"I think the receivers have to play better. I thought the receivers played really poorly," Dilfer said. "They weren't getting open, they were being grabbed a little bit -- I thought Washington got away with a lot of grabbing in the secondary - but they weren't pulling out of those grabs. They were kind of quitting on routes. (Marques) Colston had the fumble again down in scoring territory, makes that a different game.

"Listen, I'm not always going to be apologetic to the quarterback, but I kind of know their offense, and I know where Drew (Brees) was throwing it. Earlier on in the game there were four or five balls that were kind of wide to the outside, and those were routes that the receivers need to keep running on. They're pulling up instead of running out of them.

"They've got to play better because they're going to throw the ball. That's who they are."