Another Perspective on the Loss

1. Not to toot my own horn, but I predicted Brees wouldn’t have a good game. This one reminded me somewhat of the NFC championship game against Chicago…so it’s good that he got it out of his system during the regular season. And I’m predicting exactly that: it’s out of his system. You won’t see this kind of performance from him again.

2. Payton also rarely gave Bushrod any help. Screens help…so do designed rollouts. As soon as it became apparent that Ware was just fine and amped up, Payton should have gone to Plan B. Was there no Plan B?

3. You’re right about Shockey, but it was the loss of our best fullback that really mattered. Thomas can adequately replace Shockey, short-term; but he really has never been a replacement for Evans. Losing Shockey means totally losing Evans all over again, and it hurts.

4. Weak first quarters seem to be the modus operandi of GW’s defense. After never trailing for our first five games, you can now count on the opposing team scoring on their first drive. But usually, that’s enough for GW to get a feel for what he’s up against, and the defense clamps down. This time, the clamp-down didn’t come until after two touchdowns; and with a bad night from the offense, that was too much. This was a night when we needed our defense to win the game for us, and they showed up too late.

5. Reggie was primed for a monster night, and you could see the anger and frustration on his face. I think he knew his mojo was in. With all the talk about restructuring his contract, or trading him, or outright cutting him, I haven’t seen any discussion of another possibility: will Reggie want to play for Payton any more?

6. Pressley is The Man…as in, the man who may make Charles Grant obsolete. Playing Pressley means moving Hargrove out to end again, where he can flourish as a pass-rushing bookend to Will Smith. Grant? Let him eat a hot dog on the bench. He’ll be happy.

7. Regarding cornerbacks, you’re absolutely right. Everything on this defense starts and ends with the cornerback play. But regarding Jenkins, I don’t think the problem is his training camp holdout: he doesn’t have the closing speed necessary, but he also doesn’t seem to have the mental acuity not to take bad angles and bite on double moves. Yesterday’s game in my area was Atlanta-New York, and the difference between Jenkins and Revis is astounding. That’s something that I don’t believe can be coached, any more than you can expect a computer with a deficient video board to “learn” how to process 3D graphics better. It just doesn’t happen. Jenkins is a safety…and, I think, a strong safety at that. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

8. We might not have been all that bad, but we weren’t good. But more than that, we failed to live up to our destiny. When Folk missed that field goal, was there anyone in the Dome, or watching out in TV land, who didn’t think the Saints were going to win?

And then they didn’t.

Well, maybe it is a good thing after all. Maybe some of the coasting the Saints have been doing against weak teams has been because they assumed destiny wouldn’t desert them, that it would win games for them, that they didn’t have to try too hard. They’d get all the breaks, and that was enough. Maybe now, they’ll have a fire in the belly again. It couldn’t come at a better time.

I’m sitting here right now in Dallas airport waiting for my connecting flight. I feel like a pilgrim in an unholy land. Can’t wait to get out of here. There’s only one other team I hate more for the Saints to lose to and that’s the Bears. In the case of this past game, the Cowboys just wanted and needed this win more and they went out and got it. Payton better take a good long look at this game film because all future opponents certainly will and base their strategy on it.

I think they’ll get their mojo back. They’d best not take the Bucs and Panthers lightly, though. One loss is all I want to see from this team this year. I totally agree that Charles Grant isn’t getting it done. I like M-E’s plan for moving Hargrove over there when Big Sed gets back.

which is what Jenkins has- very few have the speed of DeSean Jackson or Devin Hester – Jenkins needs experience so his technique is flawless which is what training camp and pre season is all about

It should all work out very, very well, though there may be one more death-defying drop…

Dallas was a desperate team and needed that win. We’ve been beating lesser teams with our second team D v.s. QB’s like Redman and Campbell and they aint Romo .Since the Vikes lost,we just take care of TB and everyone comes to the Dome where we won’t lose again.

we will be fine, we shouldn’t bow this out of proportion. We didn’t have our best run stopper and we didn’t have our best corner. We didn’t have our best tight end and we didn’t have a fullback at all. Now, the real story is that we didn’t have anyone step up to fill in those vacanices and the coaches didn’t do a good job early in the game. outcored them the last 3 qtrs, but we fell too far behind. They were prepared and hungry and we weren’t.

about what would happen if a couple players got hurt in a game and couldn’t come back in a playoff game? Injuries are not an excuse. Also, it seems like it’s getting used more and more here. Our offense isn’t missing anyone that we haven’t been without since week 5 or so(yes i’m talking about Heath Evans). Shockey didn’t play this game but I don’t think it was that big of a deal. If you want a FB to just block or want a TE to just block, throw in Strief and let him hit someone. Our offense pretty much has everyone that we have had playing but looked poor. What if some ppl don’t come back from their injuries in time for the playoffs? Can’t chalk seasons up to injuries, especially when they come late in the season.

who was already taking the FB’s place. If you think playing FB is that easy and that Zach Strief can just mosy in and get the job done with no NFL experience at the position, look at the game film and see how bad the new guy looked who actually has played in NFL games and is a bonafide FB. Or better yet, talk to Andy Reid about last year when they tried experiments like you are suggesting with Joe Klecko’s son and another fill in and it was a disaster. FB is a hard position to play. That’s why there are so few good ones around. Receivers and RBs are a dime a dozen, but there are some non-glory positions that are hard to fill.