Brees - Bush - Payton (2 Viewers)

[Crowley Cajun]

We had breakdowns in all phases of the game, offense, defense, spec. teams. Yeah, Bush made a few minor mistakes, but nothing compared to Brees and Freddie "Free Throw" Thomas. I don't know what was with him today, but he would not keep Chad Johnson in front of him. He'd let him get behind him all day and look at the results. Jam him at the line! The only jam he had was on a peanut butter sandwich. All he'd do was shake Chad's hand while Chad was going long. It was a bad day at the office. After last week's game, I did not expect this. We should have been up at least 21-7 in the first half. We self destructed. All we can do is shake it off and work on next week. It looks like the division could come down to the last game of the season. I'm not giving up.

 

[deuceisloose26]

As far as i'm concerned, that was easily Reggie's best game as a Saint. The stats weren't amazing, but he was running for positive yardage, cutbacks, not trying for the homerun every play. If you're playing the blame game:
Brees - yes
Payton - probably
Bush - no way

 

[Mr. Paul Caruso]

+12 characters

 

[real]

Bush had a good game. He's getting better at finding the holes, and his average was way up.

Brees threw three interceptions, two in the end zone. That's a bad game.

Payton? He didn't chew out his players enough? You got to be kidding.

 

[Claw]

Am I lost? I feel like I just ended up in an Atlanta message board after they lost. Some of you sound just like them. Come on people, we better than that. If we had a veteran team that we were expecting to go when the Super bowl before the season started that's one thing, but we don't. We have an extremely young team that was basically overachieving at the start of the year. WE KNEW THIS. We knew that our D still needed a lot of work. We knew our O-line would take time to be mediocre at best, and they are doing phenomenal considering how we thought they would be. Bush is a rookie and he's getting better every week. I personally am very excited about this team even if we don't make it to the playoffs, because I know what kind of young-base we have and how this team will be performing in the near future (1-3 years) after they (Brees, Bush, Colston, Harper, the young line, etc.) have more experience and we fill a few holes on the D. With all of that said, still don't count this years team out. If it don't work out this year, there is always next year, and at least we have grounds to say that on now, unlike in the past!

 

[DFWBoiler]

I agree with everyone that Reggie had his best day as an NFL RB. Not ROY quality, but definitely his own best personal day. However, I think he did make some mental errors that cost the Team. Not running out of bounds at the end of the 1st half cost the Saints a Timeout. At least then they could have provided the illusion that they could run the ball. But as it was, they had no choice with 18 seconds but to pass. Still does not excuse Brees and his poor decision, but it also does not excuse Reggie.

He also ran onto the Field too late for Brees to get the play called, resulting in another lost Timeout. That one could have been on the Coaches, I'm not sure. And he did turn a 5 yard gain into 0 by running backwards. It was pretty late in the game and certainly did not cost the game or anything.

But I agree with FWTex on one thing. There is no more time for goofing around. They need to stop experimenting and bring their A-game from now on. Myself, when the Saints lined up 1st and Goal the very first time, I screamed, "Run it to Duece". Nope, they throw another pass, and D'oh!! Interception.

Hopefully they will ALL learn from this game.

 

[oldJC.SAINTS]

Something clicked for Bush after that Bucs game. He's played two solid games in a row. He had probably his best game yesterday in a loosing effort.

Brees forced one pass (2nd int) and made a costly mistake on the 3rd int trying to avoid the sack... but when u throw 300yds+ for 4 games... eventually u'll get intercepted. So bad it was twice in the end zone.

I also thought we could have run Deuce more.... but I guess Payton thought we should have killed them which we did except for the int...

 

[oldJC.SAINTS]

Myself, when the Saints lined up 1st and Goal the very first time, I screamed, "Run it to Duece". Nope, they throw another pass, and D'oh!! Interception.

same here but that int was close...

 

[LSSpam]

Brees forced one pass (2nd int) and made a costly mistake on the 3rd int trying to avoid the sack... but when u throw 300yds+ for 4 games... eventually u'll get intercepted. So bad it was twice in the end zone.

Well that's insightful and correct, but also wrong

The more you throw, the more likely you'll throw a pick. Interceptions do happen. So you shouldn't judge a QB on picks per-game, but rather picks per-attempt.

This is why Drew Brees has had 15/16 interceptions in a season and still been outstanding. He also had 500+ attempts, over 30 a game, a rate of 1 INT for every 35 attempts. Which is pretty good.

So with 52 attempts vs Cinncy, you'd expect at least 1 INT, possibly a 2nd.

That said, Drew had a bad game. You have to be extra careful in the redzone and 3 INTs is really high anyways (1 every 17 attempts vs 1 every 35 attempts, double the rate)

 

[geauxboy]

I'm fine with Brees chucking the ball. It's nice to see a really good QB kicking butt. But, the more you pass, the higher the odds of INT's.

On the two INT's in the endzone, I really believe they need to give the ball to Duece. He was having a good day. Always fell forward. Always got positive yards. So why not feed Duece until the D is screaming "No mas"?

 

[LSSpam]

I'm fine with Brees chucking the ball. It's nice to see a really good QB kicking butt. But, the more you pass, the higher the odds of INT's.

On the two INT's in the endzone, I really believe they need to give the ball to Duece. He was having a good day. Always fell forward. Always got positive yards. So why not feed Duece until the D is screaming "No mas"?

Well if you want to criticize the play-calling, the first endzone trip that ended in an interception is the one. I agree that running Deuce there would be safer. But even as I thought that before Brees threw the pick, my thinking was more in terms of getting positive yardage on first down so we had a better shot at a TD as opposed to Brees throwing it away and setting up a field goal eventually.

This was the first interception Brees has thrown in the redzone. And then he did it again with 18 seconds left in the first half. I just don't think anyone anticipated Drew Brees making one awful decision, muchless two. Not there at least