Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Yes, the opening drive was methodical. Yes they scored a TD on the opening drive. Yes, the defense needs to work on defending against screens and the short passing game. HOWEVER, they didn't allow anything deep down the field which is already a huge improvement over last year. As the article and many of us members have said in preseasons before, the playbook is very vanilla. I'm not going to gauge how our offense and defense look after the first, or any, preseason game. There were a lot of bright spots Friday night. Having said that, the special teams needs to pull their collective heads out of their asses, because there is no excuse for that.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Not sure many would agree that
I am optimistic. In 2009 I was pointing out what we were not doing well.... That didn't go over well or get much agreement.

What I saw KC do in their opening drive was run plays they knew a basic defense the first run out would have the most trouble with. It had little to do with the game and more to do with a new QB and a new HC giving fans warm fuzzies. They knew adjustments wouldn't be made till we were off the field. They also knew what we were missing on D and capitalized.
Smith's self confidence was probably as high as Reed's confidence and cholesterol. There were no passes thrown further than 7 yards past the line of scrimmage, Smiths yards per completion are because of YAC.

I am in no way saying we looked good on their opening drive, I am saying that the first 14 plays tell a different story than the rest of the game.

Remember what RGIII did to us last year? I expected Charles to have at least one good run.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Defense adjusted or was it Chase Daniel? I'm not buying our first string Def at all at this point. We need young guys to step up.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Adjusted! Chase came out trying those same dump-offs across the middle just like Smith used. That's when the defense started getting consistent pressure and shut that down...

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

It was a PRE-season game. I didn't get to watch it until Sunday, and after reading stuff on the web (here and elsewhere) I was expecting the worst.

So I was surprised to see the team do what I consider to be quite well, especially with all things considered, and frankly even without.

And it doesn't really matter anyway. There are no trends. It was the first PRE-SEASON game, and so it was nothing to get excited about whether we won by 70 or lost by 70.

But I thought we did well and I'd say I'll be headed into the season, based on one PRE-SEASON game, as a "Sunshiner" yet again.

:-)

:bng:

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

I think Ryan was getting his feet wet, by game 1 he will have dialed most of the D in and by game 3 we will know just about what we have. I still think the ILB needs to be addressed. The next few games I would like to see our secondary tested time and time again to see what we have there. Practice and the exhibition game do matter but I want get to excited before game 1 when it really matters. I do like our 3 man front, they look solid.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Boy, I couldn't agree less about the evaluation of the D. The whole rating is based on 1 drive. The second drive, their offense did nothing, despite having the punt return give them the ball in excellent field position.

The D got like 6 sacks without tons of blitzes.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Most people judge pre season games on 1st string vs 1st string. After last year, for them to drive 14 plays for a TD is discouraging. That's perfect for the other team. That's what every team wants to do. Alex Smith never goes for the big play. He played his game, and it worked. So maybe we'll get a better look when the defense isn't so vanilla, and we swap out some of the starters for a couple back ups.

But if we go off the year we won it all, we dominated 1st string vs 1st string in the preseason. Offense and defense. So yeah, seeing what the back ups did was nice, but can they do it against people who are a lock to make a 53 man roster?

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Encouraging analysis.

Re: New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs grades PS wk 1
 

Again... That first possession by KC was designed to give them confidence, 0 WR were thrown to... Nothing over 7 yards was thrown....

Smith - His confidence has to be in the dirt.. What happened in SF would have left anyone's dirk in the dirt.

Reed - Same...


Look at what our offense did, tested stills, tested ... Now, Drew could have 7 yard Graham them to death but we would have not learned what Watson, Stills could do.

If you follow after the first sting came in there was no mix and match... Looks like each non veteran player got a full drive.
Watch Kansas City Chiefs vs. New Orleans Saints [08/09/2013] - NFL.com

KC got a feel good moment, did they learn anything about their new QB or HC? Nope, not a friggen thing. Charles/Fassano/McCluster only went with veterans... You also notice they didn't put them back in after we had a chance to adjust after Reed gave a statement to a KC news paper stating that Smith would be in the entire first Qtr...