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What the New Orleans Saints may have now is a backup quarterback controversy.

One week after Chase Daniel threw three touchdown passes while leading the Saints to a victory over the Houston Texans, backup Patrick Ramsey played very well against the San Diego Chargers, leading the Saints on two scoring drives in their 36-21 preseason victory Friday night at the Superdome.

In truth, one of the drives was all Chris Ivory, who took a screen pass from Ramsey and then showed every trick in a running back's repertoire - the juke, a pure bowl-over, the midfield cutback, and then, inside the 10-yard line, a stiff-arm - to go 76 yards for a touchdown that pushed the Saints' lead to 26-14 with 7:18 left in the game.
Ramsey tarnished his night on the Saints' next possession, making an ill-advised, three-quarters-throwing-motion pass that was picked off by Chargers cornerback Nathan Vasher, setting San Diego up at the New Orleans 23-yard line. The Chargers scored two plays later to cut the Saints lead to 26-21.
Daniel also threw an interception against Houston deep in Saints territory, but that turnover did not result in a Texans touchdown.
And Ramsey came back out firing after being picked off, completing passes for first downs to different receivers and guiding the Saints on an 11-play, 67-yard drive that ate up almost four minutes and ended with a 35-yard Garrett Hartley field goal that essentially sealed the victory.
Ramsey finished 10-of-18 passing for 191 yards, along with the one touchdown and one interception.
Perhaps most important, however, was that he engineered two long scoring drives. In addition to the last one, on which he completed his first four passes, he led a 14-play, 71-yard drive in the third quarter. That drive, which took 5:52, ended with a 27-yard field goal by Hartley that put the Saints ahead 20-14.
Coach Sean Payton was measured, however, in his immediate postgame assessment. Overall, he said the performance was quite competent, and he praised Ramsey's tempo and game management. But the interception clearly bothered him.
"He's making some plays, and then all of a sudden there's a technique or an alignment," Payton said. "There are positive things, and then he's making mistakes he's going to have to clean up and get corrected."

st thomas

does anyone think that we just need to see more of the backup competition. like after one series with the starters next week that we see daniels and ramsey both for the rest of the game. or if we are keeping 3 qbs we will have to watch canfield for 3 quarters.

dizzle88

At this point i don't think canfield has made it. As you said i think it will be one series of starters, Chase for 2 quarters then ramsey for 2 quarters. I still think daniels has the upper hand at the minute, so he can really help himself with a strong performance

st thomas

right on dizzle, i hope it will happen. chase needs reps and ramsey needs to brush up his game. chase has the nod ahead of ramsey but i'm not sure he's game ready when real bullits are flying. ramsey has the experience over chase but he needs to grab his b-lls and see if he really wants it.

dizzle88

Yer i agree, in essence Ramsey has a slight edge if its a "Game on the Line" type moment because he has been a starter in the past, whereas chase is a young up and comer.
I trust what the coaching staff are going to do, it may end up that they both turn in good performances and we keep them both. Looking forward to watching the backup QB battle now lol

st thomas

i think your already right, they both made the team. think about it. niether has the experience that brunell had. so its a no brainer to me. both will stay unless this big time vet gets cut next week, we pick him up and then we can ramsey.

diamond12

All valid and good points by everyone..well this is just my 2 cents---Ramsey is not the answer to our back up quarterback..sorry to say it,,C. Daniels has a ton of maturity and commands the offense a whole lot better than Ramsey. My pick is Chase Daniels..thats what my gut instinct says.

DRsaints

At this moment I think Chase Daniel has the job. Patrick Ramsey played OK yesterday but a big chunk of his yards where from Chris Ivory's long run, that was also his only touchdown pass. He threw and interception as well. He did ok, but he needs to do better than that if he wants the 2nd QB job.

And Diamond, I tend to agree with you. Chase Daniel already has a year under his belt of study from Drew Brees and the Saints offense. He's also much younger and has a better future for the Saints.

MatthewT

I still believe it's going to be Daniel, and Ramsey will probably not make the opening day roster. I do however believe Ramsey will be back in week 2. Simply one of those situations the Saints can avoid paying a guaranteed salary to Ramsey, I also believe Betts falls into this category too.