Minnesota 9 @ New Orleans Saints 14: Who Dat Say!?

we are just a better team than the Vikings and we have beaten them twice and both times because the defense played well but in different ways.

to us!!!! – OUCH!

When the offense got their act together they moved the ball fairly well. I hope this is not another year of the kicker costing us games. I think Hartley will be ok. Hire John Carney not as a player but as an assistant to mentor him. Just remind him he needs to aim for the fleur freaking de lis. I’m so happy we are again on the good side of this ugly game.

I have to say, I was heartened by the fact that they got the running game going in the second half, especially against a team with as good a run D as the Vikings usually have. The dropped passes were a concern, and no, it wasn’t exploding out of the gate like against the Lions last year, but I feel like this might have been more important. For 4 years I have heard that all you have to do is stop the Saints from scoring and you win, and I don’t know that anyone can say that any more. Hats off to the D in the second half, and again to Payton (and GW I am sure) for the amazing halftime adjustments. For the last year and change I feel the Saints have consistently out-coached their opponents, and that was in evidence again. While I am concerned about the inability to make in-game adjustments (or at least the appearance of that inability), once they go in for the half, the Saints seem to own the second half of games. A little better hands (not something you hear often about the Saints) and this really would not have been close. Congratulations to the Saints, and I hope that the long rest will let them knock a little extra rust off of the offense and be on top of the 49ers next week.

I wish the Vikings were at full strength when we beat them.

That way, there can be absolutely no woulda-shoulda-coulda’s. No denial. None.

Pat Swilling: “I could get on I R.”

LOL!

Hope to see you in the play offs.

Yes, the offense was not at its best, but you can’t even imagine that won’t straighten itself out. Brees and company will be just fine. In any case, it was clear that we were adjusting to the Vikes talented d-line, Brees was getting rid of the ball in a second or two, trading some accuracy and extra reads for making sure he didn’t get killed. Good plan, and it worked.

Hartley proved himself to be human. So he’s not going to hit 100% this season…he won’t hit 0% either.

Meanwhile, things we might have been generally nervous about looked really good last night. Run defense was more than adequate, despite one of the better running backs being the focus of their offense (and in comparison to our seemingly starting out by spotting the enemy a 50 yard rushing touchdown on the first series of each game in the later part of last year). Our linebackers were generally outstanding, including in coverage. And our corners were not suspect going in, but good lord did they look good. How many well thrown balls did we slap away last night, with no interference?

I think we can look forward to our offense getting back into form, and our defense looks like it is improved over last year. WHO DAT!

is right. We have a target on our back this year and every opponent is going to give everything they have. Hats off to the O-Line, even though some plays were broken, they worked their tails off. The victory wasn’t “sexy” (high scoring long bombs) but it proves one thing… Our Saints can win the low scoring, smash-mouth sytle of football too. Finding a way to win is Gold. Who Dat!

Thank you New Orleans!

Chris Gates at DN mocks our greatness and in doing that makes his team look like shit because they lost to us.

Oh well…

We only scored 14 points against a team with a depleted secondary. Who cares, It’s only the first game of the season.

that the defense can hang and the Saints can win even without scoring a ton of points. I read that the 14 points was the lowest point total that the Saints ever got under Payton and still pulled off the win. That has got to say that our defense has improved big time. In years past we needed more than just 14 points to win. With that said, getting the win speaks volumes about our D.

This was our first win by scoring only 14 points. Hat’s off to our defense last night. The offense will be back in full gear again no doubt.

I do not care how we win, whether by blowouts or razor-thin games. I just want my favorite team to keep winning.

I won’t get into the torrid of things that were just…well not good. So in the spirit of “if you can’t say nothing nice, don’t say anything at all” mode….Roby was money last night on coverage. As maligned as we were on special teams coverages in the preseason, we were great last night, and they were led by Roby. Good game by Harper too.

kicking issues or was that just a bad night that he gets a pass on, but bet’not let it happen again?

All performed fantastic last night

Shanle played pretty good last night. Did anyone else noticed that we played a lot of 3-4.

maybe it was all the adult beverages i consumed before the game, but it really didn’t seem like we looked terrible (hartley’s missed kicks aside- and so many kickers around the league have off games like that). our offense was a little off-rhythm, but we were playing a team that — i thought — was supposed to have a really solid d. jared allen, who sports commentators love to gush over as one of the best ends in the league, had little-to-no-impact in the game. brees looked sharp, and his passes were super-crisp – wideouts need to secure them a little better, but there weren’t any egregious miscommunications or other reasons to worry. our defense was exceptional, and i liked that we didn’t blitz like crazy.

sure, we COULD have lost – but that’s true in any game. don’t know if y’all remember this, but we used to score lots of points and still lose. i don’t mind that we “only” scored 2 TDs (ask raiders or rams fans how they’d feel if they could score twice per game), and i think in the age of fantasy football and the expectations based on our previous performance, there are a lot of sour winners out there.

way i see it, we’re undefeated and have already played probably the best team we’ll face in the nfc. WHO DAT!

It wasn’t the prettiest game, but your team was better tonight. Congratulations!

and won without scoring a ton of points. I think we’ll be alright. I think we would’ve scored more in the first half if we would’ve run more. Reggie only got two carries but hey, 7 touches overall. Just hope this isn’t like last year. He’s healthy now, so no excuses not to use him.

I had someone tell me the game was boring but I didn’t feel that way, I thought it was exciting because it was so grimy and every single play/yard counted. I feel like high scoring shoot outs are fun but real football is played in the trenches. Is this just me being inexperienced or was it really just a boring game?

Also just by logic shouldn’t we expect to see a lot more of these games this season because everyone is going to bring their A game (however much of an A obviously determined by team) rather than the high scoring ones? I know some things need mending like the 3 dropped balls and missed kicks that would have put us a lot further ahead but it seems like we need to prepare ourselves for excitement that will probably be different that last season. No?

I just can understand how ppl saw this as a boring game…that’s fine with me. But I get your point. Very interesting.