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Sean Payton stated the obvious when he walked to the podium for his post-game press conference.

"The first thing that stands out in a game like that is the four turnovers," the Saints head coach said after the Saints' 34-22 loss to the New England Patriots in the exhibition opener for both teams. "That's disappointing."

The Saints committed turnovers on two of their first four plays. Not how you want to start a game or the preseason.

Twenty-two of the Patriots' 34 points came as the result of Saints turnovers. Two of the Patriots' takeaways were returned for touchdowns.

In all, the Saints threw two interceptions and lost two of their four fumbles. Second-year quarterback Garrett Grayson threw a pick-6 to Jamie Collins on his first pass attempt.



I guarantee you the four turnovers will be the first item on Payton's agenda when he addresses his team after film study on Friday.

It's going to be an interesting week of work at training camp in West Virginia.

Other observations from the Saints' preseason opener against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium:

--Payton was clearly perturbed after the game but I think this will be a case where the loss wasn't as bad as the final score might indicate. I actually thought the Saints' regulars outplayed the Patriots, especially in the first quarter. They at least held their own. Something tells me Payton is going to feel better about his team's overall performance upon second look.

-- The turnovers weren't the only problems for the Saints. After going penalty-free in the first quarter, they hemorrhaged yellow flags in the final three quarters. They finished with nine infractions for 93 yards. Many of the miscues nullified big gains and first-down conversions.

-- Mike Thomas is the real deal. The Saints are clearly trying to temper the hype around the second-round draft pick out of Ohio State. By design, he almost sounds robotic in his answers to reporter's questions. Regardless, Thomas looks like a burgeoning star. His play on the field speaks for itself.

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dizzle88

The one positive I take from this;

The defense did not give up 34 points, the offense gave up 14 of them directly and another 14 from 2 takeaways that were later turned into TD's.

Danno

Agreed.

I'd give the defense a B+ (Run defense got sloppy), and give the offense a C-.

But I'm not really worried about our offense, that played without Drew Brees for all but 1 series.

Our defense is loaded with a lot of very young talent. I haven't been this excited about our Defense in a very long time.

st thomas

tommy lee lewis is a wes welker in the making , how we keep him on this team is the problem. 6 receivers? where does lasco fit in? we need that guy.that pass on graysons first snap was bad, as bad as the play called. we have done that before in joint practices with pats, they saw it they doubled on it and got a bad throw from garret and a tip drill from brandon coleman. i bet next week payton does it again to make sure they get it right.

|Mitch|

Put Brees behind center for more than three plays and we have a beast of an offense; like always...

WillSaints81

I don't think even Brees helps the oline play all that much. The offense is in trouble I think if they can't protect.

Danno

The O-line is no worse than last year. In fact we're probably better and deeper.

Our problems weren't O-line... They were having one of the worst defenses in NFL history for 3 years straight.

Why is anyone worried about our offense being good? Its a freaking given that we'll be a top 5 unit.

Do that many people honestly don't see what the problem was?

I'm shaking my damn head at that level of stupidity.

saintfan

We had just made some o-line changes when McCown started not sucking. I'm also hard on the o-line. I can be counted on to point it out when they suck. I didn't think they sucked as a whole. Peat kinda sucked tho.

SaintFanInATLHELL

I truly wish I could like this twice.

As I posted before, "It's like worrying about a hangnail on a leg that's been blown off at the knee."

SFIAH

The Dude

Maybe even more so with the way Lewis and Thomas are emerging. Also think Cooks is going to have a ball out year.