tiggerpolice

Kincaid: Saints not displeased with first outing

12:02 PM CDT on Monday, August 15, 2005

Juan Kincaid / WWL-TV Sports Reporter

Saints camp is now 17 days, 20 workouts and one preseason game old and based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s hard to keep the faith.

“The things that were wrong were the turnovers, that’s the big thing,� said head coach Jim Haslett. “Two scores were directly because of turnovers.�

But that was Friday night’s problem. Sunday’s issue was dropped passes in practice. Too many times Saints receivers couldn’t hold on, which drew the head coach’s ire.

“We’re trying to get our passing game going a little more so when you drop a pass at receiver or tight end, it ticks you off but the passing game takes a little longer than the running game, but we should be at the point where we aren’t dropping balls right now,� said Haslett.

Nor should Saints fans have to be exposed to what took place in the Superdome Friday night. Mistakes for the most part took place again, like the three turnovers and how the defense responded to being pinned deep after they occurred.

“I think the defense needs to take the mentality that when a turnover does happen, that hey, we’ve got to hold them to a field goal or get a turnover ourselves,� said Haslett. “If we can do that, it demoralizes teams, but we’re not in that mode.�

Despite the 34-15 score on the board, Haslett and the players were pleased with the effort, especially in the trenches. While the defense gave up 216 yards rushing, only a fourth of that was against the first team.

“That’s a little misleading,� Howard said when asked about the 216 yards on the ground given up. “It wasn’t as bad as it looked on TV, once you looked at the film. The first team defense performed pretty well.�

Offensively speaking, protection for Aaron Brooks was good – not great. Too bad the other three quarterbacks couldn’t say the same.

“Usually the offense goes as the offensive line goes,� said guard Jermane Mayberry. “If we do our job as a line, we will be successful on offense.�

It seems that the better Brooks performs, the better the offense performs, which brings up one big concern for this team. If Brooks gets hurt, can backup Todd Bouman do the job? His one touchdown, one interception, one fumble performance against Seattle doesn’t give a clear answer.

“It was a very poor decision on that pass,� said Haslett of Bouman’s interception. “It slipped out of his hands a little but there was a defender back there and you could see it in the film. I think he agrees with that.�

“Outside of one throw, I was 8-11 and things went alright, so it’s something to build on.�

The Saints hope to build on their performance Thursday night against New England.


http://www.wwltv.com/sports/juankinc....775c614c.html

WhoDat

... who only played a fourth of the time.

Hey - it's not their fault, they only gave up a quarter of the yards.

Really? How long did they play?

A quarter of the time.

Great!

ScottyRo

I was thinking the same thing.

Why can't they say, "yeah, we got burned a bit, but we're gonna turn it around." I'd rather that than being oblivious to it.

WhoDat

o·bliv·i·ous - adj. - See Jim Haslett.

papz

That doesn't sound to encouraging depth wise.