FrenzyFan

Weird to be saying that the defense (which I thought would be out Achilles heal this year) is keeping us in this game.

The negatives
Our OL cannot protect the QB, much the same as I saw last week so please don't talk about having three guys out. The protection is perhaps worse this week, but last week it sucked as well.

The OL cannot seem to block for the run very consistently either. Deuce turned a LOT of backfield stops into gains. That guy is a miracle for us. God help us if he gets hurt.

Our receivers still cannot catch the ball and I don't understand why. We fired the old WR coach..... sort of questioning that decision now as the change doesn't appear to have helped anything.

Ambrose is far too slow to start for any other NFL team. Considering our coaching staff calls him the starter and thinks we are OK at CB, I conclude that they are clueless. Ambrose has been beaten regularly tonight. I've mentioned before that we would be OK against rookie and indecisive QBs, but be hurt by smart and aware QBs, that's what I see tonight - a smart QB exploiting an obvious weakness.

The positives
The defense has been strong against the run. Excepting that one run by Green for a big gain, we stopped them virtually cold. Nicely done against a team that historically (but not tonight) runs a lot.

Excepting Ambrose's consistently getting burned because he is too slow, our D is playing well against the pass. We need a number two corner so bad it's gonna cost us this season at this rate.

Brooks played mistake-free the entire time he was in there. He looked a little rusty and uncomfortable (who wouldn't be with how sorry our protection is?) but he made good decisions and threw well enough. None of his passes had any kind of "laser accuracy" and he often was off-target - but most of those balls were catchable.

Conclusions
I know this is pre-season and many would expect us to not attach too much significance to it. However, I feel I am watching the Saints of last year. One week we lose because of one facet of our game, and the next week we play well there and lose because of an area we played well at the week before. To me, I see no real difference yet - though I hope to.

As an aside; what is up with all the injuries already? Is the "new discipline" of the coaching staff this year costing us starters in PRACTICE now? Seems weird to me how many people we have banged up already and we haven't really played a whole game yet. Is it strength and conditioning? I just can't figure this.