Rod Walker is right in his article. (1 Viewer)

[LordPoopington]

If you forced me to bet on the outcome of NO/GB, I would pick Packers. I think there have been legit causes for concern these past 2 weeks.

However, it's still 2 weeks into the season and Payton's post-Super Bowl teams have been notorious slow starters. The last time we had a good week 2 game, IMO, was 2011 when we beat CHI 30-13 in the Dome. The only other week 2 games we've won were an ugly 16-14 affair in Tampa in 2013 (we were fortunate to win there) and that 2018 CLE game where we were EXTREMELY lucky to win (God bless that awful Cleveland kicker). The way the 2018 season ended has kind of blotted out everything else in our minds from 18, but...that Saints team was absolute hell on wheels from week 5 vs. WAS thru the Thanksgiving ATL game, but looked shaky in the first month and shaky down the stretch (granted, injuries certainly played a part in the late season/postseason struggles).

TL;DR - Payton's teams of the past decade have a history of terrible starts, so there's still hope but people who are worried aren't just creating drama for drama's sake, either.

 

[sammymvpknight]

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

No, Brees did not play well, but through all that he was 26 for 38, even with a bunch of drops, and his best WR was....Tre'Quan Smith. This was like 2006 but no Colston.

Last SEVEN drives for the Raiders:

11 plays, 63 yards, TD
10 plays, 75 yards, TD
8 plays, 31 yards, FG
9 plays, 75 yards, TD
8 plays, 47 yards, gift fumble, and they're scoring again if he doesn't.
10 plays, 89 yards, TD

cut the lead to 7

7 plays, 46 yards, FG

You know who's completely disappeared the first two games and looks washed up? Cam Jordan.

We can still win with Brees as QB, even with a half-decent defense. Our D was 14th each of the last two years and we were 26-6. He just can no longer carry a bad one.

Yes, Brees is much older and might be closer to done that we (and he) thought. But that was clickbait.

26 for 38 is incredibly misleading to anyone who actually watched the game without a fan boy hat. The significant majority of those passes were either dump off passes or passes with the Raiders playing prevent defense. Few of those completed passes were actually NFL throws...they were throws that the average college QB could make. There were a few drops (namely Sanders) but Brees just outright missed wide open receivers on numerous occasions yesterday. He deserves every bit of the skepticism and critique that he is getting right now. He looked REALLY bad.

Of course the defense also playing bad...but that's not some kind of excuse for Brees. I love Brees...but going into the 2nd half I had no confidence that he would find a way to produce offense. It was essentially the Vikings game all over again. I knew that the Saints were dead in the water unless the defense took the game over or they got Taysom Hill in there to make players. Neither happened, and the Saints predictably lost.

 

[Swimmer]

Just a quick note, Waller is doing this to every opponent since mid-season last year. He's a freak. A 6'6" WR, playing TE with 4.5 speed and great leaping ability. No one has figured out how to shut-down Carr-Waller in nearly a year.

 

[lapaz]

Agree with most of your points. Two things that jumped out I wanted to nit-pick.

10. I don't think Payton's game plan on offense was that bad. They attacked short to take what the defense gave them. The Brees INT wasn't on him at all. The Penalty stalled drive wasn't on his plan either. I will ultimately put that many penalties on the coach at some point though. Outside of that, every other drive was a scoring drive except one (the last drive doesn't count).

12. I absolutely hate the PI penalty and there were some rough ones on us. That Jenkins one near the end was pretty clear though. He was perfectly fine then he grabbed the guys arm right at the end. They are going to call that. That blindside block though, ridiculous. They do that every year with new penalties. They over call them to make some stupid point. Saw it in other games too. That is one that shouldn't be called by the rule though. Forcible contact is part of the rule description. That was not forcible. The point of the rule is guys who get smacked without seeing it coming. He played it right.

I disagree with you on the Jenkins PI. The WR was pushing off of him, and grabbing Jenkins' arm, and then Jenkins hooked the WRs' arm for a split second, but the WR's actions were far more egregious. It should've been offensive PI, or no call due to both hand fighting and the ball being out of reach. The PI penalty on Lattimore was even worse, as I don't think he did anything at all.

 

[lapaz]

26 for 38 is incredibly misleading to anyone who actually watched the game without a fan boy hat. The significant majority of those passes were either dump off passes or passes with the Raiders playing prevent defense. Few of those completed passes were actually NFL throws...they were throws that the average college QB could make. There were a few drops (namely Sanders) but Brees just outright missed wide open receivers on numerous occasions yesterday. He deserves every bit of the skepticism and critique that he is getting right now. He looked REALLY bad.

Of course the defense also playing bad...but that's not some kind of excuse for Brees. I love Brees...but going into the 2nd half I had no confidence that he would find a way to produce offense. It was essentially the Vikings game all over again. I knew that the Saints were dead in the water unless the defense took the game over or they got Taysom Hill in there to make players. Neither happened, and the Saints predictably lost.

I think your assessment of Brees is harsh. He missed a couple of receivers, which nearly every QB does, but he usually doesn't, and he made a bad throw on that interception, but he wasn't really bad. At worst he was average. He did make a lot of dump offs, but you're wrong about every QB being able to do that. Brees uses them effectively because he gets it to them when they can be effective. Nearly all of them generated lots of yards, and he took what the defense was giving him. It was plenty good enough had the refs called a fair game.

 

[Mac Man]

Hard to argue with any of it. These are merely my observations from last night:

1. Brees looks...well old. He just doesn't look comfortable and I haven't seen his passes this off since 2006 preseason. When he drops back there is no longer the fear of the quick strike or perfectly timed bomb. Last night his eyes look like wide eye and confused like he was a rookie. I don't know...maybe he just needs some more reps or better play calling.

2. Kamara is great inside the 20 as he always has as nose for the endzone. Don't get me wrong, his runs last night have looked better than his last few games, as a matter of fact - why did he only have 16 rushes when averaging 6+ a carry? Regardless, I just wish when he ran a sweep that he would still look for that immediate north/south cutback like he did in his rookie season. That is what took defenders off guard and made him so dangerous. Now he just strings it out all the way to the sideline until he runs out of bounds for no gain.

3. TQS finally showed some flashes. He looks really good after the catch and seems hard to take down.

4. Where was Jared Cook last night?

5. Why did Murray only have 3 rushes?

6. Why did Taysom only have 2 touches?

No on to the defense...

7. Cam Jordan...his pass rush looks predictable now. He just angles this wide arcing sweep to try to run around his lineman...and rarely does. Which means that he never even sniffs the QB.

8. Speaking of pass rushing...it is an embarrassment that the Raiders were missing several starters on their line yet Carr still threw for 300 yards.

9. Speaking of embarrassment, Malcolm Jenkins...where to start. Got burned repeatedly...got trucked...just looked old and slow. When you are outspoken and take on your team leader...you better be someone who can back it up on the field. I hope he wasn't a waste of money.

And now coaching..

10. Payton - got outcoached again. For once his opening scripted plays looked good and then the rest of the game plan tanked. I don't know where the halftime adjustments were but he looked as bad as the rest of his team. Seems like when there is hype for the other team the team takes it personal and plays well (e.g. Bucs last week.) But when they are 'expected' to win...it seems like they come out and just go through the motions expecting someone to hand them the win.

11. Dennis Allen - I am a fan of Allen but man...how many times does Waller have to catch the ball before you decide to double cover him? The defense was reeling from about the 2nd quarter on and they never recovered. One of the worst games I have seen from him.

And finally officiating...

12. This by no means changed the outcome of the game because the Saints got beat in every area and they deserved to lose. But I am so tired of ticky-tacky calls that sustain drives for the opposing team. Maybe we are just badly coached on defense but it is so frustrating. At one point it was 3rd down, Drew went to throw a pass...a flag came out for holding on Murray (we never go to see the replay), the pass was incomplete so penalty was declined anyway. But if that had been a first down then it would've come back as well. It was almost like...hey let's throw a flag "Just in case." The 'blindside' block was ridiculous and there were about 2 PI calls that I disagreed with. One rule change I would like to see - if the defender and the receiver are BOTH hand-checking down the field...then no flag...unless the defender's final action was a direct reason that the receiver couldn't catch the ball. They said he hooked his arm...but he would've never caught that ball anyway and "hook" was a bit of an overstatement.

I turned the game off with 7 mins left because I was so disgusted. The only bright side is that they seem to start off every season like this and somehow get it together. Let's hope that is the case or otherwise it will be a loooong season.

I thought Brees looked uncomfortable last night also. He was wide-eyed in the huddle and he just didn't look confident. Normally, I have faith in Brees until there are all zeros on the clock. I didn't feel that last night, and I'm not sure the guys in the huddle did either. He definitely looked rattled.

 

[SystemShock]

Last SEVEN drives for the Raiders:

11 plays, 63 yards, TD
10 plays, 75 yards, TD
8 plays, 31 yards, FG
9 plays, 75 yards, TD
8 plays, 47 yards, gift fumble, and they're scoring again if he doesn't.
10 plays, 89 yards, TD

I am notexcusing the defense, but how about the last 7 drives for the Saints?
3 plays 5 yards punt in 0:57
7 plays 76 yards TD in 3:33
4 plays 13 yards INT in 0:56
6 plays 32 yards punt in 4:06
5 plays 13 yards punt in 1:49
8 plays 67 yrds TD in 3:10
end of game - they just gave up.

 

[BarBar]

I don't think he's struggling. I think it's more so about Brees being comfortable enough to throw to him.

Maybe but how many times has a good player come here and needed half the season to start contributing??? It seems like it happens all the time. We sign an impact player who has a great camp and does nothing on the field for 6 weeks. I thought Sanders would be so good for us but he is looking like a waste of money so far.


Anyway as I said before. In week 6 if we are still having the same problems then we may as well forget about playoffs. We still have time.

Expect a butt kicking from the packers.

 

[schuetter]

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

No, Brees did not play well, but through all that he was 26 for 38, even with a bunch of drops, and his best WR was....Tre'Quan Smith. This was like 2006 but no Colston.

Last SEVEN drives for the Raiders:

11 plays, 63 yards, TD
10 plays, 75 yards, TD
8 plays, 31 yards, FG
9 plays, 75 yards, TD
8 plays, 47 yards, gift fumble, and they're scoring again if he doesn't.
10 plays, 89 yards, TD

cut the lead to 7

7 plays, 46 yards, FG

You know who's completely disappeared the first two games and looks washed up? Cam Jordan.

We can still win with Brees as QB, even with a half-decent defense. Our D was 14th each of the last two years and we were 26-6. He just can no longer carry a bad one.

Yes, Brees is much older and might be closer to done that we (and he) thought. But that was clickbait.

Good point. While I won’t say Cam looks “washed up”, he should have had a monster game last night against a backup guard starting at right tackle. That didn’t happen. But let’s be real — the entire defense pooped the bed last night. The Raiders showed they were the tougher team last night and, once our defense realized that they couldn’t match the Raiders’ physicality, we lost confidence and started reacting instead of dictating. Hard to watch, but it’s early and we’ll get some things cleaned up if DA can call better games to mask some of our deficiencies.

 

[schuetter]

Maybe but how many times has a good player come here and needed half the season to start contributing??? It seems like it happens all the time. We sign an impact player who has a great camp and does nothing on the field for 6 weeks. I thought Sanders would be so good for us but he is looking like a waste of money so far.


Anyway as I said before. In week 6 if we are still having the same problems then we may as well forget about playoffs. We still have time.

Expect a butt kicking from the packers.

Disagree on the Packers game. The sky is not falling, it’s just a real sky without the rose color and we’ll have to scratch and claw to keep it from falling. We show up for big games. It’s the underdogs we fail to show up against... like the Raiders. I expect a great game and a close victory if we can clean up the penalties.

 

[HoustonGold]

Just a quick note, Waller is doing this to every opponent since mid-season last year. He's a freak. A 6'6" WR, playing TE with 4.5 speed and great leaping ability. No one has figured out how to shut-down Carr-Waller in nearly a year.

See Kansas City Chiefs. Steve Spagnolo defense had no problems with him.

 

[BiloxiSaint1]

If we try to man up versus Devante Adams then we are toast.

That depends on how his hamstring injury progresses this week.

 

[rsmith2783]

Maybe but how many times has a good player come here and needed half the season to start contributing??? It seems like it happens all the time. We sign an impact player who has a great camp and does nothing on the field for 6 weeks. I thought Sanders would be so good for us but he is looking like a waste of money so far.


Anyway as I said before. In week 6 if we are still having the same problems then we may as well forget about playoffs. We still have time.

Expect a butt kicking from the packers.

On offense it's happened a few times. I do think the lack of OTAs, preseason ,etc is a possible reason why Sanders hasn't lit it up yet. I believe the talent is still there. You also add in that the offensive line hasn't been the best and it's showing the Brees is uncomfortable. So yeah it will need some time, but hopefully we find it fast. Like you mentioned...we play the Packers soon.

 

[SaintJ]

I am notexcusing the defense, but how about the last 7 drives for the Saints?
3 plays 5 yards punt in 0:57
7 plays 76 yards TD in 3:33
4 plays 13 yards INT in 0:56
6 plays 32 yards punt in 4:06
5 plays 13 yards punt in 1:49
8 plays 67 yrds TD in 3:10
end of game - they just gave up.

No argument here.

 

[SaintJ]

and we’ll get some things cleaned up if DA can call better games to mask some of our deficiencies.

Allen IS one of our deficiencies.

All those penalties in the secondary? Guys out of position, not properly anticipating, and poor technique all add up to a lot of desperate grabbing and holding. The only PI call I had a little bit of a beef with was the first one on Lattimore, but the rest were just bad, bad secondary play.

When has our secondary made a huge play late in an important game since Allen was DC? While instead we usually lose them on an offensive score on the last play of the game.