is it like they sell wall stuff?\"

ssmitty

you all need to read the last paragraph...........all saint players are starting to say this in one way or another, but pathon says it clear as did grant.........\"we were\'nt showing much of what we could do\" the opportunities were there.....no hands are really being show and although this disappoints me, i think they\'ll have more than enough to show come the opener......is there a line out this early and what is the online bookie you register with to take bets? i will bet the opener heavy if the spread is within 3 or so..smitty

rusta

i can\'t believe i actually agree with cloner and billy, what do you haters want? i can\'t think of a game that AB cost us, ever, even without duece last year AB put enough points to win games if we hadn\'t had a D that looks like swiss cheese

brooks looks greatly improved in the decision making dept which as far as i was concerned was his only drawback, in the eagles game ho wmany passes were dropped by donte and jerome? then last night he has to play in the wind swirling toilet bowl known as candlestick 3com whatever you call that dump?

the AB haters are going to find anything to bash him with even if it\'s just the color of his socks, you won\'t change their minds, at least not until december :P

if you guys wanna bash someone why not pick any guy on defense, cuz they all look like crap

rusta

and who cares if can\'t run a screen pass, our offense doen\'t really rely on that type of play anyway

we\'re a deep pass/pound deuce team

tweeky

Good positive post Billy. After last nights game doom&gloom was just too easy.

Positives: Almost all the offseason moves we made look like they are upgrades.
Negatives: They may not prove it till week 4.

We look like a defense with 7 new starters in their 3rd pre-season game.

If I were Haslett I\'d play my starting defense the entire game against Miami. The only thing they lack is gelling time. They won\'t get it watching the reserves from the sideline. If they can\'t get it together soon, Matt Hasselback and Shaun Alexander may set several new NFL records.

Whether we agree or disagree; its all for Him.