Saints lose to Texans 31-27, Jason David still stinks

The second preseason game will be one that the Saints defense will want to soon forget. The Texans offense racked up 405 yards and was 10-14 on 3rd downs in their 31-27 win over the Saints.

There were few bright spots for the Saints defense and leading the putrid play was Jason David, who still has not figured out how to play man-to-man defense. He still peaks in the backfield and still is out of position on 3rd and 12 passing downs. What is this guy's problem? I know playing DB in the NFL is not easy, but there's no way he should be 7 yards away from the receiver when the ball gets there. Houston continued to pick on him in the first half and the Superdome fans continued to boo his ineptitude.

It looks like its time to end the Jason David experiment. The Saints tried to convert a short, zone DB into their scheme and have failed. Its time to move on. At this point, I wouldn't be opposed to starting Aaron Glenn over him. Sure Glenn is in his late 30s but at least he's aggressive and won't continue to make the same mistakes.

Onto the Pros and Cons:

PROS:
Deuce McAllister - Deuce ran hard and finished with 4 carries for 16 yards and 2 catches for 10 yards. He was smiling with each touch and looked to really have fun out there. Saints fans were glad to see #26 back in the dome.

Reggie Bush - Bush has been running hard this preseason, but the holes just haven't been there for him. Give him the ball in space though, and he can be spectacular. His leaping TD run on his 12 yard catch shows that the potential to be great is there.

Marques Colston/Drew Brees - Colston's TD grab was another spectacular play. That's what the Saints need to do in the red zone. If he can consitently go up and snatch the ball out of the air like that, the Saints red zone numbers will be through the roof. Brees laid the ball up perfectly for him to grab. Brees has had a great preseason so far and if the team gets the running game going, he can lead this team to great things.

Punters - Steve Weatherford had one punt for 50 yards and Waylon Prather punted twice for an average of 54.9 yards. Pretty good punts from both.

CONS:
Besides David, the rest of the secondary didn't look good either - Matt Schaub finished 14 for 16 for 187 yards and 2 TDs. Sage Rosenfels was 6 for 8 for 94 yards. Enough said.

Pressure up front - Houston had 25 pass attempts, the Saints had zero sacks. Sedrick Ellis did break through the line early in the game, but the pressure wasn't consistent.

Injuries - Usama Young and Randall Gay both went out early with injuries forcing David and Tracy Porter to get more snaps, which would have been good if either stepped up, but both looked bad. Porter is a rookie, so he may take some time. Hopefully, Young and Gay's injuries aren't too serious because the Saints are in need of some quality corners.

Tyler Palko - Palko didn't get much playing time but announcer Solomon Wilcox was critical of his throwing mechanics during his brief stint. After almost two years in the Saints system, Palko isn't showing the kind of potential or development that you'd like from your 3rd sting QB. Some thought Palko would be challenging for the #2 QB job at this point, but he's battling to stay on the active roster again.

Next preseason game: Aug. 23 at Cincinnatti

Half-Blood Prince pushed to 2009

Here's something else to blame the writer's strike for, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince won't open in November. It is now scheduled for July 2009. Boo.

AP poll ranks LSU #7

In the age of the BCS, preseason polls hold more weight than they should. In the perfect world (aside from a playoff), the first polls of the season would come in around week 3 of the college football season. Look at what happened to Auburn a few years ago. With USC, Oklahoma and Auburn all finishing with the same record, USC and OU went to the BCS title game because they had been ranked higher all year. Auburn had no shot, simply because they couldn't make up ground since the preseason polls. What a system.

Anyway, here's the preseason AP poll, which was released this weekend.

AP Top 25

1. Georgia (22) 0-0 1,528

2. Ohio State (21) 0-0 1,506

3. USC (12) 0-0 1,490

4. Oklahoma (4) 0-0 1,444

5. Florida (6) 0-0 1,415

6. Missouri 0-0 1,266

7. LSU 0-0 1,135

8. West Virginia 0-0 1,116

9. Clemson 0-0 1,105

10. Auburn 0-0 968

11. Texas 0-0 966

12. Texas Tech 0-0 786

13. Wisconsin 0-0 771

14. Kansas 0-0 707

15. Arizona State 0-0 631

16. Brigham Young 0-0 590

17. Virginia Tech 0-0 578

18. Tennessee 0-0 509

19. South Florida 0-0 496

20. Illinois 0-0 483

21. Oregon 0-0 366

22. Penn State 0-0 293

23. Wake Forest 0-0 227

24. Alabama 0-0 89

25. Pittsburgh 0-0 85

Others Receiving Votes South Carolina 84, Fresno State 83, California 59, Utah 53, Cincinnati 44, Florida State 41, Michigan 36, Boston College 32, Rutgers 32, Michigan State 21, Boise State 17, Arkansas 14, North Carolina 14, Connecticut 10, Tulsa 7, UCLA 6, Oregon State 5, Mississippi State 4, Virginia 4, Arizona 3, Nebraska 2, Notre Dame 2, Hawaii 1, Washington 1.

Preseason Game 2: Saints vs. Texans

After an exciting week of camp which saw the Saints wrap-up their training in Mississippi, the team will play their second preseason game Saturday night against the Houston Texans. The two teams have scrimmaged against one another the past couple of days, so by Saturday, they should be very familiar with each's personnel.

The Saints saw their first major injury of the offseason this week when DT Hollis Thomas tore his triceps. He had surgery and will be out for at least two months. The Saints will have to make a decision on whether or not to place him on the IR with this injury. If they don't put him on IR, he will count against the roster until he comes back. Its always bad news to sustain an injury, but DT is a position of depth right now, so the team should be able to overcome the loss of Thomas.

For the second year in a row Kenny Chesney practiced with the Saints. He ran routes and fielded punts, even earning the team a day off for successfully catching a punt (but it took him three tries to do so). The Saints players seem to enjoy have Kenny out there and anything that adds some fun at the end of training camp should be good for the team.

With the second preseason game coming up, here are some things to look for:

1. Will the Deuce be loose?
Deuce McAllister is set for his first game action since injuring his knee last season. Reggie Bush will sit out the game to rest his knee, so this leaves more playing time for McAllister, Pierre Thomas and Aaron Stecker. It will be fun to see #26 on the field again.

2. How will the Saints offensive line do against the talented Texans defensive line?
The Saints offensive line has its work cut out this week. The line blocked well in the passing game against the Cardinals, but run blocking left something to be desired. If they can run block better agains Mario Williams and company, then they'll have really accomplished something.

3. How will the returning players look?
A few Saints will make their preseason debut on Saturday: Mike McKenzie, Jonathan Vilma, Josh Bullocks, Marques Colston, Devery Henderson and Tracy Porter. Fans will want to keep an eye on Vilma and rookie Porter especially to see if the defense is improved with them on the field.

4. Is there any separation at kicker?
From everything I've read and seen, Martin Gramatica is doing a better job kicking than rookie Taylor Mehlhaff. Mehlhaff did make a FG last week, but his kickoffs weren't good. Gramatica has been solid on kickoffs and FGs in practice. Was the rookie just nervous? We'll see how he looks in front of the rabid hometown fans this weekend.

5. Will someone earn a roster spot as a kick returner?
Pierre Thomas has pretty much locked up the main kick returner job, and Reggie Bush will see his fair share of duty returning punts. But Lance Moore and Skyler Green still have a shot to show what they can do on special teams. With a few outstanding returns, they could assure themselves of a roster spot. Since they are both competing at the crowded wide receiver position, they need to really stand out on special teams. Rookie Tracy Porter will also get a look returning kicks and punts.

Poll: Best Summer Movie

The run-away winner of our best summer movie poll is The Dark Knight. No surprise there, as The Dark Knight is well on its way to becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time.

Here's the poll results:

Hancock	1 (5%)
Iron Man	1 (5%)
Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	0 (0%)
Kung Fu Panda	0 (0%)
Prince Caspian	0 (0%)
Sex and the City	1 (5%)
The Dark Knight	15 (83%)
The Incredible Hulk	0 (0%)
WALL-E	0 (0%)

Votes so far: 18
Poll closed

Next poll: Who should be the #1 pick in fantasy football drafts?

Don't Forget about Lost

Lost season 4 ended about 2 1/2 months ago and season 5 isn't set to start up for another 5 months, but don't go forgetting about our 815 survivors during this downtime. A couple of my favorite Lost bloggers ended their offseason drought and posted Lost updates today.

EW.com's Jeff Jenson posted a little about Comic Con and teased the title for the first episode of season 5, before finally revealing it at the end of the article. I won't post it here for those who hate spoilers, but I can't wait for the new season. The cast will be back in Hawaii soon as filming is getting ready to begin next week.

Erika Olson at "Long Live Locke" has posted her awesome theories on the Lost video shown at Comic Con. She threw out some ideas that I hadn't previously thought about getting me more excited to find out what's going on next season.

Lastly, don't forget about this years alternative reality game, Dharama Wants You (Octagon Global Recruiting). The game was launched before Comic Con with a commercial during the season 4 finale. Then at Comic Con, there was a Dharma booth and Octagon Global was part of the Lost panel (that's where Pierre Chang video came from).

This year's ARG involves the reviving of the Dharma Initiative and their recruitment of new workers. Lost's ARGs have been popular in the past, starting with The Lost Experience and then last season's Find 815.