SaintsBro

I see a few positive things like:

1) giving up 28 points is better than giving up 40 in week 1, is it not?

2) okay, they did give up 28 points, fair enough -- but 1 of those TD's was from the 11 yard line (only so much you can expect them to do.) And then only 7 points given up in the second half... I know people don't want to see it this way because they are looking for a predetermined outcome that the defense is supposed to be BAD, but I'd say it's a fair debate whether that 2nd half Tampa Bay TD was actually borderline "garbage time" or not. Because the Saints were up by two scores, Drew had been scoring at will all day, until the Saints began shutting down the automatic scoring machine for the day, packing it up for next week, and switching to a conservative ball control offense.... and I feel like the Saints' defense were quite happy to just let time keep trickling off the clock while Tampa Bay moved the ball downfield in the 4th, letting 'em have it, like the Special Man. The same way that I argued that the Saints only made it "look closer than it was" to the Redskins during borderline "garbage time," I'd say the same thing about the Bucs offense yesterday.

3) I know people want to freak out, but you can't say that the 3rd quarter goal line stand was not at least kind of a little bit awesome, can you? That was one for the ages. You can build a season off of something like that. I felt the love.


Having said all that in their favor, I agree with GeauxForMore -- I absolutely don't TRUST them yet. I have zero confidence in predicting what will happen with them on any given play, which makes for an extremely nerve wracking game viewing experience. I have given up on waiting around for "Spags' system" to kick in, or for him to magically wave his wand and make them into the 2007 Giants. Not even thinking about stats or yards or rankings, I just want W's at this point. It's time to fly by the seat of our pants.

I'm just happy every time we get a god--mn stop or make them punt. Every single one of these games, if we had gotten as little as 1 or 2 more STOPS out of the defense during the game, then these games would have all been wins and many of the games would have been the familiar 31-17 type scores that we are used to seeing the Saints put up in the past 3-4 years. One or two more stops than what they're currently getting, that's all we need.

TheOak

When you allow the opposition to move freely from goal line to goal line you better be able to stop them from scoring anything but a FG.

If we are going to give up 400 yards in a game but they are held to field goals.. I am fine with that. But when allow them free roam of the field and the red zone efficiency is 60% (to the bad) you cant expect to win. Key word being "expect"...