Observations on the Saints
 

We know the New Orleans Saints can play offense and there’s no doubt that will happen when the regular season comes along. But the Saints didn’t even need their offense in a 24-3 victory against the San Francisco 49ers in their preseason opener at the Superdome.

The defense and special teams gave the Saints a fast start as Drew Brees and most of the first-team offense didn’t even stay in long enough to get a first down.

New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams looked like he was prepared for a playoff game, not an exhibition. He blitzed like crazy and the first-team defense was all over San Francisco starting quarterback Alex Smith. Safety Roman Harper spent as much time in the backfield as any of San Francisco’s running backs. Heck, Williams was even calling run blitzes.

The Saints also got a big boost from undrafted rookie Joe Morgan, who returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown. People thought Darren Sproles would make everyone forget Reggie Bush, but Morgan might be making a case to stay on the roster to handle some returns.

Some other observations on the Saints.
Brees left the game with about five minutes left in the first quarter and only completed one of four passes for six yards. Smart move by Sean Payton to get Brees out of there quickly. When you have a quarterback like that, you don’t need to take any chance of getting him hurt in a preseason game.
Brees did throw one perfect deep pass, but Robert Meachem dropped it.
Backup Chase Daniel took a big hit out of bounds soon after replacing Brees. He got up, holding his side. Made me wonder for a second if the Saints have a phone number for Jake Delhomme? He’s a Louisiana guy and, if he’s going to play again, the Saints would be a tempting option. But Daniel seemed to shake off the hit and completed 13 of 21 passes for 129 yards.
The Saints didn’t even need the blitz all the time. With a bit of help from defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, Will Smith had a nice sack on Smith.

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Catchable...yes. Perfect...no...IMO.

Give the kid a break...it's only 1 preseason game. Drew's reaction is questionable to me.

What was questionable about it? I didn't see him throw a "Manning Fit" ... He just looked downfield (like we ALL would) and had that look on his face that said, "Man, that's frustrating."

What did you see?

Same thing. Too much concern considering it was the 1st quarter of the 1st preseason game...but hey, that's just me...and that's just Drew.

Drew's a butthole. They should cut him.

Brees hit him in stride with the ball coming down about a foot in front of his chest. He barely had to move his arms to be in position to catch that ball... And he dropped it.

Catchable, yes. Perfect, yes. You qualify your "no" with "In your opinion", but you don't back that opinion up with any facts or observations on what made that perfect throw imperfect. This is because there was nothing about that throw that wasn't perfect.

Drew's reaction wasn't questionable at all. When a 5th year pro who has never known another QB lets a perfectly thrown ball go right through his hands he should be pissed! It's the NFL, not kindergarten. You want to give Meatchump a gold star because he tried his best to catch the ball?!?

Puhleeze.

Just so you know...I did try to find a replay of it before I posted, but couldn't on youtube yet...so, I had to depend on my memory and how I felt last night when I saw the replay. I just remember thinking that it wasn't perfect when I saw it and gave Meach a break because of that. If I see the replay again and see I was wrong, I will of course apologize for remembering it wrong.

I also remember seeing Brees on the sideline and thinking he was just a little too pissed considering all the situations.

It's what I like about message boards, though. We all don't see things the same way.

1st part yes.

2nd part no...but...

I liked what I saw out of Chase last night.

Drew has high expectations and that's what makes him a winner, I have not seen the play yet as I haven't had chance to watch the highlights.
Drew was most likely pissed that the offense wasnt clicking and this added to the frustration, believe me though......they will make sure it doesn't happen again!

One pass in the preseason...

http://dailyhurricane.com/assets_c/2...0xauto-191.jpg

Preseason, alcohol, Meachum and Strato do not mix very well. I bet Strato is nursing a hangover this morning. ;)

Yep, over-reaction at its finest. Its why I don't like gameday chat.

Meachem has had a great camp and by all reports is catching everything in sight and beating our own secondary deep often.

Bobby/Hokie said he looks like our best WR at this point.

Meachem has never had a rep for drops.

Regarding the play, if I could be allowed to expand...it seems that I saw, for some reason, that Meach had to react slightly with his arms to catch it, and possibly had just picked-up the balls flight and his reaction was just a tad slow...which is understandable, to me, because of the situations. That's why I wanted to see it again but couldn't. I'm sure I will see it again later, and maybe I will retract if I see that I was wrong.

They will undoubtebly, IMO too, make it right, which is why I was a little surprised by Drew's reaction.

I think I've beaten this enough, now.

The ball was a little inside, and Meachem did adjust his route, which is why he dove for it. But since it hit him squarely in both hands, there's no excuse for the drop. It was a clean drop.

Also, Drew came over and patted him on the head on the sideline so I see no problem.

Meachem was probably more angry about the drop than anyone else.

Harper suped up his wheel chair last night. If anyone had any doubts why he wasn't replace this offseason, there was your answer. Excellent in the box and at blitzing.

On Meachem and his drop, it's preseason. I bet you he's going to shape up real quick and not let that happen again.

I didn't want Harper replaced, and I'm not implying that you said that...this just looked like a good spot for me to eat some crow.

I have made jokes during the offseason regarding Harper. I guess I was embarrassed by what Bradford did. I do realize that Harper was gassed by that time in that game...and Sam is probably pretty fast...anyway...

I am glad we have Roman Harper.


There...I said it.

Looks tasty. :bng:

http://doniganmerritt.files.wordpres...6d5d00f6f4.jpg

There's no way around it... he was brought down by Bradford from behind. He deserved to be ridiculed. That's goign to follow him for the rest of his life. :)

Meach should have caught that pass ..no way around it..he is a 3rd year 1st rounder...preseason or not..you make that catch...if he continues his droppsies and Colston is hurting then what?...that was the reason i wanted to take a look at T.O...call me a DF{Dam Fool}..but it couldnt hurt..if he doesn't produce cut him...

It was a drop, like many other drops. It wasn't a new brand of drop, it was the old fashioned, hit him dead in the hands drop...why don't we drop it? As for T.O., N.O. Too immature to be thirty something (fits and tantrums like a spoiled child), no thanks. He would probably be more problematic than advantageous. Even if he didn't perform and Payton cut him, his juice would have already spoiled the broth. Sure he has skills, but I don't think that's the kind of sideshow we need on our quest.

first game in the dome this year with new turf and lighting I'm willing to give Meachem a Mulligan. He's been having a good camp so I will give him a break.

Wait till Ingram fumbles...;)

I didn't think it was perfect either. I believe it was ever so slightly under thrown, but still no excuse in the world for Meach no to catch it.

Here we go. I had the Saints on on my 13" laptop and had the TB-KC game on the TV in the background. First a general observation. I seem to remember the home team announcers getting the play. These San Fran nimrods weren't even sure who the niners were playing last night. That was unfortunate for me because it's hard to see which Saint is doing what on that small screen while Stu and Pid were spending hours wishing for a new stadium instead of talking about the game.

Now to the game: D- I was kind of surprised how much wood GW brought to the game. Maybe that was GW's reply to the Niner's for taking our D to school last year. I kind of felt sorry for Alex Smith. He was getting the slobber knocked out of him. The run stopping was like nothing we saw last year. That was a very pleasant thing. It was hard for me to keep track of the LB's but it seemed like the DL and DB's were doing most of the work and the niners weren't able to make it far enough up the field for our LB's to even have to break a sweat.

O Very sloppy. It does take longer for the O line to gel, but it was pretty bad. They got no push on the runs and Drew was running for his life a lot. Granted that Niner defense is pretty good, but that good? Our receivers were simply banana fingered. I know it was the first game, but I'd of traded our receiving corps last night for Tampa's no problem. The Bucs were haulin in everything that came their way. Just sayin'.

Now for the second best part of the game. WE GOTS SPECIAL TEAMS THIS YEAR! Nice! 'Nuff said.

I'm only commenting on the first string part of the game which ended in a draw. I could give a crap if our third string can beat their third string. Although Bell had a good night and Roby looked okay.

Well summed up. I had similar points on the other game observation thread going on. What does concearn me a little bit (stress little) is that the O looked out of sync when they had the players camp that was so hyped. Obviously it is not the same as the real thing. I'm just saying I'm surprised the first team struggled (no first downs) in the home opening game against the niners like that. The pats and the eagles looked much better on first string O than the Saints did last night. With the Ingram drafting, the Thomas contract, the Bush trading, and Sproles signing, the run game has added pressure this year. Last night was not step in the right direction for the 1st string run game.

But, I'm not overreacting after 2 weeks of camp. Just my observation.

Its funny if that would have been Bush who dropped that pass there would be crying all over this board with you leading the charge....Meach is a highly paid 3rd year 1st round pick and he gets coddled..go back and watch it..the ball hit him right in the hands...Just sayin

who? ;) lmao

In all fairness, it was not the greatest show by our Offense, Brees was not in sync, an NFL player makes that catch but the overall the offense was lackluster

It will get better, Brees would not just let this rest, guarantee it will be rectified.
Was nice to see Mark Ingram get in the endzone, even though the other running backs got more yards than him it was to be expected for Ingrams first game.
He is going be a star at RB

Perhaps. But bringing in Terrell Owens is a terrible idea. The guy is an absolute head case. He has had problems with almost every team he's been on.
You've undoubtedly heard his rants, seen him yelling at his teammates on the field and on the sideline, embarrassing his current and former QB's (if it looks like a rat, Donovan puking in the huddle for example), yelling "I love me some me" and "They still love to hate me".

:no:

He's also much older, slower and drops many more balls than Meachem.

I live in California.. I got to watch the game. I was so happy... Now on to what I saw... Too early to say anything about the starters, as always the first preseason game is a warm up for them. Offense was a little flat the timing was off some.. But it is the first preseason game so no big deal there.
If this is the defense we are gonna see all year there are gonna be some teams in trouble.. I know that usually the defenses are ahead of the offenses early in preseason training.. But what I saw was a defense the really can be very, very , good.. We are deep in a lot of positions and it showed last night.. Good Job D'
What really impressed me was the backup players.. the ones fighting for a spot on a deep team.. I think all did pretty well last night.. Come time for cutting players it's gonna be a tough decision.. Glad I'm not a coach.

I remember when we got Chase Daniel I said then that he would be a good fit here.. Like what others have said before he is a good back up for Drew. What I like about Chase is he has what you call a football Heart.. He wants to play football he want's to win. He is a team player..

So it's to early to tell but from what I saw last night. The NFL better watch out for the Who- Dats this year... Cause we should be called The We-Dats.. All I hear about is Philly and what they did in the off season. Even on Fox sports last night that's all I heard Philly this and Philly that..Well I think we did an outstanding job if not a better job than Philly..

GEAUX SAINTS!!!!!!

I doubt Meach makes the hall of fame..and T.O would be a good pickup..did you any bad stuff from last year about him?...he played well and didnt cause any problems that i am aware of....

"We're not a team, we're a roster." Good quote from Coach.

I get to watch the game tonight on the NFL channel. I am going to have a little insight into the game tonight. It really sounds like we've got depth and talent at almost every position............I thought we were pretty deep at corner starting TC. Drew expects this team to be ready and they're not. After all his hard work in the off season he was frustrated that we weren't doing a better job. Good observations on the new field.

Meach needs to step up.....he may become the new bush.

Defense stole the show along with Smith's manhood. They had to have their hands in his pants hell they were everywhere else.

IT WAS A DROP.... this will happen...1st preseason game...let it go...our offense is based alot on timing...its a little off...let it go...if Meach does it in the regular season, then i'll worry...but for now...let it go

Dale, why didn't you watch it last night?

It was on in Mobile on both Comcast and DirecTV.

I would rather have a QB, that is passionate enough about the teams performance, that he does get frustrated, when things don't work out. It's way better than a QB, that smiles, and laughs, after he throws yet ANOTHER interception.... Ring any bells???

Too soon to freak out - EITHER way. Its why we play preseason. Lt them work it out.

I think was a littl emore intense because he knew some of his passes sucked & that one was a really good throw, but - It don't count.:beatnik:

Why do people keep saying that? He was drafted in 07. That was not 3 years ago. This is his 5th year.


I actually watched FF's entire 8 minute Meatchump highlight reel, and it is more a Drew Brees highlight reel. Look at all those catches he makes. Almost everyone one was a well thrown ball that he would have been a goat for dropping. There are maybe 3 really good catches in there. First round pick, 4 years as a pro, on a team that has won a Super Bowl, and if that highlight reel is the best you can come up with in that period, you need to go. All it shows is he is fast and make easy catches.

Clear him out, start Roby. He is smarter and more driven and a better all around football player.


I'll freak out on Meatchump whenever I want to, thank you. I choose now.

I can't take anything in that article seriously after it has this statement in it:

Are you f***ing kidding me?! He can go back to making those ridiculous pseudo-Superman Arby's (or for whoever it was) commercials
full-time 'cos his playing days should be over... if there really is a God.

Hey Fin... Tom Johnson looked pretty solid last night. :dance2: