RailBoss

Besides some of the questionable calls the Lions kept pressure on Brees all day. Every NFL team knows that's how you neutralize our Offense. The Lions played physical football and we tend to cave to that type of play. Brees got beat up pretty bad in this game and it threw off our attack.
On the flip side we gave Stafford all day long to pick us apart.

dizzle88

The "secret" to defending our offense

Play cover two to negate deep passes
Occasionally send 5 men on the blitz
Make Brees throw to Fleener as its a guaranteed drop
Even though its working, Payton will refuse to run the ball

Saints will hurt themselves after that

SaintsBro

Also don't forget the classic golden oldie, get the linemen in his face and get their hands up -- batted balls, tipped balls, short QB, can't see over them if 300 lb guys are in his grill all day with arms high in the air.

Euphoria

I think people were gettin all hyped up after the Rams game which is a very misleading game. We should have beat them the way we did because we matched up well against them. This past week we were a 5-6 team going up against a 7-4 team and it showed.

jonnyrotten

..... hyped up since preseason

AlaskaSaints

Not hard to get to the location of a static QB who will go down with the pocket. I'd personally like to see Drew grow some legs and become more dynamic with respect to escaping the sack. Defenses don't even need to contain the ends, he's not escaping out of either side.

I quoted you in agreement, Railboss, not argument. Stafford escapes and that is the difference-maker.

dizzle88

Brees' definining trait - his accuracy - goes out the window when he starts forcing passes to Cooks because he complained.

I agree with Alaska, I'd like to see a QB with some mobility, Brees feet are good in the pocket but he can't escape pressure like others can.

Trade for Garrapollo, he has some wheels outside the pocket.

WillSaints81

And THAT is what separates Brees from the best.

Rugby Saint II

The record alone should be some kind of indicator. Their young defense is good and Stafford is very good as well. They are a play off team. We are not. There are multiple reasons for that.

No depth due to poor drafting. We are a team built with low round picks.
We are trending up however with new faces inside the organization making an impact. Ireland has proven that he's the real deal and the shake up a couple of years back is starting to show dividends.

No depth due to poor decisions to trade up for an above average but not great player. Ingram and Cooks are good but are they worthy of two high draft picks? I don't think so. I don't mind packaging low picks to move up for a player like Davison or Onyamata. What I hate is throwing in a third rounder for example because there are numerous starters to be found in the third every year. Whether it's an O-lineman or another less sexy pick.

Poor coaching has hurt this team consistently since we won the Super bowl. Any good candidates were poached and left. We are getting a couple of our young coaches back who failed in another organization but remain competitive and in our system The new O-line coach, wide receivers coach have helped the offense. Dennis Allen and Glenn have taken our young defense to a new performance to a new level.


Poor special teams play has lost at least three games this year.(back to coaching I guess) I don't think Sean will replace his college room mate McMahon until after the season. I hope he has his college resume out already. His replacement may already be on board. We brought in another special teams assistant coach recently. Whoever we get doesn't matter to me as long as they are fundamentally sound and can implement their system. Whoever is up next needs to be able to work with our young talented kicker and fix his technique. Lutz has talent and the Baltimore coach said his kicking improved with a real kicking coach. He's only been to one kicking camp in college I believe.

Poor clock management....'nuff said.

Sean Payton has lost his emotional edge. He's not arrogant and full of himself which gives him that gamblers mentality. Godhell won. More on that later. Benson needs someone to manage the organization and let Loomis only make decisions in regards to the cap management and have no influence over player acquisitions. Sean Payton needs the reigns taken away from him and let him refocus on our offense while he gets reenergized and creative again.

Dome field advantage is mostly gone. Not scoring early and getting the Dome field advantage rocking with false starts against visiting teams while letting the opposition score first has hurt us. It is not that difficult to quieten the Dome. Simply score first or cause the Saints to punt. This team matches the Dome intensity. We just haven't given them much to cheer about outside of the Rams whooping.

We are a young team, which it's hard to win with people who are lost on the field because they don't understand the scheme. On the bright side we are a young developing team with a defense that is forcing field goals rather than allowing TD's.

Injuries. And injuries early on cost us a possible strong start to the season. Did I mention that injuries have devastated us? We have played better with Rankins, Breaux and Ellerbe back in the line up and the defense is trending up. Not only that it looks like next years roster should be laden with gems that are currently on IR.(back to the depth issue)

We never recovered from the witch hunt called bounty gate. Godhell wanted to hurt this team and he did. But with the concussion issues looming he knew as a lawyer to redirect attention elsewhere. Enter the New Orleans small market team with a cocky coach that just beat the beloved Payton Manning.

RailBoss

Drew is 37 soon to be 38 in January not a Spring Chicken anymore.
He's not running anywhere and the DC's all know it. He relies on his
arm strength and passing accuracy at this point in time. Hard to do
when he is in the clutches of big angry players who want to rip his
head off who blow by our blockers.
His height is listed at 6′ 0″ but I always wonder if that's with lifts in his shoes.