Saints lose in embarrassing fashion to Redskins 47-14

This game was over from the very beginning. The Saints defense never showed its teeth, and to stick to the metaphor they tried to gum the Redskins to death all game. Missed tackles, awful coverage, dumb plays, penalties, they showed the full repertoire of a Rob Ryan defense. It isn’t all his fault, injuries have been huge for a team that lacked talent from the beginning. However, there is no question at this point that the Saints need to part ways with the giant mound of gelatinous ooze, no matter how much I might like him as a guy (or his players do). The Washington Redskins are a bad team, they aren’t without talent, but they are anything but good. They curb stomped the Saints from the very beginning. Remember that the Saints had them starting from their own 4 yard line and still gave up a TD on the Redskins first possession. They are that bad. There is no excuse, there is no ‘bright side’, the defensive side of the football was an unmitigated disaster today.

Early in the game the Saints offense was able to hang in there and keep things close, they created the illusion that the game was competitive. That was really on the back of two huge plays though; first Ingram ripped off an incredible 70 yard run that set the Saints up for a quick slant to Brandin Cooks for a TD, and the second was a blow by 60-yard TD pass to Cooks. Taking those two plays might inspire someone to think that the offense played well in this game. That person would be woefully incorrect. If you thought the Saints offensive line was bad last week, then you were likely impressed by this weeks performance as they were even worse. Brees was under constant pressure, there were never any running lanes, and the Redskins defense quickly built up both momentum and confidence. Simply put the performance was embarrassing and it is sickening to watch Brees look as good as he has the last few weeks and to have to put up with this kind of play.

I’m just as disgusted by this performance as the rest of you are so I’m simply going to list out my observations from this game.

• Brandin Cooks is finally rounding into form and starting to look like the weapon the Saints envisioned when they drafted him, however the one drop he had in the game was a killer. He was clearly (to me) pressing and trying to make a big play there, and didn’t first secure the football. That isn’t acceptable and while its good to see him making plays consistently that kind of thing has to end.
• Mark Ingram is the Saints best offensive weapon right now, he’s really come into his own. I hope he isn’t too banged up.
• The Saints don’t have a number 2 receiver, and it needs to be a top priority in the draft/FA this year to get one (or a number 1).
• There are 5 players on this defense who I would give anything close to a positive grade. Breaux, Jordan, Vacarro (barely), Anthony, Kikaha. Those 5 are the only players I have anything nice to say about for most of this season. Others have have shown flashes, or been at least not terrible, but only those 5 are guys I actually WANT to see next year. That’s 5 players out of about 20 on defense….pathetic.
• Marques Colston is done, has been done, and needs to go. His tipped pass for an INT wasn’t even surprising.
• The Saints offensive line is not improved, not at all. Strief needs to be benched after the bye, and the Saints HAVE to find two NFL quality guards in the offseason. They don’t have one right now. Unger was ok, Armstead is elite (especially when healthy), but right now this line is pathetic.
• Spiller actually got some touches and made the most of them, but the awful blocking mitigated his effect on the game significantly.
• Keenan Lewis has bionic knees, and also the worst luck in history. He is basically Sean Lee as cornerback and its really sad. If the guy could ever get back to where he was pre-injury last year we’d have something, but at this point I have to wonder if that will ever happen.
• Brandon Browner is garbage. He played poorly, and on one of Jones huge plays (there were several) he was in position to make a play and instead randomly tackled someone other than the ball carrier for no reason at all. I love what he does for Breaux and other young players behind the scenes, but ON THE FIELD he needs to go.
• Obum Gwacham looked pretty decent in a limited role. I would like to see his playtime increase the second half of the season just to see if he can become something for this team.