METAIRIE
Vita Vea Jersey , La. (AP) —the first part of Monday urging players and his own coaching staff to acknowledge everything
they did wrong heading into a surprising season-opening loss to Tampa
Bay.“Today’s a tough day in our league, obviously, after a loss like that,”
Payton said. “It wasn’t a good tape. It was not a good film.“The first thing I
said this morning was: ‘It is oftentimes said that these early weeks of the
season, your team can improve a lot.’ I believe that to be true,” Payton
recounted.“Now, if that is to happen, then today has to be a day where we’re
willing to shoulder and not deflect (criticism). That is me as the head coach
and everyone in that room. What I mean by that — shoulder — is accept, ‘Hey, I
have to do this better. I have to find a way to improve this rather than try to
deflect.'”While Payton wanted his team focused primarily on addressing what went
wrong in Sunday’s 48-40 loss , a lot had to go right — namely on offense — in
order for the Saints to score as many points as they did.It was apparent that at
39 years old, Drew Brees remains effective enough to pass for 439 yards and lead
the offense on five touchdown drives. Receiver Michael Thomas set a team record
with 16 receptions. He also had 180 yards receiving and scored a touchdown.Alvin
Kamara picked up where he left off as Offensive Rookie of the Year last season,
scoring three times to go with more than 100 yards receiving. Even 37-year-old
tight end Ben Watson looked effective in his first game as a Saint in three
years, catching four passes for 44 yards.But Watson said that on good teams,
every unit feels as if it came up short after a loss
Jameis Winston Jersey , so the offense was not praising itself. He said he would expect the defense would do the same in a low-scoring loss.“We should have
scored 49 — and a good team looks at it that way,” Watson said, alluding to the
fact New Orleans could have indeed scored more if not for two lost fumbles — one
of which was returned for a touchdown — and three drives than ended with
punts.Tampa Bay, by contrast, did not turn the ball over and punted only
once.“It’s about looking in the mirror and being willing to acknowledge what we
see,” Watson said. “Football is a game played by humans. There’s going to be
mistakes made. … How do we return from those?”Veteran linebacker Demario Davis,
who made his Saints debut on Sunday, said his defensive teammates should
understand how urgent it is that they understand exactly what went wrong and how
to correct it — fast. The Saints gave up more than 500 yards and three TDs
longer than 35 yards.“When you give up 48 points you didn’t do nothing right —
technique, assignment, alignment, eyes, discipline. It just wasn’t a good
performance,” Davis said. “It wasn’t good enough and we’ve got to get it
fixed.”Heading into the season, the schedule appeared to allow a fast start for
New Orleans, which has Super Bowl aspirations after nearly advancing to the NFC
title game last season.There was Sunday’s opener at home against a Buccaneers
squad coming off a five-win campaign and with its starting quarterback
suspended
Carlton Davis Jersey , followed by another home game against Cleveland, which did not win a game last season.Cleveland hasn’t won a game yet this
season, either. But the Browns’ tie with Pittsburgh on Sunday left them better
off than New Orleans, and also provided evidence that Cleveland may have
improved considerably.“This is going to be an important game for us,” Davis
said.Added defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins: “We’ve just got to go out and play
to win, regardless of whether it’s the ’85 Chicago Bears or the 0-16 Cleveland
Browns from last year, or whatever.” You hear coaches all the time say that
certain players are leaders in the locker room. You’ve heard the media enamored
with guys like Gerald McCoy and what he means to players. But then you have guys
like Jason Pierre-Paul saying some players aren’t “keeping it real” in the
locker room. Whatever goes on inside that Buccaneers locker room, if Bruce
Arians is in facthired as the next head coach, he will make sure there is
leadership inside Tampa Bay’s locker.By way of Joe Bucs Fan, Arians is real big
on player leadership inside locker rooms. Here’s what he had to say on his son’s
fantasy football podcast.Boy, that’d be nice. If all was needed to not lose two
in a row was locker room leadership, then what the hell has been going on inside
that Bucs locker room? Granted, in 2017 the Bucs lost in Week 3 and then won
Week 4, but it’s not often that happens. It was 2015 before that.
