The New Orleans Saints lost a heartbreaker Thursday to the defending champion Green Bay Packers, 34-42. In a game that scored a 17.2 Nielsen rating, two of the sport’s top offenses combined for an impressive 876 total net yards.

Unfortunately, someone had to lose.

The NFL certainly got what it wanted: a huge rating, a highly competitive and entertaining game, and two premier teams showcasing the league very favorably, all despite an ugly lockout. The NFL’s “Back to Football” campaign seems to be working.

(You should be taking notes, David Stern.)

Drew Brees was particularly spectacular, amassing 419 yards and 3 touchdowns on 32 of 49 passing attempts. Darren Sproles, arguably the best Saints performer, returned a punt for a touchdown and provided a spark in the passing game, contributing 7 catches for 75 yards. Devery Henderson led the Saints receiving corps with 6 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown.

The amazing display of offense by the Saints, however, was not enough to cover the god-awful showing from the defensive unit, and an amazing show of talent from Green Bay’s offense. Packers QB Aaron Rodgers absolutely shredded the Saints secondary, completing passes to 9 different receivers throughout the evening. At the end of the first quarter, Rodgers registered an eye-popping 188 yard, 3 touchdown, 14 of 15 pass attempt performance; his only incompletion was a throw out-of-bounds, thanks to an extremely rare Saints pass rush.

The play of the game, however, absolutely belongs to Packers WR Randall Cobb. The 2nd round pick from Kentucky electrified the Lambeau crowd with an amazing, jaw dropping 108 yard kickoff return for a touchdown, tying Ellis Hobbs of the 2007 New England Patriots for the longest kickoff return in NFL history. Not a bad rookie debut at all.

What can you take away from this game? The offense is certainly not the problem. Brees looked extremely sharp, completing passes in tight coverage all night. He was unbelievable on the last drive of the game, controlling the offense with surgeon-like precision. The running game didn’t get time to establish itself; Brees was forced to pass basically all game due to the early deficit.

Mark Ingram, in his first NFL start, looked capable, sans the last play of the game. Pierre Thomas also looked very good, and more importantly, healthy. Darren Sproles was electric, making every Saints fan watching quickly forget a certain former halfback that took his talents to South Beach.

One could argue that offensive play calling during critical moments of the game was suspect. The failed play action rollout on 4th and inches probably swung momentum in the wrong direction for the Saints; if a field goal was taken, the final drive of the game would put the team in a position to win without going into overtime.

The Saints defense and special teams units obviously need finer tuning. Tackling, or lack thereof, seems to be the biggest issue. On the Cobb return, for example, a handful of Saints had an opportunity to bring down the returner and end the play. Instead, bad tackling technique and positioning led to the biggest moment of the game and a huge momentum shift in favor of Green Bay.

CB Patrick Robinson did his best Jason David impression, getting victimized by a bevy of Packers receivers all game long. Depth in the secondary is certainly an issue for the Saints, especially when facing teams like Green Bay who play with 4 to 5 wide receiver sets frequently. A pass rush was really non-existent, except for when linebackers and defensive backs assisted with blitzes. The front four or three need to be able to create their own rush; this would make Patrick Robinson’s job a lot easier.

Overall, this game pitted two very evenly matched teams against one another, and the result of a close contest surprised no one. Unfortunately for the Saints, the margin of error was ever so slight, and a few big plays and missed opportunities led to defeat. The Green Bay Packers are certainly an elite NFL team, and as of right now, they look better than the New Orleans Saints. If this will be true in January remains to be seen.

Stay tuned.