Bush and New Orleans: time to bounce back

OK, Reggie Bush came up with two touchdown returns, but really they never got going. The defense did what they could do and maintained things, but they didn't get much help all game.

Kevin Cadle
Quotes of the week

SUNDAY NIGHT NFL
Live on Sky Sports
Oakland @ New Orleans
6.00pm, Sky Sports 2
Green Bay @ Seattle
9.00pm, Sky Sports 2
New England @ San Diego
1.30am (Mon), Sky Sports 2

Kevin Cadle will be live from New Orleans this week, but before he heads to the Superdome, we got our NFL frontman to run the rule over Sunday night's live triple-header...

Oakland @ New Orleans

We'll be in New Orleans this weekend, presenting both Sunday's early games live from the Superdome, which is pretty exciting.

We've got some interviews with the players set up and hopefully we'll get the chance to speak to one of the only female owners in the NFL, Rita Benson LeBlanc, so whatever happens on the football field, it is going to be interesting off it!

As for the London game, it will be sold in the States, as it will over here. And if they do the hard sell then the fans over in America will pick it up as they always do.

For the players, it's just another setting, they know they've got a duty to take the game around the world, so it's no big problem for them.

And New Orleans might not mind it at all, because they were back to their old ways last week, losing at home to Minnesota.

It went to the wire, but for Martin Gramatica, it was the second time he has had the chance to win a game. But he missed that field goal with two minutes to go and even if they might not have gone on to win the game for certain, it would have given them the lead.

All of a sudden though, he misses and the Vikings come downfield and make their plays to win and that is the second time this season Gramatica has missed big kicks.

He doesn't look in a very safe position when it comes to his job right now and sooner or later I think the New York Giants are going to have to cut one of their kickers, John Carney or Lawrence Tynes. When either of these becomes unavailable I think Gramatica is going to be looking for work.

The other problem for New Orleans last week was their offense. OK, Reggie Bush came up with two touchdown returns, but really they never got going. The defense did what they could do and maintained things, but they didn't get much help all game.

For a start New Orleans turned the ball over four times, and that is the thing that put the defense under pressure and meant their good work counted for nothing.

But any problems the Saints have got are nothing compared to the Raiders.

Tom Cable's the new guy coming and the one good thing going for him is that with last week's bye, he's had two weeks to work on what he wants.

But it all depends on how those Oakland players are feeling about this circus that has been going on and how they have adapted to it.

It's been one long mess with former coach Lane Kiffin and owner Al Davis, but at the end of the day those players are the ones who get coaches fired. If they don't go out and perform, then someone's got to be held responsible and that man has to be the head coach.

But the problems between Kiffin and his owner had been going on for so long, overshadowing the whole organisation and there is nothing those players could do about it. They certainly couldn't ignore it, because how could they NOT pay attention to that?

Every newspaper article, every interview, that would have been the first question asked, so even if they wanted to block it out, they had no chance. Now we have to see what happens next, because right now with this Oakland team, it's all up in the air.

CADLE'S CALL: New Orleans have got to bounce back, they've got far more going for them, so they've got to be favourites - and that's not just because we're going out there!

Green Bay @ Seattle

So how they hell did Green Bay lose at home to the Atlanta Falcons? Because of their defense, simple as that.

That has been their problem since the off-season when all the kerfuffle was surrounding Brett Favre, but someone decided that they wanted to go in a different direction and be known for their defense. They wanted those guys to be the stars of the show but that defense just got torched.

They haven't really been able to stop anybody. Atlanta were able to run the ball easily, do what they wanted to do to keep Green Bay off the field, so the one problem for Mike McCarthy to solve this week - and for the rest of the season - is that defense.

They were not helped by losing Al Harris for the season, but he plays defensive back and they have been getting burned on the ground. Now they can't stop teams on the ground or in the air - and they're giving up a lot of yards running.

They're load may be made a little lighter with the news that Deion Branch is missing for Seattle.

Deion's been getting hit hard since he was MVP at the Superbowl. They keep patching him up and sending him out, but I don't know how long they are gonna keep playing that game with him.

They did well with Matt Hasselbeck against the Giants last week though, because they basically didn't want him in there getting beat up. As soon as they knew the game was over and there was no need to risk him, they gave Seneca Wallace some gametime.

But even with Hasselback fit, I have to say I don't have a whole lot of faith in the way Seattle is playing football. Even if they are getting their receivers back, offensively they still can't sustain a drive and defensively they are much weaker than they were last year.

CADLE'S CALL: I'll definitely go with the Packers. Their defense may be bad, but Seattle have done nothing so far to get me excited.

New England @ San Diego

It's not just LaDainian Tomlinson that has problems, it's the whole San Diego football team that has problems.

Yes, after 35 yards last week and only one 100-yard game so far everybody has been asking about LT's fitness and his form, but you've got to look at the entire make-up of the whole team.

It's not any one thing in particular either, it's something different every week.

Last week LT didn't get into the game but their defense also fell to shreds - which is why Miami have back-to-back wins to their name. Ronnie Brown was able to get what he wanted running and Chad Pennington was able to stand back and pick them off with the easy stuff.

Every week there has been something wrong for Seattle but the one thing that stands out for me is defensively they have just not been able to get back to where they were.

Last year it took them a while before they got going, but then they let that defense loose and they started going after quarterbacks. They have to get back to that way of attacking on defense and creating opportunities for Philip Rivers and his offense.

Last season, off their defense either straight from turnovers or in conjunction with, they scored 148 points. Now any team, LT or not, would miss that contribution.

New England were the other side beaten by the Dolphins but they had that bye week to get over it - and no-one needed it more than quarterback Matt Cassel. He came back strong against San Francisco last week but the thing that made that win was their defense got it going on again.

They did the job last week, but can they do it again? That's the big question for New England right now. Can they be consistent?

The last time we got a chance to see them, they got smashed up by Miami, but if they can find back-to-back performances then it's time we started putting a little bit more faith in defensive co-ordinator Dean Peers and his guys.

CADLE'S CALL: This is a tough one to call. These two have developed a bit of a rivalry and you might as well flip a coin, but I think I am going to have to go for San Diego - only because they're the home team.