Mudflap1
08-11-2007, 08:59 PM
If you read the postgame comments and think about what happened, this is what I saw...
1. Payton was really upset the Saints got flattened by Pittsburgh last weekend. He seemed to really open up the playbook to make a statement with his starters. Conversely, it looked like Buffalo was playing standard vanilla Cover 2 defense with no scheming, which created the situation where the intermediate zones were wide open.
2. On defense, the Saints were stunting and blitzing, while Buffalo's running plays were nothing more than straight dive plays, and a few passes (12 plays for the starters in all).
Now, I (probably like most of you) was very alarmed initially that we were just getting manhandled. In retrospect, some of that may still have been true, but I think a lot of it was the Saints coming out and showing a lot more wrinkles and gameplanning than Buffalo.
This brings up the true dilemma. In the 90s, we didn't care less about preseason. It was all about a little workout for Kelly, Thurman, Reed, Bruce (if he even suited up) and co, then letting the backups play. We knew once Week 1 rolled around that the veterans would be ready to play. It sure looks like the same thing is going on with this team. However, this begs the obvious statement -- our guys are really young. We don't have the luxury of knowing we have a veteran team that knows when to turn it on and turn it off. Do our coaches know what they are doing in showing a completely vanilla gameplan and wasting exhibition time that could be used to gel a new offensive line, young QB, young players in all? I sure hope so.
That's what I saw. I just hope our guys are ready Week 1. Until then, I'm not going to read into what happens this preseason at all. I think it's all about making sure the guys literally don't turn the ball over and hustle out there, not performance or playmaking ability.
Jon
1. Payton was really upset the Saints got flattened by Pittsburgh last weekend. He seemed to really open up the playbook to make a statement with his starters. Conversely, it looked like Buffalo was playing standard vanilla Cover 2 defense with no scheming, which created the situation where the intermediate zones were wide open.
2. On defense, the Saints were stunting and blitzing, while Buffalo's running plays were nothing more than straight dive plays, and a few passes (12 plays for the starters in all).
Now, I (probably like most of you) was very alarmed initially that we were just getting manhandled. In retrospect, some of that may still have been true, but I think a lot of it was the Saints coming out and showing a lot more wrinkles and gameplanning than Buffalo.
This brings up the true dilemma. In the 90s, we didn't care less about preseason. It was all about a little workout for Kelly, Thurman, Reed, Bruce (if he even suited up) and co, then letting the backups play. We knew once Week 1 rolled around that the veterans would be ready to play. It sure looks like the same thing is going on with this team. However, this begs the obvious statement -- our guys are really young. We don't have the luxury of knowing we have a veteran team that knows when to turn it on and turn it off. Do our coaches know what they are doing in showing a completely vanilla gameplan and wasting exhibition time that could be used to gel a new offensive line, young QB, young players in all? I sure hope so.
That's what I saw. I just hope our guys are ready Week 1. Until then, I'm not going to read into what happens this preseason at all. I think it's all about making sure the guys literally don't turn the ball over and hustle out there, not performance or playmaking ability.
Jon