FinSaint

Hmmm... I don't want to take it too literally, but I would say that these games show us quite a lot about "what this team is."

If we just forget for a moment about the different strategies and gameplans that would normally change the look and flow of these games, then what we have are individual players showing their coaches at what level they can compete at and what their skill-sets are. These individuals make up the team - barring any rosters additions/reductions - so I would say that we have a fairly good approximation of "what this team is."

We can always make the argument that the coaches were unwilling to show their hands this early on and, therefore, ran very vanilla Os & Ds, but still, I don't think the individual players are holding back on their performances - especially those still fighting for depth chart or roster spots. If they were holding back... these games would be worthless in one of their main functions, which is to allow the coaching staff to evaluate players in a competitive environment against another team.

Another argument might be that a lot of these guys won't have as big of an impact in the season - if any - and so it's virtually impossible to deduce from these games what the real game day team would look and feel like. But, so far it's mainly the first string guys that haven't looked really good in these games - well the D did against SF - and that is where the concerns rise from whether they be caused by lack of skills or just unfamiliarity of playing together as a team.

Anyway, I'm not saying a pre-season loss means that the Saints are doomed, but to say that these games cannot be used to give some indication of the capabilities of this team, is the polar opposite of overreacting and equally invalid in my opinion.

"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno