Dude! You were there too? I feel better. I had Cowboy fans behind me too talking sh**. But they were friendlier than some of the guys I met from SR.com, whom I tailgated with. Looking back on it, I realize, though nobody said anything negative in my presence, some of them really had a problem with me. Too American, I guess.

My wife and I sat in the South Endzone (by the freeway) and the game was pretty disappointing. I did like getting rained on. Being a Dome fan all my life, its kind of exciting to get weather. I got it twice in San Francisco --- coldest cold I ever felt, sunburned the other time. And in Tampa, it was december in Florida; that was absolutely perfect. But anyway, I remember looking up at the rain thru the stadium lights--- and that was cool.

Everything up before the game was cool--- I like the Independence Bowl. Super-festive carnival atmosphere.... all the media, flocking to Shreveport, like it was the Super Bowl. I thought it was great. This is why all preseason games should be played in secondary cities-- college towns, etc.

I liked the aluminum stands you could stomp, the grass, the Air Force flyover, the whole outdoor thing. Oh, and did you hear the dueling, split crowd chant, "Defense!" "Offense!" that was actually really funny.

I remember Bobby Hebert after the game saying the team played like "garbage." And it took forever to get out of their rodeo parking lot.
How would we know that Sean Payton was merely playing poker face with his
playbook.

A couple of weeks later, on a perfect, cool, clear evening after green day & u-2, Steve Gleason's block broke the Curse, and the most amazing night at that point in the History of us happened.

So thats a story of us being concerned about the offense during preseason.