Tampa game a huge concern... (1 Viewer)

Sackhappysaint

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Yes, things are different this year.

We appear to have a quality coach and a discilined team(with the exception of the game against the RAvens) and a team that won't quit. This being said, this Tampa game scares me to death.

Like most teams in the NFL, you have your peaks and valleys during the season and I have a sinking feeling this Ravens game was the start of going down the valley. If I'm correct, the questions is how low will we drop and when will we arise again?

Yes, I know every game is a game and anything can happen next game...but I have a feeling this Tampa game will define the rest of our season.

We lose this game we will most likely be fighting for our lives to make the playoffs(I know, I know, pure speculation on my part).

But if we win it? To me that will say quite a bit about the resiliency of this team, coming off a bye week, getting pounded at home by the Ravens, then going on the road to beat a Tampa team that is desperate for a win. Sky is the limit for this team. The deeper we get into the season, the picture is becoming more clear for sure.

We have some problems on defense and for the Ravens to score 35 on us(yes I realise that 2 were defensive td's, but that gave us 2 extra possessions away from their offense) is a telling sign.

To say I'm worried about this game would be a huge understatement. I hope we can come out with a win, but that terrible feeling in my gut(about this game) just won't go away
 
I'd just like to see the Saints go to Tampa and not have excessive turnovers or penalties. That's all I'd be concerned about.

IMO, the biggest problem the Saints have on defense is no backside roster help for the starting front four. It's a real problem considering our scheme absolutely depends on pressure from the front four. Will we get Whitehead back anytime soon? And it hurt a lot to lose Ninkovich.

I would advise against having expectations of the Saints going deep into the playoffs without good backside roster help for the front four. The good news is that the starting front four is getting tons of experience. Hopefully the FO will re-sign Grant.
 
I'm convinced that if they Saints can play close to mistake free football that we can beat anyone in the league. You're not going to win any games playing like they did yesterday. If they can just get back to what they were doing in the first 6 games of the season, they should take care of business at Tampa.
 
I'm convinced that if they Saints can play close to mistake free football that we can beat anyone in the league. You're not going to win any games playing like they did yesterday. If they can just get back to what they were doing in the first 6 games of the season, they should take care of business at Tampa.

I agree we had way to many False Starts against the Ravens, Before this game we were the least penalized team in the game. '

Simple Bye-week jitters It will straighten itself out.
 
I'm somewhat worried about this game too. Tampa is a team we SHOULD beat, but SHOULD and WILL are 2 very different things. Tampa thinks they are the better team... They think we stole one from them here in N.O. and to be honest, we did. The Saints defense gave up something like 12 big plays that game, and it took Reggie's 1st and only TD of the season on a PR to steal the victory. Plus there was that offensive P.I. call that also saved the game for us. Tampa is going to come out confident and with a chip on their shoulder for this game, and if we come out flat and apprehensive again, we will lose. Hopefully we can get Deuce rolling again, and eliminate (or at least limit) the amount of big plays we give up on defense. The T.B. defense is nowhwere near as good as B-more's, but they're still good.
 
I haven't seen the last 2 Tampa games so I can't say for sure, but I've read that Gradkowski's numbers have been dropping off with each week. We were the first team to face him so we didn't have any film on him. If you go on the Buc's message board there are people there calling for him to be benched already.
 
I'd just like to see the Saints go to Tampa and not have excessive turnovers or penalties. That's all I'd be concerned about.

IMO, the biggest problem the Saints have on defense is no backside roster help for the starting front four. It's a real problem considering our scheme absolutely depends on pressure from the front four. Will we get Whitehead back anytime soon? And it hurt a lot to lose Ninkovich.

I would advise against having expectations of the Saints going deep into the playoffs without good backside roster help for the front four. The good news is that the starting front four is getting tons of experience. Hopefully the FO will re-sign Grant.
Totally have to agree are downfall might be the fact that we dont have depth to spell our defense, we were running tackles and ends in and out of games in the beginning, but with Nincovich and whitehead out thats stopped, we have no pressure to sack in the middle of the line and thats hurt grant and smith on the outside.
 
We have to go back to the basics on Tampa. We've got 3+ weeks of film on Gradowski, which the coaches will review, and hopefully, that helps. We need to stop the run better, eliminate the penalties and turnovers, and score TDs in the redzone. Again, all the things that every team needs to do to win.
If you look at Tampa over the past three weeks, please tell me what has impressed you beside the two pick sixes against Philly last week? They gave 500+ total yards of offense to Philly, and only had about 200 yards of offense themselves, but they still won because of those turnovers.... they are starting to rely soley on their defense to win games.
What bothers me the most about Tampa are a few, select players: Galloway, Cadillac, their place kicker, Rice, Barber, and Pittman.

I believe that Deuce needs to carry 25-30 times to wear that D down, and open up the play action to Colston & Horn. Also, in the red zone, the play-calling has to be better. We keep getting into these 3rd and goals, which almost always forces us to pass, and TEs must be used more in these situations. JMHO.
 
We had more penalties in this game than we have all season.
 
Payton will have the team ready. The Baltimore game was a fluke. We should bounce back with a strong performance.
 
Tampa easily had the Giants beat...by more then a TD to.

Galloway and Clayton both dropped easy TD passes in the 2nd half. If they make those easy catches the much hyped Giants would of went down.

This is gonna be a hard game. I'm worried.
 
My friend you hit the nail on the head , Our young QB who cant throw deep hit over 20 yard bombs 4 times in the hands of our starters and they droped the balls in the End Zone . So your weakness in the back field wont be so bad if we can catch the ball. All year before the start of the season I read you all werent happy with your O-Line now you go get beat by Balt. [like we did] and you think theres something wrong [ maybe they are the best D-Line in Football] and you need to move on. This Week is going to be a War !!![ you need it and so do we ] our LCB is out [Kelly] and our ORG-ORT are Rookies so Smith might do well. H. Thomas DT been getin a sack in most every game so far and I havent heard a word about it up there? Last I'll be posting later on this week were we all can meet for BB-Q pulled pork before the game at our Tailgate on the South side [parking lot D] near the Cypress Trees [LOL] Wish Harper could play he is a star and Polley comes back next year too.
 
Tampa easily had the Giants beat...by more then a TD to.

Galloway and Clayton both dropped easy TD passes in the 2nd half. If they make those easy catches the much hyped Giants would of went down.

This is gonna be a hard game. I'm worried.


If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts... everyday would be Christmas.

"if" the Saints wouldn't have given up 2 defensive TDs to B-more, WE WOULDA WON!
 
I too am worried about this game--in fact, extremely worried. I don't want to express my pessimistic thoughts so I'll keep them to myself. I'll just say Tampa should have beat us the 1st time but this time it's at their house. The heck with what the players are saying, this bye week screwed us. Some teams know how to come out the bye week, others don't. (I think Payton will learn overtime best practices on how to prepare a team after the bye week.) Grawkowski (sp?) is a good rookie quarterback who makes few mistakes. He looked great against us in his debut, he'll be even better come Sunday. I agree, it will say alot if we can come out and at the least play really competitively against Tampa. Even if we don't win, I want us to play hard from beginning to end. I want there to be minimal mistakes and hopefully no turnovers. If we can do that, we can compete with Tampa. We need to score at least 28 points because our defense will give up at least 21 to the Bucs.

Yes, you are right...this upcoming Tampa Bay game will define the rest of the season. We lose, it's down hill from there. If we win, the sky is the limit.
 
Any opponent is capable of beating us any week. I don't think that the coaches or the team will take an opponent such as Tampa Bay lightly. I expect that the Saints will be looking to prove that the Ravens game was a fluke.
 

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