After two weeks, several teams have disappointed their fans with lackluster starts. The New Orleans Saints is among those teams. Let’s look at the problems.

Last season’s surprise is off to a disastrous 0-2 start, especially the divisional loss to the Bucs. Head coach Sean Payton has fallen in love with the wrong back. Let’s play the “Player A” vs “Player B” game.

Player A: 20 carries, 87 yards, 4.4 Avg, 1 fumble, Long of 15
Player B: 22 carries, 65 yards, 3.0 Avg, 2 fumbles, Long of 10

Who should be getting the ball more? Who is the more explosive back? As you guessed, Player A Is Deuce McAllister, and Player B is Reggie Bush. Bush still dances too much to be an every down running back. His career rushing average is 3.6! (McAllister’s despite being on a bad team for a number of years, is 4.3).

McAllister needs to carry the ball 20+ for them to be successful and it is time for Sean Payton to realize that.

For a team with defensive flaws, the Saints only drafted one defensive player in the first 4 rounds and he was a developmental cornerback. They also misspent in free agency, bringing in the over the hill Brian Simmons and the Cover 2 corner Jason David. Jason David is an acceptable Cover 2 corner… unfortunately the Saints run mostly man coverage.

It is too early to give up on the Saints especially in the NFC. They should be in contention for a playoff spot and possibly the divisional crown. But they must get back to rushing with McAllister, protecting Brees, and figure out a way to limit the deep ball against.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 9:45 am and is filed under New Orleans Saints, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.