I have to laugh when I hear that Sean Payton's play calling and decision making cost the Saints a victory at Denver.
Let's face it. The Saints are a 9-7 when they are healthy, a 7-9 or 6-10 team when they aren't. The offense and the head coach lost the game? The Saints scored 30 points on offense, without their best receiver Marques Colston, and still lost. The Broncos averaged 4.4 yards a rush and 12.6 yards a pass play.
The Saints biggest problem is their roster isn't good enough. With one of the top 6 quarterbacks in the league, Drew Brees, healthy for 2 seasons and 3 games, the Saints are 18 wins, 17 losses under Sean Payton. The Saints don't have enough playmakers, period. How many guys on offense and defense, other than Reggie Bush, are effective in space?
In the meantime...here's some items about the game tape vs Broncos...
1) today Payton complained that Denver was offside on the key third and one before Grammatica's missed 43 yard field goal attempt. He's right. Denver's play on the far right of the Saints formation was offside, but he was cleanly blocked and made no impact on the play.
2) I thought Kevin Kaesviharn was a pretty good player, but he was burned again Sunday on the double move by Brandon Marshall.
3) In the second quarter , on the goal line Pierre Thomas made a big mistake. He put his head down too early, when he had a chance to jump the pile and score.
4) You may not want to believe this but: the Saints red zone offense will improve when wide out Marques Colston returns.
5) Zach Strief did a nice job in place of injured Jammal Brown at left tackle. The holding call on Strief, on a Saints screen, was bogus.
Please email me at ed@abc26.com with questions or comments.
Regards,
Ed Daniels