1) While Dye should have and has to catch that pass in the fourth, the two plays that really cost us this game came on defense on two long third downs. First, on 3rd and 21, the Saints ran two deep routes and terrible play by a safety gave up 42 yards. With a man going down the middle and to our right, our left safety breaks to his own sideline, putting McDougald in a terrible position. McDougald properly stays in the middle, but this left the receiver wide open for the conversion. However, had McDougald taken the sideline, the middle receiver would have been open. This was not his fault. Second, we stop the Saints in the third with two sacks, but New Orleans is given a first down because Howard Jones decided to stick his hand in the lineman's facemask out in open in the middle of the field. What he was thinking I don't know but it was close to third and 20 or something. Unforgiveable. In both cases, two three and out's become two touchdowns for the Saints. 2) I think the refs are looking to call OPI against Mike Evans. He runs straight down the field, never stops, and never throws a block. Yes, he shielded the defender, but there has been a whole lot worse done with no call. He was jipped. Now, the personal foul call against him on the next play was dumb.3) It's rare that the first play of the game actually sets the tone for the entire game, but that is exactly what happened today. Easy to forget amid the drama and 14-0 deficit was that Winston hit a receiver (I forget who) for a 35 yard game on the game's first play, putting us in Saints territory. However, Donovan Smith is called for holding. We don't recover, and proceed to get two 3 and out's on our first two series. From that point on, we were playing catch up. One wonders how different the first half of the game would have been without that call.4) When the kickoff is close to the goal line, Rainey needs to take it out. Look what happened when he did it after the Saints' last score...he set up our touchdown drive. Would be interested to know what directions the special teams' coach is giving him, or does he have full discretion. On the flip side, some of the benefits of Rainey could be seen when he gained us 20 yards on two different occasions. Twice, a Saints punt in the fourth quarter that stayed in play for a few seconds went for a touchback because Rainey ran to the other side of the field like he was going to catch it and drew the coverage team away from the ball. Rainey is a keeper, in my opinion.5) Compare our routes on third down vs. the Saints routes on third down. How many times did Brees hit a receiver one yard beyond the sticks? Almost every time, and give their TE Watson credit for being close enough to reach the ball out. Meanwhile, we are often one or two yards short. Indeed, before Barth misses a long field goal, we had missed a third down conversion when Winston hit Evans but Evans ran a route that had his back to the sticks two yards short. We need to do better on that.6) Anyone else notice that Brees converts a fourth down and short on the quarterback sneak whereas we hand it off to Martin, who only makes it by holding the ball out while being held five feet up in the air. Defenses aren't even considering the sneak an option for us, which will make it harder to run it up the middle as they can simply key on our backs. Am still very optimistic about the future of our team
