take the 3?
why?

You get 3 points and give them the ball at the min 20 yard line.

Instead your risk 7 points or.. they get the ball at the 1 and you get a chance at a sack .

We got the sack so we still got the 7.

or they get the ball on the 2 yard line and that didn’t scare him one bit. I think he was betting on field position the next series at the worst and it turned out even better.

He’s already lost a couple of games under those same circumstances in the past.

I think Payton trusts this defense. Not necessarily to get a safety or TD every time, but at least get a three-and-out. Then the offense gets it back with a short field. I’m guessing over the course of the season we’ll see that pay off with either TDs or subsequent short-fields most of the time.

I don’t see the 4th down tries as desperate, just a different philosophy. With this offense it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that we can start picking these 4th and short situations up. And if we don’t, Payton trusts our defense. I doubt we’ll see him go for it if it’s a tenuous lead or tied late, but the Jets really hadn’t shown anything that would make us believe they were suddenly gonna start marching down the field. As close as the game was, the Saints were pretty much in total control.

that he is protecting… he is not taking those chancy throws that could lead to turnovers. And, he is not getting sacked much. Vs Buffalo and NY Jets, it was a good strategy. We could have opened it up and I think we would have been successful, but I think Brees and Payton just wanted to not turn the ball over and they knew they could win these games the way the defense was playing. So they played conservatively from that point of view. Remember we haven’t trailed this season yet and we have been pretty good about not shooting ourselves in the foot.

“Lets fret about moving the ball on short yardage when we face a team that doesnt excel at stopping short yardage”

Is there magically going to be a shortage of such teams, if and when we reach the playoffs? Armchair quarterbacks typically sweat the small stuff as it arises, regardless of the opponent. To be the best, you have to overcome scenarios like this, no matter who you’re matched up against.

Just one thing I’d add about the specific call to go for it on 4th and goal. The score was 10-0 early in the second quarter. The most important factors there were the score, confidence in the defense and understanding the opposition’s offense, and the knowledge there was plenty of time left to get another score before the half. I liked the call (except trying to pass it to Nesbit – that was pretty crazy).

More generally, I’ve noticed a lot of people worrying or complaining about the lack of production in the passing game. The Jets are known as a blitz happy defense. But they didn’t blitz nearly as much in this game, probably because they knew how effective Drew is against it (which he showed). They were consistently dropping back into coverage and not allowing anything down the field. And the result was another 153 yards rushing. This will continue to be the case all year long. Opposing teams will have to decide whether they want to bring a lot of pressure, in which case Brees will light up the stat line, or drop into coverage, in which case the RBs will light it up. I see nothing to worry about with that.

The biggest worry for me right now are the penalties. A few of them yesterday kept this game from being a blowout. A few of them like that against a team like the Giants will lose the game.

I can see the logic in all of it, except for

Sean Payton (and other "riverboat gambler" coaches) doesn’t go for it as often as he does because he gets off on it

He may be betting on his offense against the other guy’s defense when he makes those calls, but I’m pretty sure he gets off on it, too.

I don’t NOT question playcalling, when it works. If I don’t agree with the call, I question it regardless of the outcome. Had Nesbitt suddenly sprouted Dwight Clark wings on that particular play, I would have been like “HOLYSH***TDIDYOUSEETHAT?!?!!”, high fived everyone on my row and the one behind me, then turned to the guy next to me and said “unbelievable play, but I would have kicked the FG”. He’d probably just shrug it off, or say something cutesy-obvious, like “well, I guess we know why you’re not the coach!” That’s when I’d mutter “you got me there” under my breath and proceed to crack open another peanut. As far as situational assessment goes, here’s mine: if it’s the fourth quarter, I don’t have time for another possession and I’m trailing by 4-8 points, I’ll go for the TD. If I’m down by 9-11 and have to score twice regardless, I’m kicking the FG and onside kicking. If I’m down by 3, I’m playing for OT. There’s just not a whole lot of thought process involved, in most cases. Especially that early in the game.