Saints 27, Panthers 35: Winners & Losers

Winners

Pierre Thomas - Even with all of the garbage from the game, surprisingly Thomas had a great performance. He had 9 carries for 110 yards and 4 receptions for 33 yards. Right now, Thomas is playing like he will have a breakout year.

Garrett Hartley - Hartley made both of his two field goal attempts, one of which was a career long from 53 yards with plenty of room to spare. He was also perfect on his PATs.

Saints Discipline - One "win" that applies to the entire team is that they were only penalized twice for 23 yards.

Losers

Drew Brees - I hate to say it, but Brees was a loser against the Panthers. He did his best to carry the team, but once again, he tried to do too much. He completed 31 of his 49 pass attempts for 325 yards. He had a touchdown pass on the Saints first drive, but that was it. A horrible pick six was thrown on the team's second drive, and another interception came late when the Saints tried to come from behind.

Marques Colston - Colston was a complete non-factor most of the game. Three receptions for 49 yards was all he could muster.

Patrick Robinson - P-Rob was lost in coverage multiple times throughout the course of the game. One in particular was on a 66-yard reception by Steve Smith. On a critical defensive play, Robinson bit on the wrong receiver and left Smith open by about 10 yards. He also dropped a sure interception that went straight through his hands. No catching MFer!

The Defense - The Saints defense, which was the last ranked defense coming into this game, gave up 463 total yards. 219 of those yards came from the Panthers rushing attack, which only had 10 total yards last week against the Buccaneers. I hope it's just the option style offense from these past two games that is giving the Saints trouble. The Saints offense can only do so much to win games, which won't happen often if this group keeps giving up 35 points per game. Need I even mention that the Panthers had a 100 percent goal to go rate? Just disgusting.

Aaron Kromer and Steve Spagnuolo - What goats these guys look like. Kromer seems completely clueless and Spags' "upgraded defense" is on pace to be one of the worst in NFL history. Swiss cheese defense is more like it.

The Offensive Line - So far, the Saints' O-line looks pretty bad. Brees is getting hurried and hit way too often. If this keeps up, Brees won't make it through midseason. Though, I will say, Brees does seem to be holding on to the ball quite a long time.