The second preseason game once again saw the Saints missing a number of key veterans (Drew, Jairus, Prob, and Champ to name a few) due to injury. If this were the third game, I would be very worried right now as that is the only one that really matters, however it isn’t so I will hold off on the doom clock till next week. The preseason is really just an extended tryout for many of the guys who aren’t guaranteed spots and also a chance for the coaches to get in guys ears over mental errors. In that regard this game was a resounding success… because the Saints pulled off an incredible 22 penalties in this game and had numerous blown assignments. Below I have put down my impressions from the game as well as my analysis of the Saints performance overall.
The good:
-VINNIE SUNSERI!! If you saw the game then that is all I really need to say. If you didn’t watch the game, or only watched the first half, then you most likely missed Sunseri play an incredible quarter and a half of preseason football and do exactly what a fifth round pick is supposed to….get noticed.
-Austin Johnson looks good at FB and the starters ran fairly well.
-Ingram continues to look strong and even showed some elusiveness after the catch, which is encouraging (although he also dropped a gimme so PT he is not).
-Cooks didn’t have a repeat of last week, but he wasn’t the focus of the offense and made a great grab (barely missed a long ball that was slightly overthrown…but catchable nonetheless).
-Meachem didn’t look great, and that may be a problem.
-That’s because Morgan is BACK in a big way (at least for this week). He looked as fast as ever and showed great hands and concentration on a couple of deep balls. Morgan also looked good blocking which puts Meachem’s spot in serious jeopardy potentially.
-Kenny Vaccaro is giving Mike Smith and Matt Rhianna nightmares as we speak.
-Kyle Knox looked very good at times both tackling and in coverage. He has a shot IMO.
-Lofton still can’t cover but he was constantly around the ball early.
-SJP showed big improvement from last week, but he is definitely still a work in progress. Also he provided the best durp of the night from a non-ref with his attempted lateral (please don’t ever try that again).
-Jones flashed at the end.
-Griffin won the backup job in my opinion tonight.
The Bad:
-Keenan Lewis left without a shoe on while limping…that is potentially awful.
-Khairi Fortt came up lame on special teams without being touched…never a good sign.
-Speaking of awful…every CB not named Keenan Lewis was poor at best and Wade was a disaster in coverage.
-Kelemente had a major step back this week as he was frequently beaten and also had a number of penalties (he was FAR from alone in that regard).
-I saw a number of high snaps from Goodwin that could be problematic if it was Drew, needs to clean it up if Andrew is right and he is the starter.
-Special teams coverage was nearly as bad as pass coverage. Guys still stick to blocks like Velcro and cannot find the right angles to save their lives, but a couple of guys did look ok.
-Corey White solidified himself as a slot guy. He looked like a safety in coverage (shocker: he played one in college).
-Graham was only used on the one field goal and none of the kickoffs or PT’s…I think that shows they wanted to see more of Dimke.
-As bad as the coverage was the run defense was almost as bad at times, especially early. One thing that I continuously notice with our defense is that they over commit and seem to struggle on second actions and cut-back runs. I think a lot of that stems from the lack of speed at linebacker.
My take:
I see this game leaning one of two ways: either it is a blessing in disguise, or a sign of things to come. If it is the latter this year may well go down as one of the most disappointing in team history, but I am not basing anything on preseason football (just acknowledging what I see). On the other hand; the sheer number of mental errors in this game could serve as the kind of wake up call that coaches dream of, and if they can use this to light a fire under the team it will be a blessing. That assumes Keenan isn’t too hurt, because without him we are not a SB team. I know what we will get from Cooks, I think Toon is on the roster and that’s why Sean isn’t calling his number, and I think Morgan just made the roster tonight. With Colston and Kenny guaranteed to be on there that leaves only 1 spot left. This game in its entirety wasn’t as bad as it at times appeared, and the Saints didn’t look as good as the final score suggested, but that is exactly why the preseason exists. I look forward to next week’s game, and hopefully, seeing something more closely resembling our real team out there.
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