frankeefrank

Just got done watching and here are a few thoughts.
Offense:
The Texans employed what I thought was a normal approach to the game. Meaning they zone blitzed, edge blitzed, employed aggresive man coverage, and used stunts and twists on the DL. Maybe it's because they were playig at home, but it looked as if were trying to make more of a statement than the Saints clearly were.

That having been said. I liked what the first unit did (for the most part). They ran the ball well. Brees was all right. If you watch the tape again, most of his incompletions were on the screen passes. 2 of the 7, were on swing passes to Sproles. Those can be fixed. Screens usually benefit when run in the right situations. Play calling. The passes to Sproles are fixable. Practice.
We moved the ball with both the number ones and twos.

Now the bad.
I thought the line struggled agaisnt SF. They were horrible tonight. It seems as if Bushrod hasn't improved his lower body strength at all since taking over for Jammal Brown. He whiffed on the defender on the Brees fumble. Check the tape. If Bushrod evens holds him up one 1/2 second. Drew tucks the ball and we kick a field goal. (On Daniels later fumble, Charles Brown basically cut himelf from the team. He's dog poop. He literally didn't move.)
The O-line needs to drastically improve if we are going to make a run this year. I think Streif played well. But they still scare me a little.
Lance and Meachem looked good to go.
If healthy, Pierre and Ingram will be an awesome 1-2 punch.

Defense:
The guys looked horrible and un-inspired. I know I am stating the obvious.
There were way too many missed tackles. I guess, you can chalk that up to the lockout and missed ota's and less contact... but, that was also a problem last year. Can it be fixed? I hope so.
In Williams' defense, the Saints were very vanilla. I mean, crystal clear vanilla. 4 down lineman, LB's back, 8-10 yard cushion by the CB's, deep zone.
It was like Williams didn't even want to show the Texans the tiniest wrinkle in film.
I would like to know if the poor run defense is chronic or not.

My gut reaction: We play these guys early int he regular season. Payton and Williams didn't want to show the Texans a thing. But, the team played poorly. Now I know the Texans "get paid too," and the Saints need to improve, but seeing that is not a bad thing. Should be a good week of practice in CA.
In fact, poor play heading into the most important week of training camp...
team isolated, locked away in CA...
no distractions...
the conspiracy theorist in me says this is what Payton had planned all along.

The weather is always 72 degrees and perfect, in the Dome