When week 1 begins, all teams are optimistic. There is just that one chance the season could be a success. But what happens when this turnaround goes sour. As the season began to approach, I read many articles on the Internet saying the Saints have turned around. There is a new atmosphere going on in the locker room. Jim Haslett tried to make the team into a Superbowl contender.
All this banter went down the drain Sunday afternoon. They looked okay during the preseason, but that was the problem, it was preseason. Seattle ran 72 plays against the Saint’s defense, the most in week one. Fortunately for the Saints only 21 points were put up against them. The game agonized on and on with many just terrible plays by the offense and defense.
I would grade the defense about a C- on the day. They never got any pressure on Matt Hasselbeck. The times they did he was not able to complete a pass. Seattle did a good job keeping the Saints off-balance. A good combination of run and pass always kept the Saints guessing. They continually could not do anything to stop Alexander. .He was a lean, mean running machine.
There actually was one bright spot on the defense. Courtney Watson dominated the field. He was in on every play and trying to stop it all. Unfortunately the DB’s could not do more to defend the pass. Watson will be a good star in the league if he can keep us this pace.
In order to save the worst for last I will comment on the play selection and execution. There were numerous first downs where Haslett would call a run up the middle to Deuce. It appeared where I was sitting that whenever he went up to the line he just laid down. He never ran hard except maybe one play n the second half. I could guess what the Saints would do almost every play. Then they could not execute this plays. At one point Brooks was called for an intentional grounding on a miscommunication with Stallworth.
Now, Aaron’s number may not look bad, 18-37 for 221 yards and a touchdown, but his actual performance was just okay. He missed numerous open receivers all across the field and could not put a string of plays together to move the ball. I had more confidence in their wide outs because they did catch the ball well except for Conwell and Boo Williams who dropped many balls in their hands. Mainly the poor performance of Aaron Brooks was due to his offensive line. He never had time to search the field like Hasselbeck. They will greatly need to improve on this. Finally Deuce McAllister, looked like he was not into the game. He moved sluggishly and did not seem to try and pick up extra yards.
Next week, the offense must greatly improve for the saints to a chance to contend in the NFC South. They will take on a weaker San Francisco team. If a lose comes here, it will be a long season in New Orleans with games against Carolina twice, Atlanta twice, Kansas City, Denver, Minnesota, and at St. Louis.
After the game the players gave the same comments. We need to go watch tape and try to correct our mistakes. This seems like the typical line meaning that we have not prepared and may get ready next week. As a Saint’s fan I have gotten very irritated with these comments. How about coming out ready to play, and not going into routine excuses that fans have heard a thousand times. The paper bags may have to come on for another season even though they do have some of the best talent in the NFL.
A bad season will force plenty of new changes in New Orleans and I hope that it will not come to that.
One reply on “Why the paper bags may come on in the Big Easy.”
They Better Deuce McCallister was my top pick.
This quote is appalling though:
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports Deuce McAllister is frustrated with the Saints new one-back set. “I couldn’t get anything going (in Week 1),” McAllister said. “There was nothing that was positive. I got to the point where I didn’t care. I just put my head down and ran, got a couple of yards. I was just frustrated, not really with what we were trying to do with but with the fact that we weren’t having any success.”