New Orleans Saints dissappoint against the San Francisco 49ers

I, like many Saints fans, watched in agony as Vernon Davis caught that last touchdown from quarterback Alex Smith that ultimately eliminated the Saints from the playoffs. I’m going to break down what I think went wrong, and what I think the Saints did well in the game against the 49ers.

Well, after a record breaking season, we managed to get one step farther in the playoffs this year than we did last year.

It was the five turnovers that finished the Saints off, but first I am going to go on my rant about the NFL officials that called this game.

I realize that they don’t have eyes everywhere on the field, but the hit that knocked Pierre Thomas out of the game was in my opinion a blatant helmet-to-helmet, even if the NFL ruled it not and said Thomas could not be considered a defenseless player.

At some points in time it almost seemed like the refs were doing everything they could to give the 49ers the game.  Overall though I can’t complain, they did the best they could and my hats goes off to them.

Now to analyze the Saints game play,  first off five turnovers, is way too many.

I realize that Pierre Thomas’ fumble was unavoidable, as it looked as if he was knocked out, but Courtney Roby and even Darren Sproles fumbles were completely preventable.

Ball security is always something that is important and it seemed that the Saints forgot about it during the game.

Drew Brees was fooled by coverage once and threw an interception, and well the other interception was just a great play on the ball.

I realize falling behind by 17 points so early put a ton of pressure on Drew, so he had to make some tough throws, but it was exactly that thinking that brought the Saints back into the game.

Overall the offense put points on the board and started walking up and down the field in the 4th quarter, my hats off to them for not getting discouraged and keeping their heads up.

The defense which during the 2nd and 3rd quarters was holding the 49ers to basically nothing caved near the end of the 4th eventually costing the Saints a win and a berth in the NFC Championship game.

Poor Tackling, bad angles, bad match-ups, poor reads and terrible defensive calls by Greg Williams in the closing minutes sealed the Saints fate.

I found it funny that virtually the same play was run by Vernon Davis, which marched the 49ers down the field twice.

Malcolm Jenkins and Roman Harper are talented, but come on, adjust and roll coverage to the receiver that accounted for 180 of Alex Smith’s 299 passing yards.

I watched all game as time after time Greg Williams used a blitz package that San Francisco was ready for, I also watched as he dialed up blitzes that got to Alex Smith and were effective.

I almost cried when I saw Frank Gore break his long run in the 4th quarter, I started to have flashbacks of the Seattle game last year.

But I really lost it when Smith ran in a touchdown over his left tackle — how does that happen in today’s NFL?

At times the defense just looked lost, and steady pressure from our front four was non-existent.

In order for this team too succeed, we are going to need to get that pressure from our front four.

Rumor has it that Greg Williams is leaving to follow Jeff Fisher to St. Louis, well if he does I hope we bring someone in who will concentrate on getting the defensive line in order.

Well it’s been a great season for Saints fans even though we didn’t reach the Super Bowl, we have a lot to hold our heads high about.

I know that if I happen to run across a Saints Player I’m going to shake their hand and thank them for playing as hard as they could, and that I’ll be looking forward to another good season next year.

I have my complaints about the game, but they made the playoffs and that my friends is good enough for me.

I still remember the nice brown paper bags that some fans used to don.