What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

Numerous New Orleans Saints players joked about "overreaction Monday" following the team's surprising first loss to Washington in Week 1. They seemed rather unfazed by the situation and confident they could churn out a win in Carolina.

The Saints preached the same attitude even after a second sluggish loss in as many games in Week 2 against the Panthers. The defensive players pointed to two weeks of facing unconventional offenses as the main culprit of their struggles, while the offense figured it would right the course against an 0-2 Kansas City Chiefs squad.

The confidence wasn't as high Sunday or Monday after letting an 18-point lead vanish in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome where the Saints won every game in 2011 with an average margin of victory of more than 23 points per game in eight regular season games. There are more questions than answers at this point for the Saints as they sit as the only winless team in the NFC after three weeks.

When asked if it's still an overreaction to question themselves with the 0-3 start, running back Pierre Thomas said, "I wouldn't say that. I'll say this is a Monday where we have to regroup and see what team we are, what type of team where are and how can we respond. How do we respond? It's just a Monday where we start all over, start our whole season over. Our first game begins with Green Bay."

Before that happens, you have to identify the issues and find a way to fix them or see if they can even be fixed:

What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints? - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

Re: Article: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

Obviously whats wrong is the absense of our head coach.

After that its the OL, DL, OLB, TE, K, CB, and WR's.

Other than that were just fine.

Surely it would be easier to say what's right with the Saints?

Pierre Thomas


Everything else is wrong

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

and Sporles, other than that this team is bad. Coaching all the way down to the players

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

And Greer on Defense

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

You can't blame the players if you think the suspension of Payton is a big problem.

We went 13-3 with these same players last year, and we gained more talent this offseason than we lost.

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

The offensive is not doing anything at all. WR's dropping passes, O line is very bad. Strief is just plan bad. He was not an up for this role. Last year he wasn't that good either. Maybe his mind is on his hot ass wife, ( I cant blame him at all, have you seen her). Whatever it is he needs to be replaced.
As for as the others. I'm not going to lean on Grubbs yet, it's a new system for him.
No need to talk defensive, the only ones that can play are Jabari. I will hold out on our new Lb core. Once again they are new, now this is a new scheme so all the players are new to this. BUT come on they sucked for now long now. It is time to totally rebuild this d.

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

Danno, I have to disagree. Yes PAYTON is a huge problem. But we are talking about grown men who are professionals. They are the ones who should take all the blame. We aren't talking about kids here, Grown Men. They are the ones who gets the blame. This offensive has been in the system for how long? Minus a few here and there, but the system has been in place for years. The team said we were built for the long haul remember, they know the system. So maybe they don't, but SP is not the one out there dropping passes, missing block assignments, false starts. etc it's the players.
Now the D is different, new scheme so I cant bash on them. But there is no talent on that side of the ball except a few. Not that the coach staff hasn't tried. How many number 1's we have back there that just plain suck....

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

I disagree with your disagreement. :)

You think missing Payton is a HUGE problem, but then point out the players.

Why is missing Payton a huge problem then?

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

bounty offseason + no headcoach = DISASTER

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

The one thing no one is mentioning is the officials--it's as if we're playing them too. Perhaps the Thomas play had the ball hitting the ground. But there wasn't even one camera angle that clearly showed the ball hitting the ground. He had his hand under it, yet the referee reversed the on-the-field call.

And that darned field goal looked inside--I followed it on my DVR, and even when the ball was way smaller than the goal posts (they are roughly the same diameter with the ball), it was still inside the goal-posts. Even political commentator Cenk Uygur played it on his show.

And who knows about all the smaller things, like holding being called on many little plays where they made some ground. These replacements need to go, to be tossed to the curb.

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

It just baffles me how bad especially Ellis looked against the Chiefs' O-Line, he got pushed aside far too easily and when he had a chance to make a play on Cassel... he just ran circles around him.

Johnson and Hicks looked much better as the DT tandem than Bunkley and Ellis did, which I guess is why they saw more playing time late in the game.

I really don't know if the main reason why the defense has been so inept is because of Spags' scheme or the personnel running it, but if I'd have to pick one I'd say that there are far too many players on the defense who need to be upgraded to someone else - Ellis is the main example of this.

I wouldn't have thought losing SP for the year would have had this big of an affect on the team's performance, but I have to believe that his absence is the number 1 reason why this team has been so out of sync this far.

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

It is definitely a shorter list!!

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

Also, the Moore catch where his other foot clearly, at least to me, hit the side of the pylon before the shoe hit the ground out of bounds.

Still, the call was overturned even though I can't believe they saw 100% evidence to overturn the initial call of Moore making the catch, but being a little short of the goal-line.

Re: Article: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

Well just like you did, coach first, then players. I went the other way players first then Coach. They all are to blame for this year.

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

The pylon isn't part of the field, it merely identifies the plane of the goal line. You still have to have the 2nd foot touch the ground.

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

I would go so far as to say its not the players.. It is not the lack of Sean Payton... Many teams have won Super Bowls with out Sean Payton, and less talent than we have on the field.

Its the present coaches inability to adjust.

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

I think we are trying to go from first to worst and maybe we desrve it if we can't play upt to our talent & potential with or without Payton. I think the only team we can beat is ourselves & we are 3/0 in that department.

But at the same time I feel like we have become spoiled enough that we are hatting on our team. I'm not saying make excuses for their play and lack of intensity. Their character can now be measured in what they do from this point out. Will someone make bold moves to try to salvage the season or will they just accept their fate?

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

OK, I was just going by what the broadcast team was saying about the rule. Naturally, I should've known better than to trust Gumbel's and Dierdorf's knowledge of the rules. :-)

Re: What's wrong with the New Orleans Saints?
 

This is so depressing.