My Perspective/Thoughts After a Bad Night's Sleep (1 Viewer)

[IsraeliSaintsFan]

1. I think my Vikings-fan brother-in-law said it best: The Saints can beat anyone... and lose at home to a 1-7 team. (Part of the fun of living in Who Dat Nation!) We've lost games we shouldn't before (last year to the Bucs), we've got out flat before (last year in Dallas and the first quarter against the Eagles in the playoffs). And we were a SB-winning team last year. We can be a SB-winning team this year too.

2. Over the past few weeks, and during the Teddy Bridgewater Era (was that just a few weeks ago!?!?), we were the most complete team in the NFL. When the offense wasn't there, the defense stepped up. When the passing game wasn't there, Kamara stepped up. Etc. Last night, nobody stepped up. And no facet of the game was there. Defensive penalties are as good as giving up yards, and we stopped both their TD drives multiple times only to have the drive extended by bad penalties (three times on the game-defining 17-play drive!). The running game was a non-entity (some combination of bad play by the OL, the play-calling, and with what seemed to me to be a lackluster effort by the RBs), while Atlanta seemed to clog the short/medium routes to totally frustrate Drew. Even the special teams gifted the Falcons a FG and extra time-of-possession by roughing the kicker. And then there were key injuries.

What does this all mean going forward? We can't be as optimistic today as we were before this game. But this is the NFL and the season is long. I have faith and trust in Coach and in these players (who we've grown to love) to fix the mistakes that can be fixed, up the energy that clearly wasn't there yesterday, and learn and grow from this hardship. Plenty more ups (and probably some downs too) in another roller-coaster seasons of Saints football.

 

[Zack Lee]

penalties on both sides of the ball both killed many of our drives and allowed Atlanta to sustain drives. This is not the first time this year that we have been penalized heavily. Against Dallas offensive line penalties were probably worse across the board. But we got it cleaned up so I think its promising that we can clean it up again.

After the loss the the Rams, this team rallied and really bonded to weather the first part of the schedule, the most brutal part. These are the same guys, same chemistry. There is no reason to believe they won't do it again. This may turn out to have made us stronger when all is said and done.

 

[Saint Taysom]

After sleeping on it, I’ve come to the conclusion that this game was just a turd... flush it, and move on.

 

[FGE413]

Yeah, if Tampa Bay beats us 27-6 or something, then I'll start getting fully concerned.

 

[jayd265]

i think the oline went to crap because armstead had the flu then peat went out. i'll call it a fluke. moving onto tampa!

 

[FGE413]

Yeah, I mean we expect athletes to get fluids and play like Michael Jordan in the 1997 NBA Finals, but I know when I've had the flu walking across my apartment can sometimes feel like scaling Mt. Everest so I imagine trying to keep professional athletes in check when you're in that condition is exponentially more difficult.

i think the oline went to crap because armstead had the flu then peat went out. i'll call it a fluke. moving onto tampa!

 

[SigFreudianSlip]

Yeah, I mean we expect athletes to get fluids and play like Michael Jordan in the 1997 NBA Finals, but I know when I've had the flu walking across my apartment can sometimes feel like scaling Mt. Everest so I imagine trying to keep professional athletes in check when you're in that condition is exponentially more difficult.

Good points and man MJ was magical that game.

 

[SubmarineMike]

Probably the worst part of yesterday's loss? What does this due to our position in Kay Adams' top 5?

Pretty bummed about that.