Football Critic: Evaluating the New Orleans Saints' Week One Performance

The Saints started the 2008 season on the right foot. Unlike last year's opening week abomination against the Colts, in which they got outworked in every way, the Saints outperformed the Bucs in many areas this year.

Offensive

When the Saints threw the ball...

Drew Brees hit seven different receivers for 343 yards and three touchdowns. He threw one interception, which was caused more by the line's inability to pick up a blitzing linebacker than Brees' ability to read coverage. 

Rating: Four stars out of Five

When the Saints ran the ball...

Deuce dressed out but surprisingly didn't play. Backup Aaron Stecker was inactive with an injury. Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush were the only running backs to carry the ball for the Saints.

They combined for 103 yards while averaging about 4.3 yards per carry. Thomas led the way with 52 yards on just 10 carries. Neither runner scored on a handoff.

Rating: Three stars out of Five

Defense

When the Bucs threw the ball...

I know this was just the first game, and the Bucs don't have the most explosive attack in the NFL, but the pass defense looked vastly improved from last year. The Saints limited Jeff Garcia, a Pro Bowl selection last year, to an under-60-percent completion rate and less than five-and-a-half yards per pass attempt.

They allowed only one reception for over 20 yards. Their biggest weakness was tackling.  The Bucs broke several tackles to turn minimal gains into first downs.

Rating: Four stars out of Five

When the Bucs ran the ball...

The Bucs' version of thunder and lightning (Earnest Graham and Warrick Dunn) combined for 145 yards on 19 carries. Graham gashed the Saints' defense for a 46-yard gain, which led to a Bucs field goal.

Even if you take away Graham's long run, the Bucs still averaged more than five yards per carry. The Saints need to focus on making good tackles to limit their opponent's rushing attack.

Rating: Two stars out of Five

Special Teams

Martin Gramatica made all four of his kicks and had good depth on his kickoffs. Steve Weatherford punted seven times and averaged 44.3 yards per punt. As far as coverage, the Saints did a good job on punt coverage by limiting Dexter Jackson to less than six yards per return. 

The kickoff coverage needs a little improvement. Jackson average 28 yards per return on three attempts. In contrast, Pierre Thomas averaged less than 17 yards per kickoff return, and Lance Moore returned one punt for 10 yards.

Rating: Three stars out of Five

Coaching

Sean Payton seemed to have a solid game plan against the Buccaneers. He called many plays that utilized the strengths of his players: mixing Reggie between the tackles on runs and getting him in space on passes, using Pierre Thomas in Deuce's role of pounding the ball up the middle, getting Shockey involved in order to move the chains, and not calling gadget plays. 

After his team committed six penalties in the first quarter, Payton settled his team down and they only committed one the rest of the way.

Rating: Four out of Five stars

Intangibles (Smarts)

This was a typical first game of the season. The Saints committed seven penalties, including a delay of game at home and an illegal formation on a punt formation. New starting center Jonathan Goodwin snapped the ball unexpectedly past Drew Brees when the Saints had great field position and were in field-goal range. 

The Saints lost 17 yards on the play and had to punt.

In the third quarter, Drew Brees alertly noticed that Tampa Bay was offsides and that he had a free play. He connected with Devery Henderson for an 84-yard touchdown pass.   

The Saints only committed one turnover and didn't seem to miss many blocking assignments offensively or coverage assignments defensively.

Rating: Three stars out of Five

Overall

In the end, the Saints played a good game and executed fairly well. There is a lot to improve upon. The two biggest areas of weakness for the Saints in their first game were penalties and tackling. The passing game was good as usual, and the pass defense played much better than many expected.

Overall rating: 3.5 stars out of Five

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