WhoDat

Well, the 2004 season started the same way that the 2003 season started - total domination by the Seahawks. I'm upset, as I know a lot of you are, but let's not start with too much doom and gloom. Let's think about what we saw.

I can tell you this - the defense IS better. They played very well in the first half. Sure, Seattle overpowered them and the stats will not look good. However, it's hard when your offense keeps putting you on the field with your back against the wall when you're playing one of the best offenses in the league. Our defense is not great, but they are already better and will improve.

The run defense was noticably improved in the first half, though it got real ugly in the second. I'm going to be optimistic and hope that was simply a fatigue factor. The secondary is just what I feared it would be - flat terrible. Bellamy is probably the biggest impact player in our defensive backfield. That's scary.

On offense.... I'm simply shocked and disgusted. The lack of production on offense is enough to make me physically sick. Two or three more games liek that and no lie, I will be in favor of dumping the coaching staff mid-year. That was flat ridiculous.

My take: Deuce is DEFINITELY feeling the effects of not having a stud blocking FB in front of him. Seattle's run D is BAD and they shut him down. This looks like just what I feared - the biggest loss of the offseason was at FB - no question.

AB was lucky not to have 3 or 4 INTs. He's the same old AB. He makes incredible plays at times, looks efficient and decisivie, then he comes back with boneheaded throws, happy feet, etc. UUUGGGHHHH!!! He frustrates the hell out of me! The guy should be a Pro Bowler, but if he keeps this up he'll finish the season same way as he did the last three - a toilet bowler.

Our TEs seems really over hyped to me. Boo was a non-factor and though Conwell made some big plays he also made some major mistakes. Joe Horn truly has lost a step, which takes a whole lot for me to say and saddens me greatly. The rest of our WRs simply aren't as good as billed. This team is 90% hype and 10% substance.

Finally, McCarthy's play calling was flat horrid. The entire coaching staff is just bad. I cannot believe I have to go through this for another 16 weeks.

Look, it's only one game and anything can happen. I was real happy to see the D play better. 21 poitns to the Seahawks is pretty damn good. But if the offense doesn't seriously step it up, this team will have a hard time getting to 8-8. That said, if the O can get their heads out of their a$$es and play good ball, this team should be dangerous.

Bottom line - I'm not surprised by the outcome today, I am pleasantly surprised by the D, and disgusted by the O.

DARKFATHER504

At times our defense was looking as if it was going to be better during the preseason so when they came out the 1st half like they did it didn’t surprise me. If the OFF-ense would have been on their game we most likely would have saw a complete game from the defense but was to tired to play run defense when our OFF-ense was truly off.

We are really going to have to make people respect our passing because Deuce always had and SUV leading the way and at the way our game planning is Deuce will take a beating. Until he getts used of the 3 wide out/2 tight end sets etc - he will hammered

NO excuse for Brooks. Just like kids at some point he needs to be held accountable – point blank – BOTTOM LINE

McCarthy –vs- Carl Smith = you pick’em

JKool

Coaching and Play Calling are the biggest problems on O.

We all know that Brooks has a bit of trouble on the short routes, but with all the speed we have a WR, I say turn them loose! How many deep balls did with throw today - very few!!! Let Brooks air it out on timing routes and let the WRs go be accountable. Sure the long ball is low percentage, but with a speed ball chucker and WR\'s with stone hands is the percentage that much lower - really???

We do have a FB, how about we use him? It is not like you need a complete stud to chuck a LB or cap off a D Lineman. Just put someone back there for crying out loud. Two TE sets are luxury sets - you use these later in the game, not at the beginning when the D is still fresh (especially when you have a big back who is easy to see behind the line).

Play calling. Pure and simple.

"... I was beating them with my eyes the whole game..." - Aaron Brooks

JKool

As for improvement on Defense. It is hard to say given how they gave out in the end (though I like Gator\'s theory on this).

I will say this though: C. Watson - 8 tackles and 3 assists. The boy can fly. I like him.

And this: Our secondary - WTF mate, WTF. Lets get a friggin\' corner! (Though, I am the first to say that I\'m sad that Ambrose is not what he once was, not even close. I kept hoping, but I\'m now convinced he\'s done. And Freddie, with all his heart and desire can\'t make himself taller or faster.)

"... I was beating them with my eyes the whole game..." - Aaron Brooks

Halo

I think what\'s upsetting is we looked the same as far as attitude. Which means we\'re gonna win some games, and lose some others, one week we\'re gonna look great, others we\'ll look like we did this week... which will lead to an 8 and 8 season at best. That\'s what hurts the worst, we\'ve seen this movie before. :casstet:

FrenzyFan

Well, it\'s been a few hours. To calm down, I watched some old sitcoms I have on DvD (love the old ones), took a few valium, sang some spirituals.... you know the drill. I feel a little better now.

I think our D is much improved, but we still have problems too big to ignore on that side of the ball. I suspect the \'hawks could have scored a ton more points, but they didn\'t need to so they ground it out for half the game. I think our secondary is so weak that we will have trouble holding the lead no matter when we have it. We are very weak against the pass because our corners cannot press as they are too slow. That means we\'ll give up the underneath pass all day. Both our corners fall into this category - no matter how much fire FT has in the tank.

We can stop the run, except when the defense loses heart. I know you\'re not supposed to lose heart in pro-ball, but when the offense gives away every opportunity you hand to it - hey, those guys on the D are only human. We have some great pass-rushing DEs but they don\'t play the run very well. Still they manage to make plays outta pure athleticism and speed. Good enough for me, assuming we can get the offense going.

Our offense is a disaster so far. Our WRs are still not running good routes, and they seem to have trouble with the play-book (not sure how because I know what we are running, just watching) - thus the time outs because half the group is lined up wrong.

Our TEs, though supposedly fast, big and talented can\'t seem to put themselves in position to catch balls - even during scramble situations when they SHOULD be the best targets.

Our O-Line is marginal, at least by today\'s performance. The pass protection was better than the run-blocking, I will say. Brooks was pressures a bit, but not to an extent I would call excessive for the NFL. What wasn\'t there was the running lanes, like those I saw Seattle open for Alexander and I simply will not accept that Seattles defensive front is better than ours - yet theirs were always in Deuce\'s face.

Deuce is a warrior. He took a bad hit and lost the ball, that\'s not the type of play you see in a supposed pro-bowler. In my opinion, he was abused all game by the sorry play-calling. How many times does this coaching staff have to see the two TE set fail before they do something about it? It didn\'t work all pre-season, yet still I watch Deuce try to hammer through bodies all day.

Brooks.... what can I say about Brooks? He still looks like an unfinished product to me. He seems to panic when he is pressured - throwing the ball into bad situations. He doesn\'t seem to have the same \"feel\" for defensive pressure that other top-shelf pro QBs have. He always seems surprised when the hit comes and doesn\'t react well to the blitz. He back-pedals too much and still throws off his back foot. His accuracy is not very good (I rarely saw him hit a receiver in stride, mostly they had to adjust BUT THEY STILL SHOULDA CAUGHT THE BALL) and he still seems to have trouble throwing the touch pass. Maybe it is all rust, but it seems to me that I am watching the same Brooks from his first year as a starter - perhaps slightly more refined but not enough to account for this being his fifth year, and FOURTH AS STARTER. There are some QBs, with seemingly more poise, who are only starting their second season now.

Is the season lost? No, of course not. I believe we have talent - I am just not sure why I should expect that talent to meld into a good team this year when it hasn\'t in the other years when we all said the same things at this time of the year.

\"The AB brand of TP will hurt your O-ring.\" - BlackandBlue

http://www.darrylbercegeay.com/wsmith1.jpg

D_it_up

If every game is like this game, it is going to be a loooooooong season. Here\'s my take on the game:

AB: This guy must\'ve been bought a bicycle for the dislexic as a child as much as he backpeddles. Sure the Hawks were swarming him (partly due to the fact there was a ton of poor pass blocking), but AB still has to be more aware in the pocket. Dropping back 10 yards and having his receivers have to break their routes to come back to him does nothing for bettering your field position. He made SOME good throws (TD pass to Conwell was perfect), but the majority of his throws were behind or too far ahead of the receivers. Now, I\'m not putting all blame on AB here, because there were a lot of hands on the ball. Some of those should\'ve been caught. However, his lack of snaps in the pre-season has shown that he\'s rusty. Hopefully his accuracy will improve as the season progresses.

Deuce: All in favor of dumping this two TE set, say I!!! Deuce got much better runs when he had Karney in the game blocking for him. That guy lived up to his hype from the minute they drafted him. I really like this kid. If they put him in there next week and drop the 2 TE set, look for Deuce to be his old self against the Niners. Because the passing game was horrid, it couldn\'t open up the running game for him. The Hawks could\'ve stopped Barry Sanders with their 8 men in the box today. That\'s how much the passing game effected Deuce. Look for some changes to be made before next week in this department.

WR\'s: Other than Joe Horn, it looked like NO ONE showed up to play. I don\'t necessarily agree with Horn losing a step. 6 catches for over 100 yards is pretty good. It was just easy for Seattle to double cover him while the other receivers were stinking up the place. On one pass thrown to Horn, he was triple covered. Poor pass selection by Brooks? Or was that just not enough confidence in the other receivers on the team. I guess we\'ll have to wait to find this one out.

TE\'s. Conwell made a great TD catch and a couple of other nice catches. Other than that, he stunk. The sad part is that he was STILL a ton better than Boo Williams. That doesn\'t sit too well with me. Those two really need to step it up. If they go back to a 2 Back set, I\'d have to go with Conwell as the man playing TE at this point.

Offensive line. Did absolutely NOTHING to impress me. Couldn\'t open holes. Pass blocking stunk. Too many penalties, and Victoria Riley was being used like a box of Trojans in a porn flick. The one area I thought to be strong looked absolutely atrocious.

Defensive line. Will Smith was schooled all day long. Charles Grant cannot stop the run. The NT\'s are BEASTS, though. I saw Green and Young constantly in the backfield for most of the first half. The only problem was they didn\'t put near enough pressure on Hasslebeck, which is the same old song and dance as last year. When they did get close, they either overran him, or Hasslebeck had enough vision to find the open receiver. Hopefully Howard is back next week. I sure hope the Saints haven\'t started dangling him as trade bait just yet.

Linebackers. Courtney Watson played well for his first NFL start. He was all over the field. He made a couple of rookie mistakes, but it seemed like on his next play, he was right in the mix. I was impressed. Rodgers was there for a couple of plays that made Alexander re-direct, but was fairly non-existent the rest of the time. James Allen actually made me miss Sedrick Hodge. Orlando Ruff played pretty well when Watson sat out that little bit in the end.

Secondary- Obviously went to the Jenna Jameson School of Adult Entertainment, because they really know how to BLOW!!!! Fred Thomas seemed out of position, Ambrose made two good plays early, causing two turnovers, but couldn\'t cover a receiver with a circus tent. The safties weren\'t NEAR as bad as the corners, but Tebucky still hasn\'t completely learned to wrap up for a tackle. Bellamy seemed to pick right up where he left off last year. He played pretty well. Fahkir Brown deflected a pass that was in comparison to a Dikembe Mutombo blocked shot. I\'m surprised he didn\'t wave a finger at the receiver after that one. Does anyone else think that Brown should be starting over Ambrose?

Coaching- That had to be one of the single worst offensive called games I\'ve ever seen in my LIFE. McCarthy couldn\'t make a call with Joe Horn\'s cell phone. Venturi\'s defense was pumped in the beginning, which I really give him a little credit for. Of course it was another 100+ yard rushing performance, but what do you expect when the offense kept you on the field the majority of the game because they flat out stunk?

Special teams: Damn! That\'s all I can say about Michael Lewis. I think we\'ve seen the return of the Beerman. He had two great returns, that either one could\'ve gone to the end zone. I noticed that the blocking on punts was a little shaky. Berger almost had 3 punts blocked. That needs to be worked on. Other than that, they performed pretty well. Possibly the high point of the game for the Saints, and that\'s pretty sad when your special teams outperform your offensive and defense.

My overall grade for the game was a D+: The only reason they don\'t get an F is because the 1st half defense and the special teams. Hopefully a lot of things get corrected this week before the Niner game. It would be pretty embarrassing to lose to those guys.

People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.

spkb25

how the hell does anyone blame this on brooks. he did what he was suppose to. its ridiculouse to listen to anymore. thats just silly. put the blame where i belongs. arron did nothing wrong today. my god what do u want from the kid. except a miracale. this is s teram game!!!!!!!

Danno

And embarrassing. I have my doubts about our next three games versus what were supposed to be easy wins. I don\'t know if this team is capable of an easy win

Disagree completely. How would T-rex have helped sitting on the sidelines. When Karney was in he looked good. Why didn\'t he play more?

I think this team has much more problems than just AB. But I was also quite disappointed.

O-line: Over-rated.
WR: Way over-rated.
RB: Looks weak and slow.
QB: Uninspring
TE: Pro-bowlers? Pathetic
OC: McCarthy is Carl Smith, with less innnovation.

Was that the slowest developing weakest looking reverse you have ever seen? I actually laughed (in disgust) when I saw that.

CheramieIII

It was everyone\'s fault and yes the means Brook\'s too, people do not realize how important leadership is on the field and I just don\'t see Brook\'s doing any of that, directing traffic, making the big play, showing some attitude, I just don\'t see it from anyone.