BrianS

We are capable of winning this game. But it won't be easy. Our roster is too thin, too young for us to anticipate any easy games. I think the loss of Tyrod Taylor is what made us such solid favorites here. We are a promising, young team right now. That's all. This is the first of many traps we can fall in to. We have to keep that one week at a time attitude this year.

Baldy lookin to fill that John Madden sized void in broadcast. I'm ready for it.

It wouldn't make me cry to see Deonte get some snaps this week. Obviously he isn't ready to start, and his position flexibility is non-existent. However, this might be the best chance he has this year: get on the bench when someone is injured and grabbing a few snaps here or there. Maybe he turns some heads in those reps, best case scenario.

Is Bouye better than our third best CB? If the answer is yes, this is nothing but positive for our team. I am not sure, but on paper it seems like he probably is.

Scheme and talent work hand in hand. If the talent isn't there, it doesn't matter what scheme you dream up. Likewise, having a ton of talent without a strong scheme / identity is equally ineffective. If we had tried to run this scheme last year with the talent we had on hand, we wouldn't have been as worried about all the close games. We simply wouldn't have had any. Eventually opponents will catch on, and it won't look that good. We'll have injuries. Rooks will make mistakes. This defense isn't the finished product yet. What we're seeing now is simply an early preview of it. I'm very optimistic for the future, even if I don't think this is our window yet. The good news is that this team is eminently more watchable than the teams of the late Rivera era. Great to see our team really putting out the effort.

I can get behind all of that except the finding a kicker part. That's Fitterer's problem. Blackburn can only coach the guys who are there.

I usually give folks a chance to have a conversation in good faith, but yea, people who aren't willing to do that I don't continue to bother with. No loss. Good apples, bad apples, every forum has each. The trick is learning which is which.

If you truly believe that then we should have kept Hurney. "Rhule is the GM" right? The GM builds a roster of 90 players that he thinks fit what the coaching staff are asking for. He has final say on the draft and FA. The coach evaluates that roster and picks the 60 players he think will get the job done. He has final say on the in season roster. That's how it works. This doesn't preclude massive collaborative work between the two. It's very clear that happens. But each has final say in certain situations, and it seems to be working out pretty well.

Saints bottled CMC up in the run game . . . and we're really expecting production from a 4th round rookie in the same game? Come on. The way I'm seeing it is that today Chuba took 8 hits that CMC didn't have to. Over the course of a season, that's gonna be 120-150 hits our star back doesn't absorb. I here for it.

Real numbers are . . . Defense: Offense:

This is exactly it. Gano was always a top kicker, but when he missed that kick, that's when all the talk about "overpaid" and "choke artist" started. Turns out, he just missed a kick. It happens. We forget all the times he made kicks to win games, tie games, keep us in games, get us points. GG has been one of the better kickers in the NFL since 2012. Ironically, the first year he came to Carolina. Prior to that year, he had been very inconsistent and on course for a Joey Slye of his own. Cutting Graham Gano while he was injured, after seasons of 96% and 88% FG's made . . . stupid. But hey, we saved a couple million.

I'd be super happy to see our defense continue their rise against the Saints. I do think that if you pressure Jameis, he will make poor decisions. Kinda like our guy actually, though I think Sam isn't quite the turnover machine Jameis can be. Close game I think / hope, and I believe the game will be decided by whichever defense can get the most consistent pressure on their opponent.

Good game plan? Really? How many drives did we sustain in the second half? Oh, right, ONE. I get that we missed a couple opportunities in the first half. What about that second half? We had how many drives? Five? Six? And three points to show. What has Brady done, exactly? Yes, Joe Burrow looked great . . . for one season. He played a big role in getting TB5 in here. Our offense ranked 24th in scoring. This year so far? 19 points. Brady has a long way to go in order prove he is "the next thing".

Wilson escaped SOOOO many times too. A QB less mobile probably would not have been able to finish that game. If our defense keeps playing like this, we may only see Matt Ryan once this year. Burns & Co may end his season in the first game.

How you figure that? Our offense put up 19 points. Last year, 19 points in a game would rank your offense 30th in the league in scoring. Not sure who would want a coordinator as a coach whose scoring offense ranks somewhere between 24th and 30th. In the end, the success of an offense is putting points on the board. Brady has not yet demonstrated he can make that happen.

I would be super excited to see Chinn "released" to go tear (*&@# up the way Chancellor was. Dude really has a knack for being where he needs to be closer to the LoS.

What Rhule said was something along the lines of "Our defense was playing great and I thought we could pin them deep". This being coach speak for "I have zero confidence in our kicker and I don't think we can pick up six yards"

It's certainly a concern. I think I'd like to see CMC at around 25 touches per game instead of 30 so long as a healthy portion of those touches are still catches instead of runs. I do agree that CMC is eminently capable of running between the tackles, but that doesn't mean we SHOULD pound him between the tackles consistently. Let him run there enough that teams must repect it, but I'd rather see him catching it and juking LB's to lower the pounding he takes.

I can definitely get behind this idea. I realize they were trying to limit exposure given the 17 game season, but we certainly didn't look fully "ready" on offense. Defense always starts faster than offense and all that.

I agree, this seems fair and perhaps slightly optimistic. Our performance against the Jets lacked a lot of polish and the Saints looked like, well, the Saints. I'd love to see us simply be competitive in the game with a chance to win at the end.

Here's the problem: One sustained drive in the second half. One. That's not winning football against average NFL competition, let alone a "good" team.

I daresay one game is no certainty. Sam needs to show everyone an entire season of consistent, quality play. He's got three seasons of "potential bust" smeared all over him, one game doesn't wipe that away.

Here's lookin' at you Mr "Get the eff off our field".

How can we get rid of the other 20 Saints starters . . . asking for a friend.

I was one who thought Snow did the best he could with a really bad hand last year. Year two, he's looking better - albeit it's WAY too early to crown him. By week 8 we should know how the defense looks, and thus how Snow looks. Yesterday was a great start to a season.