Reggie Bush: Impressive, Most Impressive

Darth Vader would have said it best to Reggie Bush, “Impressive, most Impressive.” A national audience witnessed Reggie’s potential, but the Saints were blinded by their blunders. He summoned his extraordinary talent on Monday night to score on two punt returns and positioned the Saints to possibly win, but the team couldn’t take advantage. The Blunders were plentiful: 4 Fumbles, a missed field goal, blocked kick, interceptions, poor defensive back plays and poor clock management by Payton on the last drive resulted in this disastrous loss against the Vikings. You must hand it to the Vikings, they took advantage of all but one of the Saints’ turnovers before Brees’ final play interception.

What puzzled many was Payton’s playcalling at the end of the game.  Again, inexplicably, Payton leaves Bush on the sidelines in a crucial need to run time off the clock and calls two straight passes that we incomplete. What makes this worst was the fact that Deuce was in the game on the last series.  The Saints had to settle for another Grammatica (l) Error & miss in the final two minutes (the Denver game was is first). The kick wasn’t close. Worst it was wide left. I started to feel like I was watching a Bobby Bowden’s Florida State team playing Miami twice a year. First “wide right” (Denver) now “wide left” (Vikings); well at least the third will be Grammatica’s charm, right?

The story lines are plenty, but Payton must overcome his own tendencies and play the hot man who got you to the dance. In Denver he did the exact same thing. A critical first down could get the team closer, but no Reggie on the field, in each of these two losses. Better yet, why did he want to throw the ball? Didn’t Parcells and Fassel teach you anything? Run, take time off the clock.

The Saints deserve the loss. This time you can’t totally fault the defensive line and linebackers. They stopped and harassed Peterson all night long. He’s longest run was 7 yards. However, Ferotte’s down-field passes to Bernard Berrian were the difference. The safety play was not defended well by Kaesviharn. Worst yet was, they had Jason David, subbing for the injured Porter, in the game instead of Usama Young. David was burned deep and Ferotte’s pass was short, but Kaesviharn didn’t turn to see the ball and committed pass interference. A veteran, know to turn his head and play the ball. A coach should know that you can’t place Jason David in the game on the fastest opponents wideout. Poor coaching, poor Saints.

The bright spots: Reggie. More dynamic plays are in his future.  However, will the Saints and Payton learn from the mistakes?  Well, they are the Saints. Eleven games are left in the season.  What’s encouraging are the losses.  Ummmh?  The close losses are signs that the team is being competitive considering all of the injuries to the teams’ starters.  What must happen for the Saints to remain in the hunt for the NFC South, consistency and discipline by Payton and his team.  If this fails, we will always have the 2009 season to look forward to, right?

Source: DEUCEANDREGGIE.COM