Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

We've always struggled with 3-4 defenses, and with zone blocking offenses.

We played both Sunday.

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

First off, I don't believe in "blueprints" to beat a team. If that were true, you could go all the way back to our first loss in 2006. Whoever it was gave the rest of the league the blueprint. And we just got better. If blueprints actually worked, we'd have been shut down every game thereafter. We just stunk it up.

Grubbs and Evans are fine. 80% of the people on this site are trying to pin blame. Its not having Payton, its the refs, its the WRs, its 12 men on the field, its Jenkins, its Grubbs.

Spoiler Alert: Its everybody on the team! Coaches & players.

They all know it. They will fix it.

Somebody send me an email when the sky has actually fallen.

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

Sheez. Give them a few weeks to get it together before we throw Grubbs under the bus.

What bugs me a little is that when we first got him, I kept hearing from Ravens fans that he was a really good RUN blocker, that opening holes for Ray Rice was the ticket on how the Ravens did so well, and got to the playoffs like old reliable all those years, with Joe Flacco not exactly being elite and all. (Aside from their defense, of course.) So I heard Ravens fans saying that, and I was like,"oh good, now we can get some holes and run the ball, this makes the Ingram pick make more sense now." But yesterday and all through preseason it was just pass, pass, pass so much on Sunday. I want to see him blow somebody up on a running play.

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

That's not really Grubs fault though really?

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

Hey don't blame the guards.

If you want to blame the O line then I'll admit the O TACKLES fell apart.

But Evans and grubbs are still the best guard duo in the league.

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

Oh no, I didn't mean it to sound like that. Not blaming him at all. I just want to see the Saints be balanced this year, and get into some boring "3 yards and a cloud of dust" ball control type stuff, to go along with the ridiculous dazzling passing attack.

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

Is the sky falling allready ?

Watch your game footage again from Sunday.

Watch the preseason game
Footage again. LT getting manhandled.

Look to see who batted the balls down Subday, the LT was no where near in his face.
All Bushrod.

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

Almost all of the QB pressure came from the edges and that is mainly on the tackles, both of whom were subpar. Interior of the line was much better, although DLP had some problems now and again.

I was when it happened, and I still am, completely OK with Nicks going to Tampoon Bay because they were able to bring in Grubbs - haven't yet seen anything to change my mind about that.

Oh, and Jimmy Graham had couple of nice pass protection blocks during the game, so he has been improving on that quite a lot from when he first came into the league, since he couldn't block for s#it back then.

Re: Ben Grubbs vs. Carl Nicks
 

I remember saying after the draft that I was upset that the Saints took Akiem Hicks instead of Bobbie Massie, whom I believe is absolutely first round talent, and had proved it in the SEC. I never found out exactly why he fell that far, but knowing he had that kind of potential I thought he would have been well worth any risk considering it was the 3rd round.

I got a loud response from the vast majority of that thread telling me in various words that I was crazy to think we needed an offensive tackle more than we needed help on defense. I tried like hell to make my point that our OT's were not good at all, and that we are either constantly having to chip with TE's or Drew is having to run for his life and make plays on his own.

That point was continuously met with this line: "We have the best offense in the league and Brees gets sacked about 20 times a year, but we can't stop anybody on defense... Yeah we really need an OT". I explained how we had already signed Hawthorne, Lofton and Bunkley to help the middle of our defense, and so I thought the weakest position left on the team was OT. I pointed out how even though we set all those records we always get man handled on the edges when we play against top 5 defenses.

Yesterday proved how easily a well oiled machine can look like a box of rusty nails when you don't give your quarterback time to see the field, much less make an accurate pass. Massie might never be any good. But the same can be said of Hicks. The draft is a game of chance, and you have to take chances on the positions you need help the most.