ChrisXVI

When Payton handed over the play calling reigns to Carmichael in 2011 we became the new Greatest Show on Turf... Carmichael doesn't call plays anymore. Good old Sean's ego.

jegirouard

Yeah, if there is one thing I can credit most of the blame for this loss to, it is offensive play calling. Which really is a shame to say as a Saints fan, considering how spoiled we got pre-bountygate (F U, Roger).

We do all have to realize that the Arizona defense is very good, especially their secondary... But, even after I tell myself this I still can't help looking back to Sunday and wanting much more out of our offense, particularly in terms of creativity.

I really can't place blame on any one player (apart from Colston, but I don't want to get into that now), everyone seemed to be doing their respective jobs on offense. The Offensive line looked solid in pass protection, much better than what I can remember last season. Our RBs were spry and I feel took advantage of every opportunity the Cardinals gave them. Drew looked comfortable and confident at the line of scrimmage, which was really good to see after some of his panicky play in the pocket last year. It seems to me that this offense should have been given the opportunity to be aggressive, but instead we got vanilla ****.

All of this wouldn't concern me so much if it weren't for Sean Payton's demeanor on the sideline. Rob Ryan takes a lot of heat (and rightfully so at times), but I don't want to see our head coach and defensive head coach butting heads on gameday! Particularly when Sean needed to be doing some introspective thinking and figuring out why our offense couldn't take the lead in a football game, given countless opportunities! We kicked four field goals in this game, all under 45 yards, so we were close to touchdowns... convert two of those field goals into touchdowns and we are probably looking at a different ball game. I'm all for the Head coach of a football team holding each of his staff and players accountable, heck, that's the job. But Sean needs to accept the Lion's share of blame for this loss, because he has lost his creative and ballsy edge that won us our one and only World Championship.

That said, I still believe we have going to light up the dome next week in our home opener (or at least I hope to, cough cough sean).

blackangold

I agree on the predictable play calling, but in no way is a Spiller or Sproles coming out the same as Ingram. If Spiller played we would have 2 TDs from him against AZ; one when Ingram never looked for the ball and was wide open on the wheel route and the other on the wheel route he caught but was tackled at the 15, Spiller takes that to the house.