THE stat of the game.

[Swarly]

drew brees gonna drew brees

tony G gonna bend us over if we let ATL's TE's get as open as Graham was all game long

[Herb]

Graham just killed us. Besides the one play where we prevented a TD pass to him in the red zone and they had to settle for a FG they just abused us all day. He was the go to guy - especially on 3rd downs - and they had their way with us. It was such a shame on the game winning drive because we had a chance to force a 3 and out. And then after they picked it up the defense still looked up for the challenge and forced the saints into another 3rd down... but once again failed to get off the field. And then the Saints just worked us hard and got into our red zone in no time at all and you just knew they were going to score.

At that point I was wondering why we weren't taking a timeout to save the clock. Now if we had a 7 point lead I agree with letting it run out and try to hold them, but we didn't, and we left ourselves no time to try and strike back. Not stopping them on 3rd down is a key stat in this game, but Rivera has been awful with clock management all season. However, that is going to come with time. I love Rivera and if it wasn't for him we would have no future. We're still a young team and we're going through growing pains and all of these brutally close losses are going to pay off in the long run.

This isn't about just one season. We're building a program here and not everything is in place just yet and all of the kinks aren't worked out. But we are far ahead of schedule and we continue to improve. I know it sucks that we're not winning a lot right now, especially for Cam and other guys on this team cause they really deserve it as does Ron. But the wins will come.

I love Cam's attitude about not accepting losses, but at the same time that isn't realisic in the pros. You are going to take your losses. The talent level in this league is just too high. And it's not like Cam has been perfect either with how we started the game. But he has a ton of poise and fight in him just like this entire team and coaching staff and that's why we still should have won the game. But we're not "there" just yet, but we're certainly closing the gap to what it takes to be a great team and a consistent winner in this league.

[ed bell]

The time out didn't help the Saints score, it was the 12 man confusion that forced the time-out....Rivera took the blame there...I guess they should have rolled the dice and made the Saints actually pull the trigger on the play. If they can't get it off, the 12 men doesn't matter. As it happened, there were two seconds on the clock. If the flag falls, it's a 41 yard attempt instead of a 46 yard attempt, so I see the coach's point there.

This is all hindsight stuff anyway, but it's even tougher to put yourself in Rivera's shoes considering the bang-bang time frame here. I still think the failure to stop them on 3rd and 3 from the NO 18 on the final drive coupled with the interception on the first play of the game sunk us on Sunday.

[ed bell]

drew brees gonna drew brees

tony G gonna bend us over if we let ATL's TE's get as open as Graham was all game long

I'd watch it again, but I can't take watching losses twice.....I remember the announcers basically saying Godfrey was doing a great job on Graham while everyone else covering him sucked....