The Saints will look to rebound from a largely questionable performance in Baltimore to play better in New Orleans. After practicing with the Patriots at the Greenbrier the Saints will now face them in a live game. Here are five things I’ll be looking for:
1. No serious injuries.
True to form we’re sticking with this as the permanent preseason #1. I’m glad I pointed that out last week and thought the Saints had lost Brandon Browner for the entire season on the first drive. Fortunately that doesn’t appear to be the case. The Saints did lose Lawrence Virgil, though, and I’d like to see them fare better on the injury front this week.
2. Does Tom Brady shred the banged up secondary?
The first practice seemed to go well but Brady dissected the Saints secondary at will in the second one. With all 5 primary starters (Byrd, Vaccaro, Lewis, Browner, Breaux) likely to miss this game I’m expecting things to be dicey but maybe we’ll get a pleasant surprise. Most importantly I’d like to see Stanley Jean-Baptiste continue to show steady progress. I’m still clinging to hope he can become a contributor.
3. Can the Saints clean up the penalties?
The Saints had 16 (!!) penalties against the Ravens. It was unacceptable, most significantly from the kick return team. If the Saints have another game that’s so undisciplined it will be a sign that coaching isn’t taking. You know extensive time was put into cleaning up that area so I would expect the players to respond with a much cleaner game.
4. Brandon Coleman’s performance.
After a quiet first game, Sean Payton said that Coleman would play with the 1s and see significant time in this game. I still have high hopes for him this year. But he will need to show something in preseason if he’s even going to make the roster. I’m also curious about Willie Snead who is tearing it up in practice but Coleman is the one who I think could significantly help the offense this season if he lives up to his potential. A big performance from him will go a long way towards giving the team more confidence.
5. Rob Ryan needs a good showing.
When I talked about the “lost sheepdog” look in Rob Ryan’s face at the end of the Ravens game I wondered aloud if he had it in him to get through another season like this when the defensive performance was so reminiscent of the 2014 season. Ryan looked sad and broken. The defense needs to look good for our confidence in them but also for Rob Ryan to bounce back from a miserable start to the year. I fear another awful showing, particularly from the starting defense, will give their confidence a blow before the season has even started. The flipside is playing well against the defending Super Bowl champs despite injuries would mean more reasons to be optimistic.
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