Originally Posted by jeanpierre (Post 842273)

https://twitter.com/SaintsNOW/status...81730244038656

Usually in football, defense develops ahead of offense early in the season; so I'll be curious about the following...

First, how our new Center takes charge of the offensive line, how the other vets respond, and that unit's chemistry...

Second, could be some great competition drama between Bridgewater and Get-some Taysom Hill at the Backup QB position...

Third, if all in the secondary are healthy, we'll finally get to see a projected secondary with P-Rob, who looked good early last season...

Fourth, we'll get to see the results of the maturation from rookie to vet of Tre'quan, Kirkwood, Arnold, and Griffin...

Fifth, curious to see how much the other kid learning a new position, Nate Wozniak has developed from TE to OT...

While I'm looking forward to PreSeason, more importantly, Football, the Draft is nearly upon us...

Originally Posted by ChrisXVI (Post 842333)

Seeing rumors that our first game of the season will be the 2nd game of the MNF doubleheader @ the Rams.

I’d be pretty pi$$ed if that’s true. That game won’t start until around 9:30 our time.

Originally Posted by jeanpierre (Post 842500)

Originally Posted by CHA_CHING (Post 842582)

Since 2010 after the lock out, we are notorious for starting the season out slow. We usually look sloppy as all hell and drop the first game as a loss as a result of it. The sloppiness tends to cross over into the second game too.

Here's me hoping that our first two games aren't against playoff teams. I do not want to face the Rams early in the season.

Originally Posted by jeanpierre (Post 842596)

Originally Posted by K Major (Post 842597)

Bears on the road, in those elements will be tough. Especially if it's in December (see 2018 Rams game) or January.

Originally Posted by dizzle88 (Post 842598)

We are just an inconsistent team unfortunately.

2018 offense literally ran out of gas. After the Dallas game, the offense was never the same.

Whilst our D only got better, the offense just became more and more stagnant. I liked Ingram but he did what he does in big time games - he disappeared for the 2nd year in a row.

Teams dared us to beat them whilst they focused on Kamara and Thomas, which we couldn't do.

Like it or not - regardless of the non PI call, the offense had a ton of opportunities to put the game away and we stalled on multiple consecutive drives.

Originally Posted by st thomas (Post 842583)

Seems to me that coming from behind is our forte the Minnesota miracle killed another Super Bowl but we were at our best in that season . Dam we struggled to win playoff with eagles and the of coarse the rams could not but them away

Originally Posted by CHA_CHING (Post 842612)

I don't think last year was our best year. They were not the same team after the Dallas game in week 11. Something went horribly wrong for the offense and they never got their mojo working again. We peaked in November and came crashing down hard.



Sometime this summer, I am going to go back and re-watch every game of the season and break it down. The final month stretch is what I'm most interested in analyzing, as I want to try and figure out what exactly went wrong.



If there is one season I feel bitter about, it's the 2012 season. A strange choice, but there is a reason. We still averaged 28 points a game, which in 2012 was great numbers for an offense before recent scoring inflation. Brees had one of his best years despite having a higher INT percentage and without Sean Payton's guiding hand.



2012 truly felt like we were being punished by divine powers at hand making sure to screw us AND we had to deal with what would become (at the time) one of the most statistical worst defenses in NFL history. The worst game that year was the Chiefs game we blew the big lead and the replacement refs were giving us the most head-scratching penalties and ignoring the blatant holding that led to the huge run play on us that sparked their comeback. I can't remember and am too lazy to look it up right now, but I believe K.C. went 2-14 that year and their win against us was their most controversial, but prevented them from a winless season early on.



Other bad memories of 2012 -



Redskins - The RGIII game, season opener at home and we get embarrassed. There was a lot of bad calls in this game, but we got absolutely torched on defense. This was the first game to tell us that the floor was falling out on the defense and yet it was a master performance by Brees to rally a comeback and end the day with giant stats. Beyond all this, we knew the die had been cast and we were the NFL's most hated team. RGIII's big day was celebrated for that reason.



Packers - Brees outplayed Rodgers and we even got a call to help us at the end of the game, only for Hartley to miss the field goal. This was also a 10+ point comeback. This is the loss that stung the most for me, cause Brees went into Lambeau and showed the "best quarterback in the NFL" who's the damn boss.



Broncos - All I remember from this game was that our offense did nothing and Peyton Manning spent the entire day picking on the weakest links in our secondary (one of them was Patrick Robinson). I could not stomach this game, cause leading up to it, all you heard about was Bountygate and here was one of the NFL's best QBs just destroying our bad defense at the joy of the whole nation.



Falcons - Brees' TD streak ends after a TD is called back and this is the game he had 5 INTs in.



Giants - Going into this game, we were riding a streak of humiliating the Giants with blowout losses. They seemed to be motivated to stick it to us that day by not only beating us down, but by also running the score up like we were accused of doing to them in 2009 and 2011 It was a shoot out early but became an ugly loss.

Originally Posted by dizzle88 (Post 842598)

We are just an inconsistent team unfortunately.

2018 offense literally ran out of gas. After the Dallas game, the offense was never the same.

Whilst our D only got better, the offense just became more and more stagnant. I liked Ingram but he did what he does in big time games - he disappeared for the 2nd year in a row.

Teams dared us to beat them whilst they focused on Kamara and Thomas, which we couldn't do.

Like it or not - regardless of the non PI call, the offense had a ton of opportunities to put the game away and we stalled on multiple consecutive drives.

Originally Posted by st thomas (Post 842615)

Nice analogy . Something went wrong was it the falcons game when drew gave his body up to blow up the pick off play that was a clear interference penalty. His arm went to pots after that I believe he thru the weak int against the cowboys that was so suspect. Just saying playing with cracked ribs possibly?

Originally Posted by CHA_CHING (Post 842620)

Good point here about Brees' struggles at the end of 2012.



I suspected he may have been injured.



INT aside, that Dallas shoot out was one of my favorite games. That was an exciting day with my wife and her brother. Neither of them are Saints fans since they are both from the mid west and since we were out of playoff contention, the three of us just wanted to watch an entertaining game and enjoy our sunday together.

Originally Posted by st thomas (Post 842651)

Yes Cha Ching. I remember the 11 season which I believe was the best team ever and Greg Williams defense went south against San Fran but I were yakking about last season when brees just looked bad against Dallas right after Atlanta game in which he got hammered on the pick off trying to make tackle. And I believe and still do the the 2018 team was better over all than the 2011 squad.

Originally Posted by ChrisXVI (Post 842685)

This appears to be it:

2019 Regular Season Schedule
Week 1 (9/9): Houston Texans, 6:10 p.m., ESPN
Week 2 (9/15): at Los Angeles Rams, 3:25 p.m., FOX
Week 3 (9/22): at Seattle Seahawks, 3:25 p.m.
Week 4 (9/29): Dallas Cowboys, 7:20 p.m., NBC
Week 5 (10/6): Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 12 p.m.
Week 6 (10/13): at Jacksonville Jaguars, 12 p.m.
Week 7 (10/20): at Chicago Bears, 3:25 p.m.
Week 8 (10/27): Arizona Cardinals, 12 p.m.
Week 9 (11/3): BYE WEEK
Week 10 (11/10): Atlanta Falcons, 12 p.m.
Week 11 (11/17): at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 12 p.m.
Week 12 (11/24): Carolina Panthers, 12 p.m.
Week 13 (11/28): at Atlanta Falcons (Thanksgiving), 7:20 p.m.
Week 14 (12/8): San Francisco 49ers, 12 p.m.
Week 15 (12/16): Indianapolis Colts (Monday Night Football), 7:15 p.m., ESPN
Week 16 (12/22): at Tennessee Titans, 12 p.m.
Week 17 (12/29): at Carolina Panthers, 12 p.m.

Originally Posted by st thomas (Post 842687)

Pay backs a mu$$dda freaker with goodell asre hole u don’t think he could have gave us 3 home games after a half month on the west coast

Originally Posted by ChrisXVI (Post 842689)

I think the schedule is ok. Those west coast games aren’t at 12 which helps tremendously.