I agree with most of what you said, but I do think that the Pick 6 from Ginn’s deflection was the turning point of the game. It seems to me that even with the mistakes we had made up to that point, the team still had positive mental attitude. That score seemed like the beginning of the end. Noone looked the same after.

I whole-heartedly agree with you on Henne. I think he played well, and I think he is going to need this week to get comfortable with his recievers again. He needs to get on them old-school Marino style.

On a side note. I was sitting next to a Saints fan and he told me to pass this on to Dolphins fans after the game. We played them harder than any team this season, and said we are not the team our record shows us to be. He expects us to be playoff bound and a few players away from big time. I agree with him…and its nice to get some respect.

The defense played the best out of any teams that have played the Saints this year. The biggest issue was dropped balls. They killed out momentum on offense. Ginn is just way too inconsistent. Why can’t Camarillo have Ginn’s speed? We need a #1 receiver.

Well, since I’m hurting just like anyone else here, except the few Saints fans who are so gracious to compliment our team, let me offer my observation from the game -many of them match Matty’s points plus a few more.

- Defense: yes it did collapse, in the 4th especially, but no D can be any good if the offense cannot sustain drives and keep the opposing O on the bench. Sure they could have come up with the big stop or turnover but let’s not get carried away in the wrong direction.
- As Matty said, I have got no problems with the way Henne played. His 1st Int hit the Wr on both hands first. the 2nd was just miscommunication on a desperation attempt or 4th-and-forever.
- the TE position regressed since last year. for as much as Haynos is a better blocker than D.Martin, the latter is being sorely missed in the passing game; Fasano, well, I hope it’s just a sophomore slump, he’s going through.
- WR corps: Bess & Camarillo are solid and dependable but limited. Hartline may have potential but he’s still a rookie. Ginn, well, Matty’s right, let’s not even discuss it, it’s just like beating a dead horse. I belive he’ll be gone by the end of the season but there’ll be no way to get rid of him during the season.
- Together Ginn and Fasano alone costed us already 3 games: Atl, Ind & NO. Think where we could be otherwise.
- Bad calls: that TO with 5 secs to go was a pure brain fart, did not like the screen to Bess which led to a fumble too.
- Officiating: I left it last because I do not want to give air to the talk: " Zebras lost us the game." However, there were 3 questionable calls in a row (Bess fumble, Brees TD, Sharper TD) where I did not like the call on the field, first; seeing the replay I thrice thought: ‘no prob, this is going to be reversed’ ( the sharper Td most of all). And, misteriously, in ALL 3 CASES, the calls were upheld. In the case of Bess fumble, the ref even started to opine that the ball had indeed begun to leave Bess hands when his knee struck the ground (ie: the ball was still in his hands). In the case of sharper TD they just offered no explanation, just uttered 3 words: the, call, stands. Now that does not sound like good judgement. Again, I’m not pointing the finger at the ref, I just say that, if any of those calls goes the other way, it’s completely another game.

Now, I don’t know if that count for a silver lining, but for all the disappointment, I cannot feel so bad for this team.

I was worried about our safeties… What I saw in the first half was amazing. I now believe that we can hang with any offense in the league if we just come after the QB. Why are we sitting back in coverage waiting for teams to throw?? Good defenses don’t wait for the offense to do something and then stop it. Good defenses cause problems. That is exactly what we did in the first half. Were you wondering where Taylor and Porter have been all season? The have been hidden in a plain vanilla stop what the offense throws at us scheme. I don’t like Gibril Wilson in coverage, or making open field tackles, but I loved him or Yeremiah Bell coming on safety blitzes. We have the tools to run a similar defense we had when we had Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain. We need to pin our ears back and just bring it on every play. Did you see how we messed with Brees in the first half? We were moving around on defense, disguising what we were doing… then we just stopped in the second half. WHY???

Bench Ginn. I like it. He is not going to produce—ever. Hartline is a rookie, but he makes things happen. Camarillo and Bess are mostly clutch too. Activate Patrick Turner and get him involved and see if he can develop for us. If we do what I suggested on defense we have more than enough offense to stay up with any team for this year. Then go our and get a real number 1 receiver. But Ginn is not that person. We know it. Defenses know it. He is not a deep threat to defenses if he is going to run down field, get wide open and not catch the ball in a important situation. We had that before—- we called him Chris Chambers.

Thinking about when we traded Chambers for … well whatever we got for him it was an awesome deal… All the analysts were talking about how we were trading the only number 1 receiver we had. If we don’t trade him, would we have had Camarillo active for that Ravens game???

or something like that … The number one job of a receiver is not to get open. It is to catch the ball. Receive + er = person who catches the ball. Good receivers don’t even need to be open to catch the ball. They catch the ball with DBs and safeties draped all over them. They catch the ball even if there is defensive pass interference.

You must pressure the QB. (not just in the first half)

You must catch catchable balls.

If you are the #1 running offense, you may want to try running the ball (2nd half).

Look i like TS, but what happened? Why was that time out called at the end of the first half? It looked liked the phins couldn’t get lined up that’s why. 4 free points for the Saints. Also on that drive we all knew it would be pass heavy. Where was Wake? I want that man on the field. 91 91 91! How many snaps did he get?

Onto the second half. Well it was soooo bad my brain decided to delete most of it from memory. But i do remember a few things. 1st, our team played with no swag and looked like little boys playing ostrage. The players looked tired and drained and wanting their mommy’s. 2nd, we had a 14 point lead and decide to come out passing??? Give me a break! And when we did run, we ran to the edge of the strong side every time.? While some guy named Vilma was playing lights out over there. Why keep doing something that didn’t work? Why not try and run though the tackles and the edge of the weak side? Anyways there is so much more that can be said about this game that almost pisses me off as much as dropped balls and missed tackles.

What sucks most about the colts and saints game? We did just enough to lose.

The coaching staff can make it up to me by sitting Wilson and starting Chris Clemons. Time to man up and admit their FA acquisition was a BIG mistake.

It looked like every play the safeties were up to the line. Ronnie or no Ronnie it’s almost impisible to run against an eight man front. Also, in the wildcat the corner was leaving henne uncovered completely. Giving them one extra defender.

I’m sorry but if we plan on being a playoff team we need to throw against that defence like the hartline catch that setup the touchdown. You hit those quick passes a couple of times and they back off and you’re back to running the ball.

First and foremost: Your team played great. Miami did things that no other team has done to the Saints all season and for that you should be proud! The Dolphins are a very respectable team and your fan base is awesome (by far the best fans we have faced all year). I was worried prior to this game and said (to my wife) in the 2nd QTR "well, I guess the Saints have to lose at some point and at least its to the Dolphins". But here is my thoughts on how the Saints were able to come back:

1. That timeout by Miami right before the half. I do not understand it, but the Saints were going to kick the FG. The timeout allowed Brees to convince Payton to go for it. A FG there does not shift the momentum as much as that TD was able to do.

2. It appears that Miami went away from the Wildcat offense too soon. I know they still ran it in the 2nd half, but not near as much as the first. I would have thought that being up 14pts (21 at one point) would have pretty much sealed the deal and Miami would have wildcat’d the hell out of Saints minimizing any chance of comeback. Miami should have continued to do what they have done best all season, run run run, especially there. Those long 8-9 min. drives would have really proved to be valuable there.

3. There were countless dropped passes at critical points in the game, something that cannot happen in a winning formula (and those turnovers didnt help either).

The bright side:

1. Miami may have unlocked the formula to beating the Saints offense: Play the 3-4 defense (which the Saints have historically struggle against), be physical in the back field, get constant pressure on Brees and when the rush cannot get there jump to deflect passes (Brees is 6’ and his passes are generally lower thrown than most QB’s).

2. Miami’s offense showed a variety of offensive packages to the Saints D. Their defense struggled tremendously against the non-traditional run plays (wildcat), which was also seen in the Philly game in week 2. The Dolphins should continue to dominate the league with their rushing attack and hopefully get a winning streak going to make a run in the playoffs.

3. If Miami can get enough going to make the playoffs, I see this team going deep. Their style is the "blueprint" for successful teams in the playoffs.

Good luck Miami on all your future games, I will be rooting for you guys (ESPECIALLY FOR THE JETS GAME!!).

Not to rub salt in the wound, but for some of the Phins fans who wanted to know how the Saints would respond if a team busted them in the lip and forced them to play from behind – well, I guess you know now.

…the dropped passes. Bad calls (and let’s not forget, we got the benefit of the 1st one on the malfunctioning replay machine or whatever the hell it was), momentum swings, unsportsmanlike conduct penalties by players overwhelmed with emotion, missed assignments, coaching brainlock, etc. are all part of the game—as is a very occasional dropped pass.
What’s absolutely NOT part of an NFL game are dropped pass after dropped pass. The real game changers were Fasano and Ginn’s dropped passes, They hold onto the balls, the ones that NFL receivers catch, I mean the ones that hit them right in the hands—and Phins win, simple as that.

He would disappear in games, then come up big, then drop an easy pass….he got traded. Hopefully so will Ginn

this game scared the Hell outta me before it was played and justified my fears. Excellent write up. It was a weird Jeckyl-Hyde game. The Phins came out with fire in their bellies and just kicked our asses in all aspects of the game. It was like Sparano kept expecting the Saints to make a run at getting back in the game so he kept trying to score. I guess he figured we’d sell out to stop the run leaving plays available downfield. He just couldn’t think that Ginn greased up his gloves.

The way you ran all over our D blew me away. I was throwing in the towel. Then our starting DT Ellis goes out hurt and his backup comes in hungry and plays better. That’s when we finally started to slow you down. I can’t say we stopped the run, Sparano was the only one that was gonna stop you.

You guys have a stud in Henne. That man is gonna win you a lot of games in the years to come.

I know a lot of people are mad that the dolphins ran away from the run. I really believe when the team views the game tapes they’ll notice something very interesting. They’ll see a team that imposes their will on an opposing team and a team that will be imposed upon. The Saints went to the run to open up the pass and they didn’t give sh@t if they were facing a team that was a top 3 run stopper. Where as the dolphins being the number one team in rushing was scared of the NOLA’s offense and gave them the game by trying to go throw for throw with Drew Brees and his arsenal. I whole heartedly believe that Chad Henne will own Drew Brees when it’s all said and done. But Henne ain’t gonna beat Drew Brees if all he’s got is a heady rookie #2 receiver in Hartline. Kind of sad that the coaching staff didn’t see that is the reason NOLA is undefeated. No one can go throw for throw with them. Not even INDY, and don’t say that’s bull crap. Manning only has Reggie Wayne, and new’s flash Sean Smith made him look like Tedd Ginns freaking uncle. What do you think Greer and Sharper gonna make him look like “if” they meet up in the super bowl, Ginns Grand papi!

If we don’t go to the superbowl but the Saints do I will totally pull for them. They’ve some classy, levelheaded, and kind fans.

The best weapon for the wildcat is when Ronnie Brown or Ricky Williams take the direct snap they have an extra blocker. If you noticed Chad Henne was on the field mostly for the wildcat as a Wideout. That takes away the extra blocker as we all know that Henne can’t block.

Where is Tyler Thigpen he needs to be in the game over Pat White. He has NFL experience and is mobile. He is probably better than Henne.

I don’t have much to say today but just this. I have given up on Ginn, he is not consistent and every good catch is negated by 4 drops…..And I see the offensive coordinator running out of good plays at the end of the game, every game. The offense just got shut down after a while and started making minus yard plays……and, if we don’t get that secondary fixed once and for all, I will just become a Jets fan…No, I could never go that low but damit come on….we get smoked by everybody in the back end defense….first half they playd good, then the went to sleep….we should have had this game but we gave it away..

wow how the fuck do you blow a lead like htat" you guys are awful. can’t wait until nex t week.

ginn drops the ball but he still does have some value on the team as a kick returner with cobbs gone for the season, he has the speed to take two back to the house before the season is out, remember he had at least 3 last season called back bcuz of retarded penalties.

as for my thoughts on the game, we hung in until the end, which is what we needed, matty has been saying we just had to be within striking distance to steal a win at the end and incase yall dont remember we were in that position with like 2 minutes left down 6. henne is a good qb but he didnt have the time to throw the ball in the 4th quarter, and the “illegal forward pass” was what sealed our fate this game. without that we had 2nd and 2 with alil over 2 minutes left in the game, camarillo didnt need to fumble out of bounds, yeah it turned out bad but if the refs hadnt made the bs call cuz it was such a gread idea we stil were in position. instead it was 2nd and 8 and with i think an incomplete pass and a false start we were screwed on 4th and 13.

other thought:

one, ronnies pass should have been caught, that to me was more inexcusable than ginns big drop, granted hes a TE the ball was there in his hands and he brought it to his chest there is zero excuse for that.

two, playcalling was inexcusable, just because u get stuffed on two running plays doesnt mean you throw a virtually rookie qb out there to protect a 3 point lead with his arm, you have the best 4 leg tandem in ricky and ronnie in the nfl, dont waste that.

three, you hafta throw a few props to the saints, i know this one is the hardest yet to swallow but they were classy all week and we can be too, they won this game with halftime adjustments just as much as we lost it in the same manner..

lastly, im really excited to see what henne does to bounce back, loving the fact that hes a mature enough QB to not pull a sanchez and drop three straight, GO FINS

We , Saints fans have seen our team beat all 3 NY teams back to back to back this
year. As you know , we was not suppose to beat none of three. As we moved through
the 3 Ny teams we saw first hand how bad there fans are! We smashed all 3 Ny teams and at the end of each game all we heard was they are better then us and we was just (lucky) ??All I am saying is this…YOU FANS IN MIAMI ARE WAY AHEAD OF THE NY
BUNCH OF OVER RATED TEAMS AND SPOILED FANS. Remember now that we did help you a little by beating Buffalo @ the Jets. Glad we did too. I see that the way you are as fans will bring you wins in the future…BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT !!! Thanks for a very good game and we will pull for and the Miami Dolphins in the AFC. I hope that the Saints and Dolphins meet again this year,

PS…I don’t like the Colts or Patroits or Jets and I think Denver is over rated. I really think your team will adjust and be there in the playoffs

You ask what the atlernatives are? I say anyone is better than Ginn at this point. Heck Koren Robinson wants another chance, Ashley Lelie is a free agent. Come on people.