Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Defense was dismal
It’s hard to overstate how bad the Saints defense was Sunday. Fitzpatrick torched the group for 417 yards and four touchdowns, finishing with a 156.2 passer rating. Fitzpatrick also ran nine times for 36 yards and scored, and his 12-yard run late in the fourth quarter converted a third down and effectively ended the game.
The pass rush was pretty much non-existent for the Saints. The secondary allowed too many long completions. The linebackers let too many run plays reach the secondary.
Sunday’s game was reminiscent of the season opener in Minnesota last year as the Saints defense allowed big play after big play.
With a performance as bad as Sunday’s, the Saints coaches and players deserve equal blame. The defense looked totally unprepared, and the players made repeated physical and mental errors.
Even cornerback Marshon Lattimore, the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year, had a rough day. As Mike Evans created long plays, Lattimore looked worse Sunday than in any game last year. On the other side, DeSean Jackson burned Saints cornerback Ken Crawley multiple times, too.

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Brees is still the man.

So is Kamara.

But Leon, can't do it all.

The D let the rest of the team down.

Need more contribution from the TEs and WRs (other than MT)... and other RBs. Thank you, Mark Ingram.

Peat not playing affected us.

AWOL were the DLine, LBers, and DBs. Never seen Lattimore look this bad. Hopefully not a sophomore jinx hangover.


Move on and forget this game. Hopefully we can regroup like we did last year.

:bng:

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Brown's gonna smoke us in our own home.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

What defense?

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

I’m so sorry Drew. 439 yards, 3 TD’s, 0 INT’s... And a loss. It’s this crap right here that causes Brees to not get the respect he deserves. First game of the season, at home, against a team everyone expected to fire their head coach by the halfway point of the season and we utterly embarrass ourselves.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Sean Payton football.

5 years of losing the opener.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Will the Bucs cut Jameis Winston... and go shopping for crab legs right now?

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Bahahahaha! You're such a downer Diz. Lmao!

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Observations;

Too many players not playing their original position - All of them are Linebackers

Marcus Williams looks scared to tackle, seriously that long screen pass that got called back, he just ran alongside their receiver for 30 yards.

Thomas was great, but still needs to hold the ball properly, the fumble was a killer.

Kamara is our offense now.

No D line pressure.

Marcus Davenport had a great hit and got flagged for it, I'm utterly confused.

We don't have a a first round pick next year and SP mortgaged our draft on this year's success.

Tre'Quan was invisible.

Crawley and Lattimore were awful, Lattimore looked slow and Crawley couldn't turn his head.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Is Dennis Allen and upgrade over Rex Ryan?

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

It was SO bad, maybe it can be a throwaway.

This.

Was.

A.

Magnanimous.

Failure.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Ingram would not have mattered this game with the way Fitzmagic was torching the defense.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

You aren’t going to win many games giving up 48 points AT HOME. All our starters were in. Can’t sugar coat this.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

If the offense has zero turnovers, do we still lose this game?

The offense gave them a TD and the second turnover directly led to another.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

I wouldn’t laugh. The Browns tied with Steelers today and looked a hell of a lot better than we did. At this point our best bet is to hope the rest of our division sucks and we win the division at 8-8. I don’t see us winning 8 games. 48 points is telling. Double ****ty because it was a division rival.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

WUT?


0-2
After that, sky’s the limit?

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

I observe that we suck

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Cutting our back up running backs & replacing with Gillisee was stupid. Gillisee haven't touched a ball in preseason,,plus performed in 2 games all of last season, which wasn't impressive.

That fumble hurt almost as much as the poor defense. The defensive line being pushed back, Davis missing tackles and the corners being beat like a drum, make it hard to blame defensive coordinators

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

I don’t get Marshon Lattimore. People pointed out that he didn’t quite look the same in training camp... Then he didn’t look quite right in preseason. A lot of excuses were made though and we went about our business. Now the season starts and he’s looking bad. It’s fair to wonder if he’s been getting lazy.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

B-I-N-G-O. Hype goes to folks' head and he's still learning how to be a pro. This should be some motivation. He's gonna hear trash talking all yr now...gotta shut them up now by playing better.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Yep. This game was hilariously horrible. As in, we are officially off the "Super Bowl" contenders list. For now at least.

So wtf aren't we playing LBs where they should be? Seriously? Defense was a laughingstock. ****, even Cam Jordan was a non-factor.

Talk about disturbing.

Maybe this was the wakeup call the team needed.

Maybe our defense is that horrible....

Tune in next week to find out.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Agreed. Like I said in chat, Kamara stowed his trophy in the closet and worked his butt off.

What did Lat do? Hang out in clubs with groupies? Sure didnt work on his craft.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Giving up those numbers to Fitzpatrick in our house ... some brave soul out there is really happy, probably made a million in daily fantasy.

BTW I was going to listen to the game on Sirius since our family has a paid subscription but none of the NFL games seemed to be broadcast today. Did NFL drop the Sirius radio broadcasts? Ugh, well this one would have been a frustrating one anyway.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Everyone got lazy on D, including Lattimore. Evans is a damn good WR & is living up to his draft selection. The NFL has a way of humbling you. Tampa as a team embarrassed us.

Expect more of the same next week if not careful. Jarvis Landry, Josh Gordon are just as good at the position.

Gotta bring your A game every week.

This was one of the worst defensive performances I've ever seen from a NO defense ... even going back to the Spags era.

Lots of blame to go around. Clean it up on D.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

I said that and got flamed.

Maybe they should practice more on fundamentals than end zone celebrities

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

If I see 1 end zone/ group celebration from this D in the next 4 games I’ll lose it. These guys should be ashamed to show there faces after drinking the koolaid all off season.

They are in fact... the worst D in the league after week 1

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Yes. We do. Winning offenses don't make those mistakes.

But, this one is on this pathetic D.

How many more years will we have to say that??????

I mean Jesus. Seriously??

The pathetic excuses for a defense that Sean Payton has fielded each year since 2009 has wasted Drew Brees' talent. It is a crying shame.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Yep you were spot on. I admit that I brushed it off as “It’s training camp/preseason so of course he’s not going all out.” I just pray this lights a fire under him.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

I feel so bad for Brees, the effort and time he puts in to perfecting his craft and we can't even muster up a decent D to help him. Last year's seemed good and then failed with 9 seconds to go.

Seriously, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 the D has been bottom or near bottom.

How much longer will we waste this guys career?

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

What an absolute kick in the nards. I mean, just unreal. Where was the blitz????? Why were we in zone the ENTIRE game. Where was the adjustment after half? We just came back doing the exact same thing as the first half. Dennis Allen had his head up his a$$ today. I kept waiting to see Payton yelling at him but no. Nobody on coaching staff looked like they upset at any point in the game. What an embarrassment.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

I don’t know if I’m reading too much into this, but I think Arthur Maulet took a serious shot at someone here...

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

He's Payton's BFF, that's the only reason he got another job after stinking it up in Oakland.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Lattimore has disappointed me greatly. Mike Evans is elite, but he shouldn’t be running away from him like that. I don’t want to hear **** from Crawley. He was getting flat out burned over and over again. This was just bad. Ryan Fitzpatrick scrambling all on us...it makes no sense.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Preach, brother!

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Also near the end, 3rd and 11 - All LB's and corners stood at the first down marker, 8 in coverage and Fits runs for 13 yards......just how.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Oh yeah, forgot about this..Crawley your are GARBAGE!!!! Nothing but a penalty waiting to happen because he gets beat constantly and even when he dont, he figures out a way to get a penalty.

Also, you would think after Fitz ran 3 times anywhere he wanted to, we would put a spy on him. But no, coaches didn't adjust for anything in the game.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

"Marcus Davenport had a great hit and got flagged for it, I'm utterly confused"

Yeah, his only stat of the game and we gave up 2 no.1 draft picks??????

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

While I will say the defense was absolutely awful today, I will also say that I've never seen Fitzpatrick play the QB position as well as he did today. It looked like it could hit a dime if it was thrown in the air with the football. Every pass he threw was perfect. We needed to get pressure on him, the pressure was nonexistent.

Re: Observations from the Saints first game loss to Tampa Bay
 

Funny I was watching the Browns game next to the Saints games and seeing basically the same plays and situation and Browns are not flagged and the Saints were...