Saints @ Broncos: Immediate Reaction

This was painful. We knew this would be a shootout. We knew we might lose. We were all expecting heartbreak. But when we get so close to pulling out a great victory, only to fall short in the waning seconds, you can't help but feel angry and frustrated. Undoubtedly, much of the talk this week will be focused on Martin Gramatica's missed field goals but there was a lot more to this loss than just his foot. Below is my immediate response to this heartbreaker at Mile High.

• Drew Brees was just lights out. 39/48 for 421 yards and the weekly leader. It sucks because his amazing play often gets overlooked when the Saints wind up losing. He just isn't human. Without him this team would be dead in the water.
• Reggie Bush had another great game. No he didn't rush for over 100 yards, but he had 148 all purpose yards. The talk about him being a bust is just ludicrous. I want him on my team.
• Shockey had 8 catches for 75 yards. The chemisty between him and Brees is starting to heat up. Good news.
• Robert Meachem had another great game. 2 catches for 86 yards and the team high.
  
• Lance Moore had a solid game, albeit a quiet one. He was the unsung hero of this game with 7 catches for 78 yards.
• Both team's defenses looked porous. This was the high scoring shootout everyone expected. Everyone missed plays they could have made.
• Randall Gay left the game with a re-injury, meaning Jason David saw some playing time. Jason David didn't get beat outright like last year but his pass interference call was ruinous. The secondary on the whole just looked bad. Though they held the dangerous Eddie Royal to only 19 yards, Brandon Marshall had a Galloway-esque performance with 155 yards on 6 catches.
• Tackling is still piss poor. I thought that would be fixed by week three but it's still a significant problem. This team needs to get back to the basics.
• The run defense let up some decent sized plays but it wasn't the deciding factor. Selvin Young and Andre Hall only tallied 90 yards total between the two of them.
• The defense got no pressure. Grant looked pretty good with the clutch safety in the end zone but no one on the line notched a sack. Will Smith seemed to be a non-factor. Where is all that money going!?
• It seemed like the Saints offense took more shots downfield than it has been so far this season.
• Devery Henderson held onto the ball!
• The drive the Saints put together at the end of the third quarter and going into the fourth quarter was very solid. They moved the ball well on a lot of short plays and kept gaining first downs.
• Pierre Thomas may have gotten 2 touchdowns and helped out your fantasy team, but he didn't come through for the Saints when they needed him. Yet another key 3rd and short, like last week, that he failed to convert at the end of the game. To be fair, it didn't look like he had anywhere to go. Still, Thomas had 15 yards on 6 carries with a long of 10 yards. That means he carried the other 5 times for only 5 yards. We really miss Deuce, though I think Pierre needs more touches to get into a rhythm and to become a factor.
• We may need to start questioning Payton's play calling. Questionable calls are starting to become a common occurence.
• And finally...Gramatica picked the wrong game to start missing field goals for the Saints. I don't blame him entirely for the Saints losing the game but if I could put it another way...he didn't help us.

This is the official "vent" thread. Let it all out right here. It's okay, we know how you feel.

Listen to Sports Talk Live with Bobby Hebert right here for local post game audio.

Here is the roll call for today's open thread. Thanks to everyone for hanging out!