WhoDat!656

NEW ORLEANS -- Thoughts on the New Orleans Saints' 40-32 loss to the Washington Redskins on Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

What it means: It was only one game, so it's not time to panic. But this loss is at the very least disturbing. I don't know how much of it had to do with the absence of suspended coach Sean Payton, but the Saints didn't look like the team they have been in recent years. They had a fired-up home crowd, but didn't take advantage of it. There were lots of problems on offense and defense. If those problems continue the next few weeks, then I think we'll see Payton's suspension was the most harmful part of the whole bounty saga.

What I liked: Jimmy Graham. The tight end looked even better than he did last season. He created all sorts of matchup problems for the Redskins. They simply could not cover him. But one of the many mistakes the Saints made was not using Graham even more than they did.

What I didn't like: The rest of the offense. It never really got in sync, at least by the Saints' standards. The running game barely was a factor and none of the wide receivers had a great day. The offensive line also had a rough day, including several costly penalties, and did not give Drew Brees a lot of time to throw the ball.

What else I didn't like: The defense. It's a new system with Steve Spagnuolo as the coordinator, but there were no signs of improvement. The Saints got carved up by a rookie quarterback. No doubt the absence of injured cornerback Jabari Greer was a significant factor. But the secondary struggled in coverage. Blame a lot of that on the lack of a pass rush. Spagnuolo is known for being able to get pressure on quarterbacks, but we didn't see very much pressure in his debut game. Maybe Robert Griffin III will go on to become one of the all-time greats, but the Saints made him look like that in his very first game.

Rapid Reaction: Redskins 40, Saints 32 - NFC South Blog - ESPN

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

saintsfan1976

Unparalleled circumstances for any NFL team withstanding...this Saints team was out of sync the entire day and this game was reminiscent of the loss against St Louis last year.

Our offensive line was dominated the entire game. Drew Brees had no time and the WR's (when they were open) had multiple dropped passes.

I'm not down on the team's season - keep in mind 9-7 can make the Superbowl - but things need to improve dramatically.

TheDeuce

Luckily one week doesn't dictate how we'll do the entire season... but the defense needs to get better fast, and our playmakers need to cut out the mistakes.

DrewDat

I Said It Before And I'll Say It Again....Roman Harper Is Trash!!!!

|Mitch|

What did Harper do this game, except tied for second in tackles? I thought he looked relatively good considering and that PI was a blown call on him.

Rugby Saint II

My rapid reaction? Crap!!!

dizzle88

Roman Harper wasn't to blame at all in this game

I was extremely proud of how he defended the pass in the endzone, turned his head, located the ball and swatted it, then the flag came flying and I called the refs every swear word imaginable, even when he plays the ball properly he gets flagged

This game was on - "No balls Kromer," the O line, receivers, brees and the D line, everybody else did their jobs

Running Backs didn't get a chance cus Carmichael abandoned the run after 3 minutes play

mutineer10

How many phases of the game are there? We sucked at ALL of them, and our waterboy sucks, too.