SaintsBro

I get that. I get exactly what you're feeling. But here's the thing: last year, in the early part of the preseason, under Spagnowedon't, we DID that kind of stuff on defense. We had an interception or two. We had a sack in the end zone, or a safety, we even solved Arizona's QB controversy for them, by knocking out one of their QB's! We sacked Tom Brady for a fumble. The Patriots never even made it across the 50 with their starters. If there was such a thing as a to-do checklist -- Safety, sack, interception, fumble, strip, etc. etc. -- last year's defense did a little bit of EVERYTHING you could ask a defense to do, early in the preseason games.

I thought at the time, hey, this looks pretty good, we might actually be able to beat these suspensions and the missing coaches, the defense could actually be OK. Turns out I was WRONG. I was basing it too much on "big plays" by the defense.

So you can't judge it completely like that. The "3rd and 7 stop for just four yards" -- they definitely had a couple of those against the Texans... I'm too lazy to go back and look it up but they made some stops and held the Texans to some looong field goals out there, instead of what would have probably been easy waltz-in 7-point touchdown drives last year, where they score and the camera cuts to that "oh %$^%$" grimace from Brees on the sidelines.

Thing about the Texans game is, that was a top 10 last year, top 5 this year offense that the Saints were playing against. That was exactly what a preseason game between two playoff teams is supposed to look like. It was a slugfest! It was brutal! And we were actually WINNING the battles and the scoreboard when the starters all came out.