Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

1. I very seldom complain about the refs but today was a disgrace. Incredibly slanted officiating. The PI on Thomas being a great example compared to the stuff Carolina got away with.

2. I've been in Tedd Ginn's corner but I'm losing my patience with him. He needs to catch those deep ball. It probably should have been a DPI on the long one he dropped but it was in his hands and catchable.

3. Davenport was rather quiet again until it mattered the most. Great sack! And the athleticism to jump over the line and have an impact on the FG was huge. I am certain that affected

4. Christiam McCaffery is giving me a headache and he will probably continue to do so for many years to come. He is a great, dynamic player.

5. Great game by Jared Cook. It seems like he and Brees really are starting to find a connection. It will be important in the latter part of the season. Him leveling that dirty tw** Reid early in the game was a thing of beauty.

6. Brees threw the ball really well today. Looked like he had more zip on it than in some of the previous game. It felt like we threw it down field more than in any previous game of the season.

7. Josh Hill is a great blocker in the running game. He is the type of player that flies under the radar but is really important on a roster.

8. Four sacks but it still felt like we didn't create as much pressure as usual on defence.

9. I'm so glad our kicker is Wil Lutz and not Joey Slye. Poor Joey should get a gameball.

10. The run with Kamara on 4th and 1 was a bad playcall. We hadn't run the ball well in a while at that stage of the game and I believe a short pass would have been a better call.

11. Good average in the running game from both backs. Still feels like we kind of abandoned it in the second half. i don't know how much that has to do with the left side of the line being out.

12. I love watching Ron Rivera lose games. I hate that smug b******.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Well said ! :bng:

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Nick Easton with another great outing at LG. Thank God for this guy. Can we overcome Omameh or anybody else at LT in the long run if Armstead’s out?

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Should have been playing more earlier. Maybe there is a reason Peat got injured.

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Agreed on all points

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They should have called for Drew to dive over or Murray to run it on that 4th down play. Cook is coming along well. We still need another receiver. Maybe with Kirkwood coming back, he can surprise us. Or we can bring back Dez Bryant.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

I would like to see Smith on those deep balls instead of Ginn. They are about as fast now at this stage of Ginn's career and I'd like to see him get a shot at it instead.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Kicker meant everything.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Ginn dropped Brees best pass of the day, I think that would have essentially put the game away. Ginn needs to be benched, dude will cost us a game soon.

PJ Williams, same as above, has one good outing and then gets beat all game.

Refs were inexcusable - worst I've seen in a long time. Thomas got called for OPI for hand battling, Greg Olsen literally threw P-rob and nothing called.

Defense has to get better, those long drives they allowed were unreal at times and letting McCaffrey out of the backfield uncovered was ridiculous.

Game ball to Lutz, he was the difference.

Great job by Brees on the 2 min drive, forgetting that earlier int - just cant trust Trequan or Ginn to be honest.

Cam Jordan's stupidity gave the Panthers life, no reason for that punch, even if it was intended for the ball. Davis had Allen locked up for a huge loss. That swung the momentum big time.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

4. Christiam McCaffery is giving me a headache and he will probably continue to do so for many years to come. He is a great, dynamic player.

How many times did I see McCaffery release out of the backfield and there is no one within 15 yards ... If have a spy on anybody on this team McCaffery is the one. Later in the game they did a better job but after way toooo many burns jobs.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Agree with most points, particularly the refs... it’s getting more and more obvious.

Aside from that, Defense played like trash. You have 1 guy to contain and you let him burn you every play. As someone else said he was wide open by 10yds half the time he caught the ball... poor coaching and bad defense by the secondary. Williams showed today why he isn’t a starting CB. We need Lattimore back against ATL!

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Game observations from today! Too many penalties, AGAIN!!!! Good win though! WHO DAT!

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

I agree with all the good stuff listed above. And for the left side of the O-line to survive was great.

So far, the dumbest play of the entire year was Cam's gut punch. C'mon man. That was a 14 point swing. We had all the momentum, and I have no doubt we go up 21-0, game over.

But Noooooooooo, we just had to find a way to **** it up.

Even if the officiating wasn't one sided, there were still too many penalties. We have to play with better discipline. We are a great team playing sloppy football. Luckily our B-game will still beat most teams we play. If we play mistake free, no one in the league can beat us.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Cam is a terrific player but that punch after the whistle was DUMB.

Armstead being carted off is nauseating and why isn't Kamara playing better?

Very glad that the Saints won this game because it was a hard game to watch. They need to keep winning to get the home field advantage (even though they haven't been playing well at home.)

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Word on Armstead is an ankle injury. Lots of gimpy ankles this year.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

I think the defense did an ok job. PJ and play calling we’re just terrible. Those swing passes/sweeps they kept running hurt. It was like no one was covering guys out of the backfield.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

It's very difficult to stop both the Panther's passing and Mccaffrey simultaneously with Lattimore out. If Lattimore played, the Panthers would have had a much lower score.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Ginn needs to see the bench or the unemployment line.

It's difficult to watch him hurt our team near enough every week.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Something’s not quite right with Kamara and I can’t put my finger on it. Saw a video earlier of the game winning FG and Kamara’s walking to the locker room as it’s being kicked and doesn’t look like he cares that it was made.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Latavius Murray aka Mr. Hurt had 7 carries for 60 yards and a TD today.

Just don't understand why coach moves away from pounding the ball to him late in games. This guy falls forward for a half yard and is a bruiser + the Panthers have been a bad run D all season. Chew up clock and wear out defenses late.

It simply puzzles me that we don't see more 2 RB sets with Kamara and Murray.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

We abandoned the run and went way too pass happy. Had a two score lead early and against a team that can struggle against the run.
I’m convinced there is a guy in the NFL league office watching the TV ratings of every single game. When the ratings for a certain team drops so do the flags.
The NFL is going to put who they want in the SB period. Every now and then a team may get lucky and beat the refs but it’s gonna be rare. Welcome to the new NFL.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

His ankle probably isn't 100%.

More reason to pound Murray late in ball games.

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Not sure what game you were watching, he tees off on PJ Williams who had about 200 yds and 2TDs hung on him today.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

AK hasn’t looked good running the ball, they really need to get Murray more carries. He is the better back running the ball. Let AK do his 3rd down and passing down thing.

Really haven’t been impressed with AK this year, makes me doubt he should be signed to a blockbuster deal. Can’t afford to pay everyone, and RBs are the easiest to replace.

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Whoa whoa whoa. Dude AK is awesome. He's been injured. Still one of the most dynamic backs in the league.

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Hopefully this down season plays to our advantage. CMC is going to crush the RB salary when it's his time.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

This one...

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Some great stuff in there from Thomas. I love listening to him. You can hear how confident he is but still there is no bragging or nothing of that sort.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

Yup, and then we had to compensate, which allowed McCaffrey to get those short passes over and over again to move the sticks. Lattimore is so important to our defense. When he's in there it shifts everything..the linebackers play different, the pass rush is different. We kept getting caught between trying to stop Moore and McCaffrey . It was like we were trying to play a game of whack a mole today. If Lattimore is there, they can't do what they did to us today. They would still have decent games, because McCaffrey is a beast.. but we could play the sticks a lot better.

I'm not sure when Lattimore is supposed to be back, but Atlanta is going to be a really tough game if he's not playing. A lot of casual fans get too caught up in seeing scores and trying to correlate things. (Team X beat Team Y by 30 points, and Team Z only beat Team Y by a FG.. therefore Team X is better). Football doesn't work like this. Football is matchups, and with Lattimore out we are losing matchups we normally win.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

I watched the replay a number of times. It could have easily been an ejection call. Even with my Saints bias, it was close and intention could have been seriously questioned. I'm a huge Cam fan, but I can't say it was totally innocent.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

I wouldn't read too deeply into that. I say that as I read deeply into that lol....

Kamara's job was done and Lutz is a pretty sure thing... Sean may have sent him to the locker-room to start icing with a Thursday game this week. I am still not convinced that Kamara is 100%, the second half utilization did help my confidence but with injuries to both knee and ankle who knows which one is or isnt 100%. Injured Knees and ankles need ice to prevent swelling.

Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

I think moving forward all 'observation' threads should be re-titled 'interpretation'. :)

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PJ Williams is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE in coverage...GAAAAAAAARRRRRRBAGE!

That stated, he's damn good in the box and hits well at the line of scrimmage.

I'm thinking that CJ G-J is not showing well in practice or at the whiteboard for the coaches. But when the lights turn on he's better than PJ! And I doubt he'd let a WR just run right by knowing the Safety is on the other side of the field and not on his side covering deep.

That Ref and his crew...WORSE than PJ in coverage. Didn't think that was possible, for anything in the NFL to be as bad as PJ in coverage, but that guy proved me wrong.

The 4th and 1 conversion and that BS holding call where the DE falls over from diving to far and getting off balance and the LT touches him afterwards on top of his shoulder was ridiculous.

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Re: Observations from the Saints win over the Panthers
 

We don't have the luxury of benching him.

But many were content that this team does not need a #2, 3 or hell #4 WR.

There is Michael Thomas & a bunch of bodies running around at WR. Cook has shown up though at the TE position.