What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Look, the calls for Sean Payton's head, Drew Brees' head, defense sucks etc. etc. will come out like crazy until the team wins or goes winless for a string of games.

What's most disappointing is to see an offense JAMMED PACKED with talent (ON OFFENSE), so much so that talent that we brought in like Adrian Peterson to mostly sit bench and be used as a "surprise" decoy.

Earlier this week our long snapper we acquired from a trade with the Eagles leaves the team because he has a heart condition.
After that, the front officef goes INSANE scrambling to find a replacement. And they find their man.

Meanwhile, Delvin Breaux is and has been injured all preseason.
So nichol corner is left for Harris to start. But Harris is not quality enough to start anywhere in the NFL, much less play second string.

Where is the front office EMERGENCY to sign more depth at cornerback? Our safety's and corner-backs were caught WAYYYY out of position -sometimes 5 and 10 yards out of the way.

But our front office main concern was long snapper.
Where was the front office freakout over our DB's getting burnt over the past 4 or 5 years?

Herein is part of the problem.

Finally - with all that talent on offense, we haven't put it together well enough to score touchdowns instead of field goals.
All credit due to the vikings, they are a good team. But I don't believe the Vikings rebuilt their offensive line to be unstoppable in one (1) offseason. :(

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

Drew has no blame. SP has had 3 straight 7-9 seasons and this looks like number 4. I am sorry but this is just inexcusable. Too much talent.

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

Why was Crawley deactivated for this game?

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

I've never seen an NFL defense look so lost and out of place. The Vikings offense is nothing special and we gave up 500 yards to them. Their was no pride, no drive from them.

I will say I was surprised by Fleener and I thought Tommy Lee Lewis played well and continued to build off of preseason.

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

I mean our offense is jammed packed with talent. When Adrian Peterson sits bench only as a luxury to be used as a decoy, rarely, then I would say that's a lot of talent.

Despite all this talent, the offense appears over complicated and we simply can't score touchdowns.

So I agree with you. SP is living in la la land and drinking his own Kool-Aide :chug:

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

Parylzed by options. Other teams don't have to worry about that, they have their go-to guys, they have their role players, and that's good enough.

Then you can focus on game planning and scheming, as opposed to getting too pedantic with snap counts and "touches"

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

But as for the thread title...Offensive game plan..Terrible. Play calling..terrible. Harris..GOD AWFUL...I'll think of more but atm, all I got.

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

Mine is defensive playcalling and adjustments. Same ole same ole year after year. Sharper made Allen. Payton could have had much better DC's leading his D other than Allen but no he thought after Allen was run out of Oakland he would help his boy out, well he did, but it hasn't helped the D's play. I give Allen to game 6 before I started his bashing but after tonight having since training camp to prepair his D for this game it's just about impossible not to bash him.

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

I get the offense struggling... We played arguably the dest D in the nfl. The defense and play calls on defense was puzzling... Starting Harris was a mistake, playing so much zone was a mistake, not blitzing was a mistake. I just don't understand why we over complicate everything. Call the game like you did in the preseason and we're alright.

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

I gotta agree with everything everyone has said so far.

I know it's early in the season but right now the story of this season appears to be, again, has the game passed Sean Payton. He's a genius.... just not for us anymore.

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

This has been my issue with our offense in recent years. I've been in numerous discussions (or arguments) about how our offensive rankings are misleading. We chunk the ball around against bad defenses, and that's all good, but we just kick field goals against the better defenses, or we turn the ball over, and then pile on meaningless yards at the end.

When I think of the really elite offenses the Saints used to have, nobody could stop them. Some teams held them down, or created enough turnovers, but we didn't see the offense just disappear altogether. It was VERY rare at least.

And as you pointed out, Halo, this offense isn't void of talent. So who are we supposed to point to? It's got to be the head coach. We know what he is capable of, but he just doesn't call the games the way he used to, and I have no idea why.

Players certainly made some mistakes on offense tonight, and Drew failed to even look at a wide open Michael Thomas in the end zone, but it's mostly on the predictable, unimaginative play calling, in my opinion.

As for the defense, I already gave my thoughts on them in another thread. I'd like to forget about that side of the ball for the rest of the night.

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

This song kept popping into my head during the game.
"Sweet Seasons" or maybe should be renamed......
" Sweet Seasons Of Days From A long Time Ago"

Sometimes you win sometimes you lose
And sometimes the blues just get a hold of you
Just when you though you had made it
All around the block people will talk
But I want to give it all that I've got
I just don't want, I don't want to waste it

Talkin' 'bout sweet seasons on my mind
Sure does appeal to me
You know you we can get there easily
Just like a sailboat a-sailin' on the sea

Re: What's most dissappointing after this loss....
 

Every team we play now has a blueprint on how to beat us on both sides of the ball.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

I remember much blame to Rob Ryan for his overly complicated schemes.
His personnel couldn't process and execute.

Why has Payton not EVER been subjected to that scrutiny?
All we ever hear is that he is an offensive genius.

Gruden commented on the gaudy size of Payton's play sheet.

Perhaps Sean has been reading his press clippings for too long now.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

I still think we'll pull it together on offense.
It's just become a broken record with the offense. So I'm saying it now - offense can be wayyy too complicated and stall in the red zone.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

I think that's the most frustrating thing, the talent just jumps off the page at you, and yet how does this happen?

*whisper* the coach. SEE Chip Kelly

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Look, Drew and toys aren't EVERYTHING. We spent money and picks on D. Now, we have a talented but green D. But, the O-Line is toast now. No depth and now Strief injured. This is gonna get Drew killed. Then we have Zero Chance. You can see our talent for picking QBs since 2006. Ugh.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Agreed the Strief injury sure put the team in a tailspin. What was troubling is that we didn't adjust the O scheme until the 3rd quarter.
Absolutely no depth Strief has great job security.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

My main concern is that I didn't see that same fire on defense that I saw during pre season. If you let the Vikings put up 500 yards of offense you better be very concerned.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Yeah but we're so overloaded with skills players that potential starters on other teams sit bench and wait their turn. Way too many runningbacks.

All that while our o-line is kind of a fragile balance.
And what's worse.... we're the veteran talent to backup those young starts in the defensive backfield???

I blame coach Payton and Mickey Loomis. Our front office and coach may have lost touch with reality.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Can we trade Peterson for some help elsewhere? Nothing against the guy, but he's a luxury we can't afford...

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

We would be well-served to look at what the Vikings are doing on each side of the ball to find answers on what we could do better - but I don't think we will, not one bit. And I fear that is most of what ails us.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

What I see what vikings did on offense is the receivers are coached to make tough catches and I saw Sam Bradford get a pass off with a pass rusher running straight at him in the second quarter. I Saw a lot of that before too with us. That has to do with physicality. Defensive oriented teams run offenses that play like that. I think the defense is tackling well it's just that you don't know where a QB is going to go. There was open instances in different areas in this game. One was open in a screen the saints did not even sniff out. One was open in one corner of the endzone. The vikings threw all kinds of looks. The only way to keep a defense fresh is keeping a game competitive. I don't think the pats receivers play like the way the vikings receivers did, but they have a QB named Brady.

Also, it was an emotional game because of Randy Moss. You're going to go in to that and score two FGs in the first three drives, you're eventually gonna get burned. That's not how you shut a home team up with playmakers.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Our offense is the complete opposite of Minnesota's. They are aggressive, we are not.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

They are normally quite passive, and early in the game they were again. But they (the Vikings) decided to explore the field beyond 10 yards and found that no one was there. They also found that no matter what they did, the Saints were not going to blitz and get Bradford off his rhythm.

It was a passive game plan on both sides of the ball for the Saints. Simple as that. I just don't get why.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Everything they didnt do a dam thing right Imho

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

I don't agree..we CHOSE to run a zone D instead of man to man. It was the game plan. maybe we thought we couldn't match up well one on one. But IMO, if we gonna get burnt, eff it, man coverage and get beat like a man. Every time we play zone it is a disaster. I don't know wtf happened between preseason and now but somebody over thought this.

I do agree with your last paragraph, that you can't keep putting up 3's when they scoring 7's. Loosing football.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Disappointed. Thought the offensive game plan was too weak in the first 3 quarters. Drew is gonna have to chuck it again this season to set up the run. Harris and PJ got owned. Brutal.

Idk how many tackles Klein had but he was everywhere.

Biggest issue offensively was 1 for 5 in the redzone. Lutz looks good but we need TDs.

I hope the Saints can get things going after this week. Tough game. Tough place to play. It's not getting easier next week. I hope they can rebound.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Btw I think Peterson is gonna become a pain in the ass as the season progresses if he doesn't get enough touches. Just my two cents. Kamara is definitely going to be the future. Ingram is used to sharing touches. Peterson throwing fits on the sideline isn't professional and I don't like seeing it. It's annoying.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Passive is definitely the right word. Maddeningly passive.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Saints score 4 touchdown instead of FGs and you wouldn't have a problem. The team looks a little too young on defense still and we do have some problems on the OL and WR.

We shall see what happens in the next 3 weeks.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Was signing AP a mistake?

Ingram is our best back and he barely played.

Payton got way too complicated for himself.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

I understand what you're saying, but we didn't ya know. Plus even still there would have been huge holes again on d. I am just not seeing the kind of improvement needed to be a successful team

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

The most disappointing thing for me? I seriously bought into the hype from preseason, now I feel like a damn fool for expecting the Saints to actually be competitive.

The texans allowed 10 sacks to the Jags this Sunday, that explains why our D looked so good.
Offense didnt play enough in preseason, Brees does not seem comfortable with this receiving cast.
Ingram is our best back and I loved the AP signing, but it looked like he's really not a fit for us.
The DB's turned to look for the ball all preseason, then stopped doing that as soon as this game kicked off.

Seriously PJ Williams is just as bad as Harris is.

Now I feel like a fool because I've spent £150 to watch gamepass and over £300 on the tickets/trip to London for the dolphins game.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Bradford pretty much steered clear of throwing at Lattimore, which is a great indicator of his cover skills. The problem was that Zone D with P.J. and Harris in cover 1. It seemed like all Bradford did was locate them and call the deep route all night.

The secondary OFTEN looked as if they were confused with respect to coverage over-the-top and communication of assignments. How else do you explain Te'o covering Theilen on a crossing route? Thought all of that was presumably worked over in pre-season. LB's were solid, particularly against the run in the middle, but got owned late on the ends.

On offense, you get what you get when you have a QB that EVERYONE knows won't run for a few yards and move the sticks.

I'm stocking up on bourbon. If they can't right this ship fast, it's going to be a long painful season.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Third Down.
We Suck Again This Year.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Let it all out, fellas ... It's the first game. Bill and the Pats looked bad too, maybe worse than we did, in that blowout loss to KC. The Viqueens are better than we thought.

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Re: What's most dissappointing after the loss to the Vikings?
 

Cam freakin' Jordan was better in coverage last night than De'Vante Harris and P.J. Williams... let that sink in.