Why Brees didn't have a good game? (1 Viewer)

[Cincy Saint]

My observation is the same as some of the earlier posters -- I think the Bills secondary played very well and our WRs were not getting open. There were a number of times where Brees had time but he had to hold the ball because there was no where to throw the ball.

 

[Ti Rider]

If you didn't notice the Bills were dropping between 6-8 into coverage, doubling, and playing zone. It worked the whole first. The Bills DBs to their credit had excellent coverage. But at halftime Payton noticed that they were completely selling out for pass coverage, had small, quick pass rushers in the game, thus conceding the run. Enter Pierre Thomas. Being a "complete" football team Payton unleashed the running game on them. In the past Brees had nothing to fall back on. He either had to be razor sharp or the Saints lost. Now he's got a running game and a Defense so some of the load's off his shoulders.

 

[SaintBeau]

I think that we abandoned our run game for a while due to Payton's stubborn play calling.

Prove it. Give credible evidence that Payton has--even once--made a play that was based on bone-headed stubbornness instead of a true desire to win a game.

Payton has brought together an incredible offense and yet *still* people feel compelled to assign the worst motives to him if they object to his play calls. I don't understand why that is even necessary.

 

[Swimmer]

It's how you beat the Saints since Brees has been here. The D comes up the middle and beat Brees up. If he can't set and view the field, he does not like getting roughed up. No QB does. In the past few years, we would have lost this game. But Payton took the game out of Brees' hands, relied on our D and just became a very physical team that ran the ball down their throats wearing their D out in the 4th quarter. This was a thing of beauty and the stuff SB champions do.

 

[birdog]

I don't think Zach Strief is as good as Jermon Bushrod is at LT. I'm not saying he's terrible, but I think Bushrod is better.

When Bushrod went down, the pressure started getting bad.

I agree with this! Once Brees starting to lose his confidence, it became problematic for our passing game....the pressure was great, and they had good coverage on our WRs. First & 10, and the pass went incomplete, then we run on 2nd down, picking up 1-2, or 3 yds, which assured a 3rd & long situation, which brought in the crowd. And it is really hard to concentrate in that environment.

We had a golden chance to go up 10-0....remember?......on our 2nd drive instead of kicking the FG, , we went on a 4th down, and Reggie got stuffed for a loss, which brings me to a serious problem which needs to be addressed.....that was a momentum swinging play, and the Saints offense came to a halt for about 2 qts....

Why is it, that when there is a pressure situation, like a 4th & short.....Sean Payton looks to Reggie as the solution. The fact is, teams know that too, and are zeroing on Reggie sometimes with 3-4 players monitoring his every move. In that situation, the Saints offense becomes very predictable.......to his credit, Sean Payton called a QB sweep on the next 4th down situation, when Drew ran for the 1st down easily, as every defender was busily attacking Reggie who was a decoy.......we should start doing it more often, till the coverages on Reggie loosens up that he has a decent chance making a play.......I see this as the biggest reason Reggie is not effective right now......teams know that Reggie will have about 15 touches, and they're well aware of every play going his way.....unless the Saints start taking advantage of this great attention to Reggie.....he will have a tough time making game changing plays....

 

[Domeination]

I think it was really windy out there. There was a pretty high variability in kicks depending on direction. That combined with the pressure hampered him.

Yeah, Payton commented on how this was the kind of game where the elements dictated the offensive game plan. I think the other thing that played into not throwing the ball much in the second half was the fact that the Bills were playing nickle. I also noticed that they were tugging on our receivers' jerseys a lot and getting away with it. I think Drew was having trouble finding open receivers, the wind was affecting his throws (which weren't quite as accurate as usual), and the blitzing and pressure got him out of his comfort zone a bit. It happens. He'll bounce back this week in the Dome. The big story yesterday, though, is the fact that we could mount a rushing attack against a defense that had shut down our passing game, and our defense was keeping us in a close game. We would have lost this game last year.

 

[Filaphill]

I don't think it was the blitz that affected him but very good coverage by the Bills secondary. Blitzes don't normally affect Brees even if gets sacked it doesn't phase him and likely on the next play, even with pressure in his face, he can complete a long ball on 3rd and long. Sloppy conditions may have caused the receivers not to get good footing.

 

[VaeVictus]

Prove it. Give credible evidence that Payton has--even once--made a play that was based on bone-headed stubbornness instead of a true desire to win a game.

Payton has brought together an incredible offense and yet *still* people feel compelled to assign the worst motives to him if they object to his play calls. I don't understand why that is even necessary.

Just watch the game. I was not being overly critical of Payton. We were running the ball pretty well in the 1st half. All of a sudden, it just stopped. We tried passing and passing and passing with no luck. We started trying to run again and voila, we pull away.

 

[nolafan33]

It was a variety of reasons. When your recievers can't get open, your OL can't hold their blocks for that long.

 

[Innotech]

blitz pressure + windy, wet field + great reciever coverage. Brees is still human and has always had off geames. every QB has off games and its up to the team to carry them in that situation. We did that.

 

[Filaphill]

I agree with this! Once Brees starting to lose his confidence, it became problematic for our passing game....the pressure was great, and they had good coverage on our WRs. First & 10, and the pass went incomplete, then we run on 2nd down, picking up 1-2, or 3 yds, which assured a 3rd & long situation, which brought in the crowd. And it is really hard to concentrate in that environment.

We had a golden chance to go up 10-0....remember?......on our 2nd drive instead of kicking the FG, , we went on a 4th down, and Reggie got stuffed for a loss, which brings me to a serious problem which needs to be addressed.....that was a momentum swinging play, and the Saints offense came to a halt for about 2 qts....

Why is it, that when there is a pressure situation, like a 4th & short.....Sean Payton looks to Reggie as the solution. The fact is, teams know that too, and are zeroing on Reggie sometimes with 3-4 players monitoring his every move. In that situation, the Saints offense becomes very predictable.......to his credit, Sean Payton called a QB sweep on the next 4th down situation, when Drew ran for the 1st down easily, as every defender was busily attacking Reggie who was a decoy.......we should start doing it more often, till the coverages on Reggie loosens up that he has a decent chance making a play.......I see this as the biggest reason Reggie is not effective right now......teams know that Reggie will have about 15 touches, and they're well aware of every play going his way.....unless the Saints start taking advantage of this great attention to Reggie.....he will have a tough time making game changing plays....

I remember Hamilton making a 3rd and short with the Bills putting up an 8 man front. Hamilton still converted on that criticle down. I know, I know Reggie is not the same back as Hamilton but do we expect him to only play the roll of a decoy and a scat back. I understand Reggie is not an everydown back that his fault but his salary reflects that of an everydown back pay.

 

[Sophandros]

Good coverage by the Bills secondary?

I'm going to go with this.

The Bills are a good team, and yesterday SHOULD have been their first loss of the season.

 

[TheDeparted]

I think there were a number of factors that played into this, all have already been mentioned.

1. The Bills did an excellent job rushing and blitzing, which often throws Brees off of his game.
2. The Bills had very good coverage on our receivers.
3. Although the field conditions weren't particularly horrible, players were occasionally losing their footing throughout the game contributing to a number of critical passes being dropped or flat missed - these passes need to be caught for Brees to establish a rhythm.
4. The wind wasn't quite as bad on the field as indicated by the flags - but I did see that a number of passes were just slightly off target, short when throwing against the wind, long when throwing with the wind. (can someone verify this for me?) Should the long pass to Devery normally have carried a few feet further, increasing the odds that he doesn't have to slow and come back to the ball making it catchable?


The Bills' defense aside, the conditions for the game today actually dictated a stronger showing from the running game. And we finally have one. Huzzah!

 

[the-commish]

It's how you beat the Saints since Brees has been here. The D comes up the middle and beat Brees up. If he can't set and view the field, he does not like getting roughed up. No QB does. In the past few years, we would have lost this game. But Payton took the game out of Brees' hands, relied on our D and just became a very physical team that ran the ball down their throats wearing their D out in the 4th quarter. This was a thing of beauty and the stuff SB champions do.

Exactly!

This was the best thing that could happen to this football team at this time. We can now say that, just because the opposing defense can neutralize Drew Brees' ability to personally take over the game via the air, the Saints can STILL win with defense and the ground game.

By the way, that play by Malcolm Jenkins yesterday in punt coverage was also a thing of beauty. Prime Time thought so too!

 

[Rod-138]

Brees has bad games. Typically he gets flustered and tends to overfocus on one receiver(Shockey yesterday).

QB's can have bad games in wins. See Jamarcus Russel last week.

Our defense, running game, and special teams minus the field goal fake won us that game. If we would have continued to rely on Brees, then its quite possible we would have lost.

Bills played great D. I give them credit first.

Second was a combination of bad pass protection and jumpiness by Brees. He seemed afraid to step up into the pocket and was throwing off his back foot a bit.

I watched Colston run a few very suspect routes, including an out on 3rd down where he just jogged the second half of the route. Dude's a beast, but hey, I saw it.