I doubt this question gets asked if the Saints won the game convincingly but I will play.
IMO, most look at the game in the wrong way and thusly asks the wrong questions. The opponent is not really significant as the schedule is set and the team has little to no influence on that.
The things I look for is continuity with the offensive line and RB(s) (i.e. if there is a combo block between the guard and center, is the center crossing his man’s face? Is the guard reaching his second level block? Did the running back hit the design hole decisively), continuity between QB and WR (blitz recognition between the WR(s) and QB, etc). Penalties, Blown coverages, good tackling, clock management, and last but not least health.
It is always better to win then to loose, imo but if the aforementioned areas are not looking good then typically the team is in for a long regular season.
On a similar not to your question, this morning on Sirius in the midst of their cowboy bashing, they were ranting about how the win was meaningless and they are still not convince and their grounds where that too many super bowl teams has gone defeated in preseason. However, I think Gil Brandt called in off air and said that the in last ten years all of the super bowl winning teams had a winning record during the preseason. In retrospect, the NFL landscape has changed quite a bit in the last ten years. Teams no longer have the luxury of saving their starters and playing some smoe that won’t make the team, heck Bledsoe played a whole half of football, ten years ago that would have never happened.
