Well, the Saints dropped to 4-3 thanks in large part to a terrible performance, top to bottom, which led to a 30-17 defeat to the Browns. I mentioned the Saints had no business losing to the Browns earlier this week and it turns out it’s the Saints that had no business taking the field. The Browns manhandled the Saints in every single phase of the game. The Browns jumped in front of Drew Brees passes seemingly at will, Scott Fujita decided to have the game of his life, and the Browns’ coaching staff pulled out all the stops. They ran 3 ridiculous trick plays, all of which yielded overwhelming success. It’s back to the drawing board for the Saints, who are now a full game and tiebreaking scenario behind the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South. Below are my postgame thoughts, bullet style:
— I’m going to start, surprisingly, with the good news. This loss isn’t as bad as it looked for the team’s season. In the grand scheme of things, losing to an AFC opponent is least harmful. No loss is good, but at least they didn’t lose to direct playoff competition or someone they’ll need a tiebreaker over.
— Drew Brees had by far the worst game of his life. 4 interceptions thrown, and honestly, it could have easily been 6 or 7 if the Browns didn’t drop a few right in their hands. He was clueless out there. Clearly he didn’t get much sleep this week. I have to question how prepared he was to go out there this week. Obviously there’s lots going on in his personal life with the birth of his son. His head was clearly elsewhere.
— The offensive line was terrible. Penalties, missed tackles after the interceptions, poor pass blocking, poor run blocking. It was a complete 180 from last week.
— David Bowens with 2 pick 6’s? What is that? How does a 300 pound man look like Rod Woodson out there? Unbelieveable. Oh, and he also tipped a pass on the Marques Colston touchdown. Maybe the Browns should start him at free safety.
— Chris Ivory had almost no room to run whatsoever.
— People always talk about how good Brees is at spreading the ball around. I guess he did that a little bit, but honestly, I thought he looked for Colston too much. In his defense, Colston was consistently making plays out there.
— Courtney Roby hit that sticks holder very hard, and something was clearly not right. I just hope the guy is ok. We’ll hope for this best concerning his health, it didn’t look good.
— Jimmy Graham looked promising. Looks like we might have a tight end of the future?
— Malcolm Jenkins had two backbreaking penalties, and clearly wasn’t ready to be moved back to cornerback after playing free safety all season. Jenkins is proving he’s not someone who can be relied on, in my opinion. He’s too hot and cold, and his mistakes kill the Saints.
— It’s pretty sad that after Max Hall handed it to us, Colt McCoy does the same behind a 74 yard passing performance. That’s right, McCoy threw for a whooping 74 yards. If that’s all that’s needed to beat us, then you’re doing something SERIOUSLY wrong.
— Garrett Hartley may not have missed a kick, be boy did he butcher a meaningless onsides kick attempt.
— Special thanks to Scott Fujita for playing out of his mind (sarcasm). Funny, he never had a game like this when he played for the Saints. I always liked Fujita, and don’t get me wrong he’s a solid player… but he looked like he spent the week with Sean Payton going over the playbook and gameplan. Fujita understood the Saints’ offense much better than at least have of the Saints’ starters, including Drew Brees.
I’d type more but I’m afraid I’ll threw my laptop out of the window. Stay tuned for player grades.
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