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It would be oversimplifying things to point at the second-quarter hit that left Drew Brees with a banged-up shoulder as the reason for Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

There were too many issues to point to one symptom and jump to a diagnosis. But it’s the easiest, most obvious way to explain how a once-proud New Orleans Saints organization stumbled to a 26-19 defeat against a team that finished with the NFL’s worst record last season.

Brees wasn’t Brees after that hit. To be fair, Brees hasn’t looked like Brees at all during the first two weeks of the season as the offense has been too willing to dink and dunk its way to consecutive losses. But once the playbook opened up Sunday and New Orleans began trying to hit deep shots down the field, the quarterback wound up and found out his arm wasn’t there.

Again, it would be too easy to point to one play and call it the difference in the game. There were a lot of moments that could be pulled from the pile and stretched out for a game of “What if?” The interception Brees threw in the third quarter that took seven points away from New Orleans and put another three on the board for Tampa Bay qualifies as one of those moments.

It was the perfect play call. It was the third time in the game the Saints used their 22 personnel (two running backs and two tight ends). Until this point, through the first two weeks of the season, New Orleans used the personnel grouping four times. Three of the plays were runs, the other a screen.

Tampa Bay was thinking run. The play-action fake opened things up for Brandin Cooks, who took off down the right sideline and appeared headed for a touchdown. Brees wound up and threw a pass that was well short and landed in the arms of Bucs safety Chris Conte.

“It should have been a touchdown,” Brees said.

A lot of things should have been different. It would be misleading to point out that the Saints had a chance to tie the score on the last play of the game and harp on that. The defense deserves a lot of credit ensuring every snap in this game was meaningful. The offense deserves the scorn.

In fact, in a plot twist few foreshadowed during training camp, it has been the offense that has let this team down in consecutive weeks. Last week against Arizona, there were the red-zone issues. This week, despite going 3-for-3 in the red zone, there were issues all over the other 80 yards of the field

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Joker

Barry Hilarious with the Big Easy Beliver is reporting it a torn rotator cuff, out for the remainder of the year, but it's not confirmed.

NOLA54

I suspect Drew has a nagging injury from last year & a new one this year.

WhoDat!656

That was his problem last year; he changed the way he threw because of the oblique injury.

Drew Brees of New Orleans Saints 'developed bad habits' after last year's oblique injury

Rugby Saint II

We have no talent on offense anymore. We let all the talent leave and never replaced it with our crappy drafts.

CharityMike

What talent did we let leave? Pierre Thomas-not on an NFL team, Jimmy-the crying is just starting in Seattle, Kenny Stills- barley on active roster. So who's "all the talent"?

It has more to do with bad O line play, QB play and the main culprit, IMO, play calling.

Danno

I don't have a problem with the guys we let go, it was time.

My only regret is that we didn't bring in or draft a stud WR or two to compliment Cooks. A 24 year old Marques Colston type would have been ideal.

CharityMike

Thank you. This is what I'm saying. I didn't mention PT in a negative. Just a rebuttal to the statement that we let all our weapons go. People who can't see that it was time for them to go are just living in the past. Nothing lasts forever. This isn't the past saints who let players go and they shine elsewhere. If that was the case, then the statement that we let all of our talent go would be accurate.

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RailBoss

I guess we think back to Henderson, Meacham, Moore and Sproles. It seems like Drew could throw water balloons to these guys and they would
catch em. But time moves on and we can't live in the past. However these guys were some memorable players.

The Dude

Here is what nobody gets. We need him to rest NOW and do whatever it takes to get as close to 100% before the last few games. We need him to have trade value for next year if it comes to that. He plays before he is ready and gets injured for the rest of season he will have 0 value. We will have to pay the 20 mil and hope he's good by next season or cut him outright for nothing. Then we would have to find a legit starting QB.

Honestly I think this is the last year of the Payton/Brees era. I don't think Payton will be here next year for many reasons and drew won't be too far behind him. He had 2 more seasons at most.