Panthers game, the morning after

Discussion in 'New Orleans Saints Forum' started by mctiger, Sep 20, 2021.

  1. mctiger

    mctiger RIP, and thanks for the music Staff Member

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    Two games in, and we've seen two great examples of why you don't draw conclusions about a team after one or two games! We are neither as good as we looked vs Green Bay, nor as bad as we looked vs Carolina.

    No one likes the idea of blaming a loss on injuries, but sometimes there's just too much to overcome. Ten players missing, and you could see the effects of their absence. Compounding it was the absence of 8 position coaches, which really had an effect on the offensive line. The adjustments that should have been being made on the sidelines just weren't happening. That said, if I had to pick one player who we desperately need to get back, its Eric McCoy. Ruiz is just not ready to recognize blitz patterns and call out protection adjustments. And this week he'll have to match wits with the the Evil Hoodie? Not good.

    Not going to get too freaked out about Winston at this point, either. Moose Johnson at some point went back to the "You don't always have to be Batman" quote. What he left out was, sometimes, you do have to be Batman. Yesterday was one of those times. But there's a reason Batman had Robin; he couldn't do it alone. Batman needed Robin yesterday. So who should have been Robin? Kamara, maybe, but he just had no fire yesterday. Maybe someone - anyone - at wide receiver? Right now, that crew is as useless as it gets. Nobody gets open! Getting Kenny Stills on the field should help, but I don't know how much. Stills at best is a WR2, and we need a 1. The funny thing is, in about a month, if we have a healthy WR room with Thomas, Stills, Calloway, Harris and Montgomery, I'll feel pretty good. (Yes, I've about given upon Tre'Quan Smith) Then you've got the wild card of Kevin White on the practice squad; if the coaching staff can coach him up to his potential, things get very interesting. But for now, we've got a room full of WR3's and 4's at best, and that's simply not enough weaponry for a QB of Winston's (or Taysom Hill's) current caliber.

    Defensively, even with all the personnel we were missing, things could have been worse. 26 points was really not the issue; time of possession was. We struggled to get off the field on third and long, and on at least 3 occasions, we should have gotten off the field but a costly penalty screwed up the effort. I thought we played the run decently, but we really got exposed at linebacker. Looking at Zach Baum in Kwon's place here; that was disastrous.

    So, on to New England. I think we get Lattimore, CJ and Kpassagnon back, which should help. Add Stills to the offense; good thing. Getting all the coaches back on the sidelines....better thing. Does it all add up to a win? Not very confident at this point. This season remains all about getting through the first six games, which should see us back to something at least close to full strength. Then we really see how good we are.

    Oh, and I think Father Time is tapping Cam Jordan on the shoulder.
     
  2. mctiger

    mctiger RIP, and thanks for the music Staff Member

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    Superdome roof caught fire today. I am disturbed by the symbolism of this .
    http://data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg== upload_2021-9-21_14-0-22.png
     

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