Saints lose back-to-back games by late field goals

[JonLP24]

5 points from being 2-0. Cleveland lost by a late field goal last week.

[Auggie]

1. Browns easily moved down the field against Rob Ryan's defense

for their winning FG. I was listening on radio.

I don't understand the infatuation teams have with Ryan. His D should have beaten Hoyer.

But I'm not complaining.

[JonLP24]

2. New Orleans D was actually quite good last season

When usually it isn't the case. They tied for 9th in defensive yards per pass attempt. I remember when the Cards faced them, the Saints got relentless pressure on Palmer. They didn't really have a chance.

This season appears to be a very different story, Matt Ryan did whatever he wanted to. Ryan absent Julio Jones has been about average, Cards have his number--but w/ talk of QBs avoiding Sherman look at who he went after on this throw -- http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2014091405/2014/REG2/cardinals@giants#tab=videos&menu=drivechart|contentId%3A0ap3000000394250

Anyways, not sure how I feel at this point but felt that the Cardinals matched up well w/ the Seahawks but not the Saints. Brees is on the QBs that scare the hell out of me list w/ Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers even though I feel Seahawks were the best team in the NFL last year. The way their defense is playing, I don't quite feel the same way. Cards have a lot of offensive firepower to overcome Brees. Brees seems to be the QB that doesn't struggle against top defenses as much as the others.

Maybe he is overrated from his brother(who actually coached a top 2 pass D more than a few times and routinely in the top 5-10)--he did improve Cleveland's ranking but Ray Horton took them much further (they fell off after the Chiefs game though). Dallas had a bad D before he got there, they were a little better but still below average. New Orleans significantly improved but looks like they regressed to the mean.

[Auggie]

3. It's his "two-minute" defenses that seem so porous

[JonLP24]

4. I don't know much stock to put into this sort of thing

since players and coaches change teams all the time but when Miles Austin came out of nowhere the thing I noticed that Austin did particularly well was route-running, especially the quick cuts. Route running is what seperates the top receivers from the rest of the field, plenty have raw talent but don't make it because of a skill Austin mastered. One thing about route running is knowledge of coverages and w/ Austin on the same team as Ryan perhaps he gave Cleveland some helpful tips?

Another thing that leads me thinking that way is he did well in that game when he is at a disappointing point in his career.

On edit - Just realized he used to coach Cleveland's defense so that is probably more of a factor than that, like I said not sure what, if any stock I should put into that sort of thing.