Ask a Saints Fan

They got pressure with their front four expecially there DE and got to Brees
We lost a shootout to GB and our coach got hurt in Tampa and we looked lost
Get to brees with your DE’s and play coverage and you have a shot

I tend to agree with mississippi.

You need to get pressure from your D-line. That is when Brees rushes his throws. Regardless of the scheme, if given enough time, Brees usually is able to put the ball where he wants it.

That being said. Your D-line to me is going to be a great match-up for our O-line. I love the depth you have on your line. Will be a great yardstick to measure our O-lines overall ability. They have been playing well ever since getting manhandled vs. the Rams.

the saints seem to always have trouble responding to 3-4 defenses for some reason

It’s an inside Saints joke
But I think his favorite food this week is lion burgers with a side of 40 burgers

and Jimmy Graham.

He is allergic to incompletions. The more he throws, the angrier he gets. His only known cure is throwing a TD pass.
He is also immune to hairballs so no need to worry about the shedding present when you guys visit the Dome.

If you could guarantee for me that the Falcons could stop pulling miracles out of their butts I would see what I could do. But since you probably can’t: No second stringers for you.

and put Bushrod in his place

Charles Brown was put on IR a while back with an Hip Flexor injury. I would say Strief is the weakest link personally.

Backus(LT) has allowed the most sacks(6). But again he has faced some of the best pass rushers in the league. He is solid against speed rushers, but has problems with the bull rushers. Overall the Lions O-line pass blocks well. They lack something in the run game.

Lucky, we have depth at DT. I see Nick “No-Fair” Fairely starting in place of Suh, with a lot of Sammie Lee Hill in rotation.

Stafford’s injuries attest to that.

That’s just a common misconception around the NFL about the Lions. Left tackle is probably the most consistent spot of the offensive line, and it has been that way for the last decade or so with Jeff Backus never missing an NFL game in his career. As far as this year, the sack numbers are up. The Lions are 13th in the league so far compared to 7th last year.

I think Suh being out gives our defense an advantage.

DLine is the strength and the deepest position… The tackle rotation will be Williams, Fairley, SLH, and Fluellen… I don’t expect ANY drop off in DLine play… I DO expect a shake up in how N.O. Oline protection… who do they double? Do they need to double? these issues should allow for an early play to be made.

…optimistism… its the strongest attribute of a Lions fan.

For some reason, the Rams play us tough. We have crapped the bed a few times recently against them. However, I do think that the loss was a combination of: the crowd energy was huge and the Baseball championship certainly helped; good pass rush and our O-line forget to bring their ability from NOLA; and that Drew tried to get points back in a hurry prior to the half and forced a throw that compounded our deficit a few plays later.

All outsider opinions so bare with me if you think I am off:

You have IMO the best WR in the game. You have a QB who is inconsistent at times but has the ability to put up ridiculous stats. Your RB situation is an unknown at this point in time (to bad about Best, Smith looked great until his ankle injury and we don’t know if he will play, Morris looks good to). Your D-line is disgustingly deep and talented. Truth be told, other than Tulloch I don’t know much about your LB’s or secondary.

Summary: I don’t consider this game even close to being a lock. I think the Lions are a very good team (and from what I have read on this site today I am far more optimistic about their playoff chances than most of you) that the Saints cannot take lightly. I mentioned earlier that I think your D-line will be a great test for our O-line. I feel this game will be a high scoring shoot-out.

I was really worried about this game but 2 things changed we smoked the Giants and Suh isn’t playing
I thought we would win in a close game because it was in our dome (the thunderdome) and because we seem to show up big against good teams and lay an egg with bad teams
But I feel much better today

Their first year we went to the nfc championship and their second year we weren’t as good but there was a vast improvement 2 years in a row
And I knew as long as we had Drew and Sean we would never be the Aints again

I suffered through it for over 30 years. I’m one of the resident naysayers that make the kiddies get all riled up anytime I say the Saints are in for a tough game. Honestly…the suffering doesn’t go away. We’ve been to 3 playoffs in 5+ years, 2 NFC championship games 1 Super Bowl victory and I still expect the Saints to find ways to lose games. It’s merely a nice change of pace when they don’t.

I still won’t say we’ve turned the corner for good…because honestly the only thing that’s keeping us from falling off the heap is our QB. We’re not a team like the 9ers that can play hard and win in my opinion if Drew leaves in free agency, or gets hurt (knock on wood) and the like. Honestly, I didn’t think we’d stay competitive and had gotten over the hump until the end of last season….yes, even after winning the Super Bowl. Now I know that barring an injury to Drew we’ll be competitive for at least another two or three years after this one. Unfortunately 30+ years of abysmal failure and being mocked just don’t go away….at least they haven’t for me. Not sure anything short of a dynastic team would do it.

So when we got Drew I knew it would be a great thing ( but we signed decent QB’s before who fell flat on thier face so i wasn’t sure)
As far as Sean Peyton goes I think I knew his first year that he was a mad sciencetist and if we loose we would always go down swinging
It’s really when Sean Peyton met with the owner in 2009 and said he wanted Greg Williams as a DC and the owner said no he was too expensive
Then Payton made a deal where he would pay an additional $250,000 a year out of his own salary to get Wiliams and the Saints went for it thhat we were set
That was the year we won the superbowl and Greg Williams has turned down HC jobs to stay here since then because of the offense Payton and Brees I knew we had turned the corner for a long time

I expected nothing from Payton. I didn’t know him…hadn’t heard of him…only knew he came from Dallas and had Parcell linkage. My expectation was he’d be gone inside 4 years. After all…that’s how it’s been since my birth…Mora not withstanding.

Drew….I knew he was good in San Diego. Not great like he has been…but good and solid. Unlike 90% of the Saints fans…I didn’t mind Brooks in the least. Going by just the numbers…he was one of, if not the, best QB we ever had and led us to the only playoff victory in the history of the organization at the time. Considering the severity of the shoulder injury that Drew was coming in with….I expected him to come in a bit short of Brooks’ numbers at his best, simply from past historical indications.

Hindsight is 20/20…but I tell the truth of how I felt and how every Saint fan I knew felt at the time. Most of us were hoping to draft a QB that year and be able to mold a true franchise QB. I wasn’t disappointed that we signed Drew, I knew he was good if he could come back from injury, but I admit I was disappointed that we weren’t going to be starting over from scratch, simply because I felt at the time that starting from scratch was exactly what the team needed.

He has been mentoring under Brees for 3 years now and when we do get to see him he does well
I cant believe some other teams haven’t tried to steal him away from us yet
I expect him to be a starter on another team sometime in the near future

Having our defense on the field is the weakness of our defense. Saints don’t have a pass rush…so expect to have all day to throw if we don’t blitz. However, the Saints blitz more often than any team in the league…60%. We do this because as Stujo likes to say…GW is trying to make chicken salad out of chicken s%&t. Our linebackers can’t cover backs and TE’s and we display some of the worst tackling of any team. Our starting CBs are above average, especially Greer. Main weakness is definitely the linebacking corp and safeties in pass coverage.

Not real familiar with your running backs now the Best is out

Johnson…rest aren’t even close. On defense…Avril and Vanden Bosch.

We have Sproles Colsten Moore Meachem and Henderson
I think the best way to stop him is get to Drew Brees
I would worry more about stopping Sproles then Graham that seems to bwe rthe reason Graham is 1 on 1 so much is teams are selling out to stop Sproles

Not physically….no. But he’s learning…he only had 1 year of college ball. He’ll make 2-3 mental mistakes a game still. Put him in a situation where he has to think…could cause a mistake. Let him play and react…the guy’s amazing.

last year we were in bad shape with RB’s theyu kept getting hurt and we were signing guys off the street
This year we are in good shape as all are healthy
The only problem is next year one will have to go and I think its going to be a crowd favorite Chris Ivory and fast bruising power back who was our team rushing leader lasr year

Except for Sproles…..no. Sproles get used the way he should….but Payton doesn’t utilize the running capabilities of our other backs nearly enough.

Wouldn’t worry too much about your offense…they’ll move the ball against us.

Look forward to the Primetime matchup this Sunday night. You guys are a tough team and have come a long way. This will be a very tough game. The guy that worries the hell out of me is Calvin Johnson. I hope our secondary is fully prepared.

That’s a good one! ROFL

Greer will draw the assignment. I like Greer’s ability. Regardless, CJ will not be shut down.

Do not forget about Flu!

It doesnt matter what the score is Payton never takes his foot off the gas peddle
He expects to score every time we get the ball whether wer up by 3 or 30 he plays till the end

One of our O’line was out and Charles Brown was replacement. Which was an Epic Fail job. The defense did a terrible job. Blocked punt. Honestly, I think coaching overlooked that game “expecting to win” was a huge factor. Cleveland last season, Arizona, and that horrific defensive performance against Seattle.

Our secondary isn’t terribly at all. Both starting corners are average to above average with Greer actually being a very solid corner. Where Jenkins hasn’t lived up to potential he’s still a better starting free safety than 2/3 of the league. The issue with our secondary is the pass rush. No pass rush means we have to blitz constantly which forces our secondary into a lot of man coverages or rolling safeties. Because of it they play a bit lose to try and protect themselves. As to what the Rams did well…they got to Brees in under 1.5 seconds pretty much every snap. Our tackles couldn’t handle their speed rush.

I’m still firmly of the belief that Wright is better.

It’s possible…but I worry about your secondary’s ability to cover when we spread out with 4 WRs and Graham. If you can get to us with your four guys only…yes you can stop us. If not, the game will probably wind up being a shootout.

He should have to explain to the players at USC why there not able to play in a bowl game this year. : (

The Saints will probably roll coverage to him off of a safety or corner blitz etc. He’ll see his share of single coverage stuff on occasion, but I doubt he’ll see too much of it. The Saints do a lot of exotic blitzes mixes pocket zones and man coverage on various sides at the same time.