Saints, Bucs Week 1: Observations from the cheap seats

Observations, part one

• The Superdome was very crowded and alive early. The Saints opening scoring drive brought the Dome to a fever pitch. The ensuing Tampa Bay drive didn’t dampen the spirit terribly. But the second one brought a little less noise from the home crowd. By their third drive, with the porous defense shown, the dome was quite a bit less boisterous.

I’m sure it was noted that Taysom Hill was the QB on the Saints’ first TD, the Alvin Kamara run. Remember that, you’ll see it again this year.

The initial Tampa Bay TD was simply poor coverage. There were only three receivers on the route as they were running a max protection. The Saints only rushed four, so there were seven back in zone coverage. DeSean Jackson simply ran up the seam then headed for the corner. We were in a single deep look and Marcus Williams was more shaded to the weak side. It looks like a blown coverage, but simply it was taking advantage of our scheme. We tapped Jackson as he came off the line, but then there was really nothing but open field in front of him.

Not to pick on Williams, but as the play was set up, you could see slot corner Patrick Robinson motioning to Williams that he’s going to let Jackson past him if he runs. P-Rob chucked him off the line, then let him go as he dropped to his place in the zone. Maybe Williams should have been more in center field or more to the strong side, but it’s hard to know what exact defense was called.

The officials seemed to have been wary of calls after the Thursday night football 26 penalty debacle. They shied away from calling a few things early, including a couple of big push offs by Tampa players on Saints defenders.