Mardigras9

First game, that counted. The Skins had a good game plan and our D (our team for that matter) was unable to get into a rhythm. Plus the D is a little thin. I see major adjustments in the next week. We have to go to Carolina and Newton presents alot of the same problems RG3 did.

FinSaint

Well, the 40 burger was not all on the defense.


The Harper pass interference call should've been a turn over on downs - 7 points.

The 12th man on the 4th down punt - 3 points.

Interception thrown by Brees, which put the ball inside the 5 yard line - 7 points.


If you take all those mishaps, they combine for 17 points, and without them the Saints' defense would've "only" allowed 23 points... well within that Ray Lewis "margin of excellence."

Just saying...

SaintsBro

I sat there looking at the scoreboard all through the game and doing the math, and knowing that every time we scored we'd still have to kick off to the Redskins, and they would dutifully march down the field and score again at will, against our defense. From about the early third quarter on, it was really only ever a question in my mind of whether we would lose by one score or two. Because we couldn't freaking stop them. At all!

Even after the blocked punt, it was like, yay, yippie, but to start the third quarter we still gotta kick off to the Redskins again, so tack on at least another 7 to the score before our offense even sees the field again. I actually felt like we should have tried an "Ambush" in there somewhere, because we desperately needed possessions. And their scoring was almost inevitable and guaranteed, once they had the ball it was only a question of a is it a 3 or a 7. It was that ugly.

saintfan

Yep. These are (were) my thoughts too. I realize the defense was put in some bad positions. Regardless, they simply were not able to stop the Redskins - and frankly I knew it was going to be a long day from the opening drive.

leilung

I questioned old bad habits (ie. getting caught out of position and tackling) way back during pre-season. I was then told by several folks that I was a 'chicken little' and there was nothing that they wouldn't fix. Yeah right.

So here we are, Game 1 over- the Skins come into OUR HOUSE, beat us with a rookie QB, pedestrian D, and a third string RB. Same issues on D as the pre-season.

Just hope Spags gets it running right before it's too late!

Rugby Saint II

I trust Spags more than I do our college scouts. Our draft sucks and has for years. Yes, we can find some late round gems. But, how about they find us an early draft pick that works out well.

Shoe.

[QUOTE= But, how about they find us an early draft pick that works out well.[/QUOTE]

Patrick Robinson has worked out well. He's getting better still, and almost had a nice pick yesterday.

Cameron Jordan was one of the better things going for our run-D yesterday.

Mark Ingram is not the second-coming of Emmitt or anything, but he also has shown improvement. Why he didn't get the ball more is a good question.

Our first rounders haven't stolen the show like some of our late-rounders, but give the guys some credit, they are far from busts.

saintswhodi

I am gonna reserve judgment on the D for now. Here's why:

1) No one knew what to expect from RGIII and the Redskins offense. No one. They didn't do much of that zone read in the preseason, so there was no way to prepare for it. And they ran it almost exclusively in the first half. Plus there isn't any film on RGIII to study except college. How much good is that gonna do you? It was a tough assignment on our team and our D. We didn't meet the challenge, but secondly:

2) How much time has the D actually had together? Lofton and Hawthorne both were hurt much of the preseason, just came back. Greer has been out all preseason, and still isn't back, and he is our best corner. Patrick can't stay healthy, and he went out. So 1 and 3 CB out, and 2 LBs who haven't done on field work in weeks playing. It's gonna take some time for their health and legs to come back.

I say we give it a chance as the weeks go for us to play teams we can actually gameplan for, for guys to get healthy, and for those that didn't play much to get acclimated and see if there is improvement. I feel pretty confident there would have been a different result if we played them week 3 as opposed to week one. Also, the offense wasn't very helpful. Turnovers and three and outs consistently will foil any defensive plan. Except maybe the 2000 Ravens defense. And our D definitely is not that.

FinSaint

Well, they had to abandon the running game because they were playing catch-up for most of the game.

And even more importantly, they sucked at 1st downs and because of that they were forced into 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long situations where you rarely call a running play when you have a Drew Brees caliber QB on your team.

DrewDat

Its Only One Game...I Havent Saw One Team Who Was Dominate From Start To Finish Without A Wakeup Call...Hopefully We Just Got Ours Early...