The punt block was real killer in this game (1 Viewer)

[Saint Kamara]

Granted, we didn't play well enough to even beat the lowly Rams in any phase of the game yesterday, but I am sure had Thomas Morstead boomed one of his famous punts and backed up the Rams inside their 30 with 2 minutes to go in the half, the halftime score would have been 3-0. The Rams had done little offensively up to that point. The Saints would certainly have won the game.

Crazy how a single play turns the game on it's ear.

 

[Nolan]

Granted, we didn't play well enough to even beat the lowly Rams in any phase of the game yesterday, but I am sure had Thomas Morstead boomed one of his famous punts and backed up the Rams inside their 30 with 2 minutes to go in the half, the halftime score would have been 3-0. The Rams had done little offensively up to that point. The Saints would certainly have won the game.

Crazy how a single play turns the game on it's ear.

Yeah, I have to agree with you there. Rams special teams was incredibly good yesterday. Not only the blocked punt, but they contained Sproles in the punting game, and almost every kickoff that Sproles brought out it seemed like he was bottled up in between the 10-15 each time.

 

[Sophandros]

I totally agree with this. Not only did it lead to their score, but then we started pressing, which lead to Drew's first pick.

 

[SaintJ]

Yeah, it was bad, but no worse than a pick, a fumble, or a 40-yard punt return, and those happen all over the NFL every week. But god forbid we ask our defense to come up with a red zone stop when we desperately need one.

Sometimes a defense is asked to step up when it's needed and bail out the other guys. It's part of its role: hold the fort, stop the bleeding, keep us in the game.

For these guys, force a few punts, and it's like they can punch the clock and go back to the union hall and start drinking beer. The idea that we'd be able to put a game on their shoulders isn't even a potential discussion.

Yes, there was plenty of blame to go around yesterday. But this offense has bailed out the defense god knows how many times since the start of 2009? And this year, against Green Bay, Houston and Carolina? Is it too much to ask that the defense defend a couple of short fields in the last 90 seconds of a half and keep us in the game?

The punt block had nothing to do with it. The defense is just fundamentally flawed at too many levels, and while the excuses vary, the end results don't -- if the offense doesn't bring at least it's B-plus game, any team in the league can beat us. ANY team.

 

[Nolan]

yeah, it was bad, but no worse than a pick, a fumble, or a 40-yard punt return, and those happen all over the NFL every week. But god forbid we ask our defense to come up with a red zone stop when we desperately need one.

Sometimes a defense is asked to step up when it's needed and bail out the other guys. It's part of its role: hold the fort, stop the bleeding, keep us in the game.

For these guys, force a few punts, and it's like they can punch the clock and go back to the union hall and start drinking beer. The idea that we'd be able to put a game on their shoulders isn't even a potential discussion.

Yes, there was plenty of blame to go around yesterday. But this offense has bailed out the defense god knows how many times since the start of 2009? And this year, against Green Bay, Houston and Carolina? Is it too much to ask that the defense defend a couple of short fields in the last 90 seconds of a half and keep us in the game?

The punt block had nothing to do with it. The defense is just fundamentally flawed at too many levels, and while the excuses vary, the end results don't -- if the offense doesn't bring at least it's B-plus game, any team in the league can beat us. ANY team.

Our defense has bailed us PLENTY in the past few years regarding when teams get it on our side of the field after a costly turnover by the offense. I can count PLENTY of times where our defense has held an offense to a field goal after we give it to them after a turnover on our side of the field. I don't think it's fair to blame the defense after blocked punt that lands inside of our own ten yard line.

 

[SaintJ]

Our defense has bailed us PLENTY in the past few years regarding when teams get it on our side of the field after a costly turnover by the offense. I can count PLENTY of times where our defense has held an offense to a field goal after we give it to them after a turnover on our side of the field. I don't think it's fair to blame the defense after blocked punt that lands inside of our own ten yard line.

They also couldn't stop one of the worst offenses in football from casually driving 40 yards for a TD in the final 50 seconds of the half, either.

13-0 is a hell of a lot better than 17-0 at the half. Down 13-0, if you take the second half kickoff and go score, it's 13-7 and losing teams like the Rams get that here-we-go-again feeling. We never had the chance. The TD after the INT lost us the game, and that was a pathetic excuse for defensive effort and execution.

 

[2009ring]

Yeah, it was bad, but no worse than a pick, a fumble, or a 40-yard punt return, and those happen all over the NFL every week. But god forbid we ask our defense to come up with a red zone stop when we desperately need one.

Sometimes a defense is asked to step up when it's needed and bail out the other guys. It's part of its role: hold the fort, stop the bleeding, keep us in the game.

For these guys, force a few punts, and it's like they can punch the clock and go back to the union hall and start drinking beer. The idea that we'd be able to put a game on their shoulders isn't even a potential discussion.

Yes, there was plenty of blame to go around yesterday. But this offense has bailed out the defense god knows how many times since the start of 2009? And this year, against Green Bay, Houston and Carolina? Is it too much to ask that the defense defend a couple of short fields in the last 90 seconds of a half and keep us in the game?

The punt block had nothing to do with it. The defense is just fundamentally flawed at too many levels, and while the excuses vary, the end results don't -- if the offense doesn't bring at least it's B-plus game, any team in the league can beat us. ANY team.

Right because the defense never bailed out the offense during 2009 either....:cough cough Tracy Porter twice cough cough:

 

[coldseat]

Yeah, it was bad, but no worse than a pick, a fumble, or a 40-yard punt return, and those happen all over the NFL every week. But god forbid we ask our defense to come up with a red zone stop when we desperately need one.

Sometimes a defense is asked to step up when it's needed and bail out the other guys. It's part of its role: hold the fort, stop the bleeding, keep us in the game.

For these guys, force a few punts, and it's like they can punch the clock and go back to the union hall and start drinking beer. The idea that we'd be able to put a game on their shoulders isn't even a potential discussion.

Yes, there was plenty of blame to go around yesterday. But this offense has bailed out the defense god knows how many times since the start of 2009? And this year, against Green Bay, Houston and Carolina? Is it too much to ask that the defense defend a couple of short fields in the last 90 seconds of a half and keep us in the game?

The punt block had nothing to do with it. The defense is just fundamentally flawed at too many levels, and while the excuses vary, the end results don't -- if the offense doesn't bring at least it's B-plus game, any team in the league can beat us. ANY team.

I'm normally there with you on the defense. But as much as I want to try, I can not put this loss on the shoulders of the defense. Yes they gave up 159 yards to Stephen Jackson, and that is bad. But that offense gave them absolutely nothing. Not only did they give them nothing, but they compounded the problems for the defense.

Yes the punt block was bad. But the interception that Drew threw was infinitely worse. You just gave them a free touchdown by having a punt blocked and you're going to turn right around and gift wrap another 7 points by throwing an interception on the very first play of the next drive. It was a horrible trow and decision by Drew. You go down 10-0 and it's manageable, you can still work your game plan. You go down 17-0 and you're pretty much done.

The defense shut the Rams down in the 1st half and sparked the team in the second half by causing the fumble that they recovered for the TD. It was all you can ask of them.

You finally work your way back to within 10 points and you have six minutes left in the game and a punchers chance. And what does the offense do? Goes 3 and out. Your defense gets the ball back again and you have 3 minutes left and what does the offense do? Interception returned for a TD. Game, set, match.

I can complain about the defense a lot, but not in this game. This loss is squarely on the shoulder of the offensive line and Drew Brees.

 

[Saint Kamara]

I totally agree with this. Not only did it lead to their score, but then we started pressing, which lead to Drew's first pick.

Correct, the game then started to spiral out of control.

Drew trying to get all 10 or 17 points back at once.

The defense forced to go for broke to try to create a turnover, getting burned late in the first half and into the 2nd half.

 

[Saint Kamara]

Yeah, it was bad, but no worse than a pick, a fumble, or a 40-yard punt return, and those happen all over the NFL every week. But god forbid we ask our defense to come up with a red zone stop when we desperately need one.

A blocked punt should NEVER happen.

Up until Sunday, that was the case for Morstead in his NFL career.

 

[RazorSaint]

I'm normally there with you on the defense. But as much as I want to try, I can not put this loss on the shoulders of the defense. Yes they gave up 159 yards to Stephen Jackson, and that is bad. But that offense gave them absolutely nothing. Not only did they give them nothing, but they compounded the problems for the defense.

Yes the punt block was bad. But the interception the Drew threw was infinitely worse. You just gave them a free touch down by having a punt block and you're going to turn right around and gift wrap another 7 points by throwing and interception on the very first play of the next drive. It was a horrible trow and decision by Drew. You go down 10-0 and it's manageable, you can still work your game plan. You go down 17-0 and you're pretty much done.

The defense shut the Rams down in the 1st half and sparked the team in the second half by causing the fumble that they recovered for the TD. It was all you can ask.

You finally work your way back to within 10 points and you have six minutes left in the game and a punchers chance. And what does the offense do? Goes 3 and out. Your defense gets the ball back again and you have 3 minutes left and what does the offense do? Interception returned for a TD. Game, set, match.

I can complain about the defense a lot, but not in this game. This loss is squarely on the shoulder of the offensive line and Drew Brees.

I agree on some level. This loss was definitely a team effort, with the offense, defense, and special teams all playing poorly at times. The offense and special teams had larger negative impacts, but the defense was bailed out several times by Feeley's poor play and Brandon Lloyd's big drop that would've been a 76 yard TD had he caught it. Feeley also missed Lloyd a couple of times in the first half when he had Porter beat (one was overthrown, the other was underthrown allowing MJ to bat the ball away).

 

[Wahoo]

Granted, we didn't play well enough to even beat the lowly Rams in any phase of the game yesterday, but I am sure had Thomas Morstead boomed one of his famous punts and backed up the Rams inside their 30 with 2 minutes to go in the half, the halftime score would have been 3-0. The Rams had done little offensively up to that point. The Saints would certainly have won the game.

Crazy how a single play turns the game on it's ear.

You could make the same point about the first play after the blocked punt - everyone talks about Steven Jackson's rushing yds and TDs but that fumble recovery was as big as anything he did yeserday...

They also couldn't stop one of the worst offenses in football from casually driving 40 yards for a TD in the final 50 seconds of the half, either.

13-0 is a hell of a lot better than 17-0 at the half. Down 13-0, if you take the second half kickoff and go score, it's 13-7 and losing teams like the Rams get that here-we-go-again feeling. We never had the chance. The TD after the INT lost us the game, and that was a pathetic excuse for defensive effort and execution.

Not only couldn't stop them but actually helped them move down the field with 3 defensive penalties (2 accepted) in a four play stretch.

 

[Nolan]

They also couldn't stop one of the worst offenses in football from casually driving 40 yards for a TD in the final 50 seconds of the half, either.

13-0 is a hell of a lot better than 17-0 at the half. Down 13-0, if you take the second half kickoff and go score, it's 13-7 and losing teams like the Rams get that here-we-go-again feeling. We never had the chance. The TD after the INT lost us the game, and that was a pathetic excuse for defensive effort and execution.

You've got to be kidding me? That possession should have NEVER happened. An interception with less than 50 second left in the half on YOUR side of the field, should have never happened.

You're asking the defense to do pretty unrealistic things. They stopped the Rams ALL through the first half. The blocked punt and the interception are the reason we went down 17-0 in this game, don't put that on the defense. They shouldn't be put in that position.

Yeah, man. It's so simple, 13-0 at halftime and come out on our first drive and make it 13-7? Right, except we did absolutely NOTHING with our opening drive coming out of halftime, at 17-0. I doubt those 4 points would have magically made our offense score a TD on that drive.

 

[2009ring]

A blocked punt should NEVER happen.

Up until Sunday, that was the case for Morstead in his NFL career.

Chris Gardocki played 14 years in the NFL and never had on blocked.

 

[Sarcastic]

They also couldn't stop one of the worst offenses in football from casually driving 40 yards for a TD in the final 50 seconds of the half, either.

13-0 is a hell of a lot better than 17-0 at the half. Down 13-0, if you take the second half kickoff and go score, it's 13-7 and losing teams like the Rams get that here-we-go-again feeling. We never had the chance. The TD after the INT lost us the game, and that was a pathetic excuse for defensive effort and execution.

10-0 would have been even better. That would have been the case had we gone out there and taken a knee to go to halftime. Choosing to press at that point in the game, when we knew we'd get the ball back after the half with an opportunity to make it a 3-point game, was one of the worst decisions Payton's ever made.

Don't get me wrong, the defense has problems, serious ones. But this loss falls square on the shoulders of the offense. You can't give an offense (no matter how pathetic) repeated short fields and expect your defense to keep bailing you out...when you haven't even put a point on the board.