Saints look unbeatable in their preseason opener

That was some preseason opener for the Saints, huh?

What’s that you say? The Saints didn’t play the Rams on Friday night in California?

The entire NFL preseason was canceled?

The Saints won’t play until the season opener Sept. 13 against Tampa Bay in the Superdome? And no fans will be allowed to attend that game?

Oh yeah, all that COVID-19 stuff.

But it’s the middle of August. It’s time for preseason football and we’re not going to let any pandemic mess that up for us.

The NFL preseason is always about imagination anyway.

We watch games that don’t count in the standings and imagine what the standings will look like when New Year’s rolls around.

We watch newcomers to the team play a few series and imagine which ones are headed for the Pro Bowl and which ones might be headed for the waiver wire.

We watch players whose names we don’t know and imagine who’s a diamond in the rough as they play a few downs against equally unaccomplished colleagues at the bottom of the opponent’s depth chart.

Our imagination knows what time of year it is, it knows it’s overdue for making projections about the 2020 Saints, and it’s raring to go.

So let’s turn it loose.

Imagine the Saints and the Rams just played.

Imagine Drew Brees and the first-team offense marched down the field for a touchdown on the only possession before Brees grabbed a baseball cap and a bag of sunflower seeds and became a spectator.

Imagine the first play was a completion to Michael Thomas on a slant-in. (That was easy, wasn’t it?)

Imagine the second play was a run or a pass reception (does it really matter which?) by Alvin Kamara and he looked healthier, stronger and more elusive than last season.

He’s got to sign that long-term contract. Make it happen, Loomis!

Erik McCoy looked good at center. Cesar Ruiz looked good at right guard. Then they swapped positions and looked just as good. It doesn’t matter who plays where, these two future long-time All-Pros are going to anchor this offensive line for a long time.

And how about that defensive line? Plenty of run-stuffers in the middle. We didn’t expect Rankins to play that many snaps. Those ends are going to be unblockable. Marcus Davenport is a beast.

The first-team defense only played two series; how did Demario Davis make 17 tackles?

The Rams were too scared to even try Marshon Lattimore’s side of the field. They couldn’t do anything on Janoris Jenkins’ side either.

That was a nice pick-six Marcus Williams had on Jared Goff. Maybe we shouldn’t write him off just yet. It was good to see Malcolm Jenkins back in the black and gold.

And the special teams are going to be gold again with Wil Lutz, Thomas Morstead, Deonte Harris, Craig Robertson, Justin Hardee, J.T. Gray, Dwayne Washington and the rest.

We couldn’t turn the game off. It just kept getting better and better – even after the starters went out.

We looked up one time and wondered why Kamara was back in the game in the second half, then realized it was Ty Montgomery. What a pick-up he was.

Defenses ought to just give up when Cook and Adam Trautman are on the field together. You can’t defend both of them.

This is Tre’Quan’s year. We still don’t know why they didn’t give Emmanuel Butler more of a chance last season. They can’t keep him off the field this year.

Anzalone is a beast. So is Kaden Elliss. And speaking of linebackers, Payton has to find room on the roster for that Joe Bachie guy from Michigan State and the Malcolm Roach guy from Texas. They’ll never clear waivers.

We wish we had seen more of Taysom, but they don’t want Tampa Bay to know what they’re up to. Tommy Stevens might be better anyway.

And what a fourth quarter by Jameis Winston. That LASIK surgery did wonders. Every throw was perfect.

Drew better watch out.