Saints game thoughts

[barrett]

First and above all else, we gave this one away.

Defensively, I honestly thought we played well. The last two drives were bad, but I thought we played well enough to win. We had a few early stops, and we caused turnovers. Giving the offense a chance to play with the lead should have been huge. It should have won us the game.

The DL played well. Watt and Smith applied pressure. We held up fine in the running game.

The LBs were average. Cushing played well. Ryans was a little better even though he still struggled to hold up against the run. On one play he got killed by the FB leading through the hole. He was good against the pass though and had one great hit on a crossing route. Mario was not a huge factor. He whiffed on a sack where he had Brees dead to rights. Netiher was Barwin/Reed. We had some inside pressure, but little off the edge which is weird considering the Saints OL. We cannot win without this group being better.

Our Safety play was really bad. We got eaten up in the middle of the field all day. Troy Nolan had a few plays where he simply did not look like an NFL player. Quinn was not noticeable. Obviously Kareem Jackson was awful. He lined up 10 yards off the WR all day and the Saints figured it out in the 4th quarter. I just wish we had put the game away instead of giving them so many chances to figure it out.

On offense we put up 300 yards and 16 points in the first half with no turnovers. That should be impossible. I am hoping this is about Foster more than anything else. After all, we were bad in the redzone 2 years ago, great last year, and bad this year. Tate runs with power, but is almost too patient in short yardage. Derrick Ward would help here too. But either way, we cannot run the ball in tight and it is making it hard to PA, and we are having to resort to drop back passing in tight quarters.

I also cannot believe how little we are using our RBs in the passing game. For 3 years this has been a real stength, but it is totally absent without Foster. I don't know why this is not a part of the gameplan for Slaton when he starts the afternoon as the #2 and is assured of playing.

James Casey was great and looks like he is getting the blocking down as well. I loved how we used him in a double gun formation with Dreesen, and when they ignored him as a blocking back, he slips out for a long gain. He also looked very natural and even fast on the toss sweep. Bob may not like it since he is white, but very effective.

All of our WRs played well. Schaub was very good. He made some good throws against the blitz and victimized Roman Harper (like any smart QB). The INT was obviously not a good play, but is no different than either of Brees two picks. He made plenty of plays but we tried to make him win the game three times.

I lay the loss on Kubiak. Not for play calling. Not for redzone failures. Foster plays a part in both of those and we did score 33 and put up 500 yards. But Kubs froze up when we should have been putting them away and didn't do the things we do best (keep Brees off the field), when the game demanded it. He felt compelled to respond to the pressure Brees and co. were putting on him. In other words he was like a WR over the middle who hears footsteps.

I hope that when Foster comes back he provides enough of a security blanket to calm down Kubiak and limit the gameday meltdowns.