Bigger Team Problem: Saints' road woes vs. lousy Panthers offense

[frash.exe]

The NFC South might be the least competitive division in football this season, and for varied reasons. The Bucs are in rebuild mode and a work in progress. The Falcons' problem is pretty obvious, they have no defense or offensive line to protect their error prone QB. The Saints' are a terrible team on the road and are infinitely more competitive on their home turf.

As for the panthers, we run an offense that somehow has cam newton on it and lacks any explosiveness at the same time. I know people will point to our lack of offensive line talent, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad if the panthers actually had a gameplan that didn't include expecting a patchwork offensive line to play perfectly and block for 20 second WR routes to develop. Every week the Panthers come in with the same mindnumbing offensive strategy by running up the middle and haplessly trying to throw downfield. That may work against certain teams but only if their front seven is even less physical.

So expect one of two things to happen on Thursday:

1. The Panthers are going to gift wrap the Saints their first road win of the season as well as their first in over 11 months because Ron and Mike want to play 1970s ball control grind it out offense with a guy who might as well be a fuging jedi knight in Cam Newton against the Saints' potentially lethal spread, or...

2. The Saints really are that fuging bad on the road and are going to play a sloppy game against the Panthers to the point that they lose in comedic fashion. And then the Panthers are going to get poo on by the Eagles next week.

I'm leaning towards a big fat L and Ron continuing to manufacture reasons why Byron Bell is actually a good player on Friday being the most realistic possibility. But for the sake of all of us, if we're going to lose I'd hope at least Mike Shula pisses off Ron by dropping a pass in the endzone and gets fired the next day.

Love,

Frash

[BettyBangzer]

I'm gonna have to go with #1, but I would love to be surprised.

[Sean Payton's Vicodin]

tough call, but i'll go with number 1. shula's playcalling and bryon bell's "blocking" is something to truly behold, a gift that every NFL fan must see before they die.

[Daeavorn]

I really want us to win, but I just don't see the rally happening.

[Jon Snow]

Numero uno

[Proudiddy]

We only get to whittle our problems down to one?

[Jmac]

God forbid we lose Thursday night. If that does occur then I can see this whole thing going down the toilet pretty quickly...especially with the Eagles up next in Philly. Suicide watch for some on here will begin at 11:30 eastern time if that happens.

[CRA]

Offense should be fine vs NO.

Issue will be can we be in nickel package all game and not allow the Saints to score 30

[top dawg]

Kony Ealy will be the key.  If he can up his game, we may be able to stop them.

 

 

[Rubi]

Our OLine can't handle anything that takes time to develop (deep passing). Not sure why we haven't adjusted to a west coast short dink and dunk passing scheme. Olsen is perfect for that. Benji can out muscle defenders in the middle on slants. Cam has proven he can read and throw from the pocket. Why can't we call plays that mask our weaknesses?