Saints Defeat Cardinals in Hall of Fame Game; Reaction and Analysis

The NFL season is officially underway with the Hall of Fame game taking place Sunday night in Canton, OH, between the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints.

You aren’t going to learn very much about any team this early in the season, but you can see a lot of things that have or have not changed. The Saints are a “new look” team without head coach Sean Payton, but Drew Brees and the Saints’ first team offense engineered an opening drive that was a thing of beauty, completing four of his five passes with the drive resulting in a Mark Ingram touchdown run.

The Saints appear prepared once again to go with a RBBC (running back by committee) type offense again this year, with Ingram getting the touches on this drive in the red zone. The former Heisman Trophy winner and first round pick in 2011 finished his game with four carries, 14 yards, and a score.

The running back who filled it up for New Orleans turned out to be Travaris Cadet, who actually finished the game with negative rushing yards but had a team-leading eight receptions for 80 yards, including a touchdown in the second quarter to put the Saints up 17-7.

For the Cardinals, it was a very disappointing debut for starting quarterback Kevin Kolb, whose first pass was an interception. Kolb left the game injured after just four passes, but the Cardinals’ first team offense, specifically the offensive line and Kolb looked like they had no clue what was going on, really. It was not a good sign for the Cards.

John Skelton came in and played solid for the Cardinals, leading them on a scoring drive, and he looked solid passing the ball as well. Running back Alfonso Smith had a very nice showing with eight carries for 46 yards and a touchdown, looking like he could be a very solid contributor in his third NFL season.

Arizona’s high-profile first round pick Michael Floyd had just one catch, but it went for 15 yards. Tight end Rob Housler, an athletic standout from FAU out of the class of 2011 had a nice game, catching three passes for 51 yards. He needs to step up and be a big contributor in the Cardinals’ offense this year.

Overall, this wasn’t a great, entertaining game, but you get to see some things and get to see young guys in action. There are going to be a lot of mistakes, and a lot of punts, but it’s still NFL football, and I really enjoy it. The biggest thing to take away from this game is, it doesn’t look like the Saints’ offense is going to struggle too badly in Sean Payton’s absence, and Kevin Kolb appears to still be struggling with some confidence and/or poise behind that offensive line in Arizona, which still appears to be a real problem.