For the second time in three weeks, the defending Super Bowl champions were done in by that which was one of their great strengths- their offense.
Four interceptions by Drew Brees. Two of those INTs were returned by defensive end David Bowens for touchdowns. Remove those scores from the game, and the Saints win. The same can be said of the Arizona game.
Colt McCoy didn't beat anyone. The defense, as ever, did their part.
On special teams, the Cleveland coaching staff dialed up a spectacular fake punt and a very impressive lateral on a punt return. Cleveland players reported some eye gouging and crotch punching by Saints players later in the game.
One can only say the same things over and over so many times. Yes, it helped that Scott Fujita was able to recognize formations and substitutions he'd seen with the Saints, but the fact remains that if the Saints don't turn the ball over, they win the game. Cleveland scored one offensive touchdown, much like the Cardinals previously.
Now Pittsburgh looms, with the strong probability of being 4-4 after eight games. Then comes a trip to Carolina, where the Saints seldom play well.
The fact of the matter is, there are no games that the Saints can count on winning for the rest of the way out. 9-7 may be enough to make the playoffs as a wild card, but it seems entirely likely that the Saints will suffer the embarrassing fate of not making the playoffs in their title defense. They may surprise us- predicated entirely on the offense rediscovering itself- but I wouldn't put any money on it.
Sad. I'm glad I wasn't able to see it.
ReplyDeleteHey, it's always been a scrappy team. Even last year, there were a lot of cardiac wins. They need to work on the offense and protecting Brees enough that he can find a target. With Bush missing, there simply aren't very many left.
ReplyDeleteEarly, that's exactly it... Cleveland didn't have to load up to stop the run, and were able to drop eight and nine people into coverage. Getting Bush back against Pittsburgh will help, but we'll have to see what kind of difference it makes.
ReplyDeleteThere is no chance anyone could be happy with Drew Brees' performance on Sunday. But had we not been coming off a Super Bowl Championship, I don't know that we'd have been disappointed to be over .500. Success has spoiled us - in a good way though. That said, 4-3, which should be 5-2 barring a pitiful kicking effort, isn't bad this particular NFL season. No team has truly stepped forward and taken control of football this year, especially in the weak sister NFC, where none of last year's playoff teams are better than 4-3.
ReplyDeleteMy preseason prediction was 12-4, assuming we'd go 3-1 during each quarter of the season - losses assumed to Minnesota or Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Dallas and maybe Baltimore (in Baltimore in December...). I'm now leaning more toward 6 losses, but that will likely still get you into the playoffs this season (assuming we do better in divisional play - at 2-1 so far, we're not bad, but we haven't played well yet...).
The good - Brees can't be that bad every day; defensively we're not doing terribly even with all the injuries; we're treading water offensively without 2 key cogs to our offense. The best is that when we get these guys back on offense and defense, they'll have fresh legs at a time when the games are starting to take their toll on guys. Especially with a guy like Sharper, who was great for the first 8 games of the year, then fell off the last half of the season. His season effectively just started, so he should be OK throughout now. Same for Bush, Thomas, Porter & Greer.
The Bad - offense is struggling. Yes, we have RB's who don't know all the blocking schemes so Drew has been at risk, which is part of the reason for all the int's. Yes, people know our offense better and have devised better ways of blocking us. But we have apporximately 16 drops so far this year too... that's not helping Brees. Our O-line hasn't done well with blitz pickup either. Defensively, we still haven't found a way to stop the premier back on the opposing team. And with our injuries, we lack depth and are susceptible at the corners. While Jenkins is a solid safety, he doesn't have the savvy of Sharper. Jenkins has to play by the book to be successful - therefore he's in position to make plays most of the time, but isn't very instinctive; he can't be. Sharper knows the book, but also knows the addendum to the book; that stuff that allows him to not play by the book on every down. Yeah, it gets him burned from time to time, but that's a risk you'll sometimes take to have more takeaways. That's another bad - we're -5 in the turnover battle. We were dominant there last year. But when you have played so much of the season with your main defenders hurt, it's hard to create turnovers when you're just trying to coach them to get stops. And every bounce went our way last year - this year, not so much.
I feel that if we can go 5-4 into the bye, we're in position. People get healty and we play a strong 7 week season of 5-2 ball. Hope that people realize that Atlanta is very one dimensional in the passing game and decide to shut down Roddy White and make Turner beat you. Maybe they can come back to the pack and we can get evened up with them. i'm concerned, but not defeated yet...