and after a night of little sleep, I'm ready to face a new day. And dammit, I'm super disappointed, but I'm also super proud of the Saints. Crazy hostile environment yesterday, taking on a defense that is putting up historically good numbers, and we were one insane play from advancing to the conference championship? Coming back from 17 down in that environment? Would anyone have believed it? Kristian Garick offered the opinion this morning that this season may have been Sean Payton's best coaching job. He may be right. The 1st season was brilliant, but to turn things around after the 0-2 start was oustanding coaching. Then there's this: Imagine if this had been our defensive depth chart going into yesterday's game. Bold faced are guys who were on IR: DE Jordan, Hendrickson DT Fairley, Davison DT Rankins, Davison DE Okafor, Kikaha WLB Anzalone, Mauti MLB Klein, Te'o SLB Robertson, Stupar CB Breaux, Crawley CB Lattimore, Williams SS Vaccaro, Bell FS Williams, Bush We also had 4 offensive starters on IR, 20 in total, and still were one play from the championship game. It was a gut wrenching finish, but I'm moving on. This team has developed a solid core of young talent in the last two years. The talk over the last few years has been, Brees is getting old, the window of opportunity is closing. I'm not convinced of that anymore, mostly because the front office appears to have fixed its talent evaluation flaws of recent years. The bad contracts that have made us non-factors in free agency are coming off the books. We will have to prepare to move on from Brees, of course, and it won't be easy for the successor to match his skill set of accuracy, game management and leadership. But I know longer see that window as closing. We will be back.... Who Dat!!
My hatred for the Vikings has grown. But I’m able to let it go and just laughing at the photoshops of the play. But it is a bitter loss, still.
Wrong.. While I admit he doesn't have the arm strength he used to have on deep passes, the resurgence of the running game will extend his career. He's still extremely accurate on short to intermediate passes, as evidenced yesterday by the TD passes he threw, and just the threat of a speedster like Ginn on the outside will keep defenses honest. The window is closing, there's no doubt about that, but I think he's still got 2-3 serviceable years left.
Brees' era may be over, and that sucks for him if it is. He deserves more than he's gotten back from this team. Obviously talking results, not dollars. My point is the Saints are building the foundation of what can be a very good team for an extended period. Brees' era may (or may not) be over, but I think the era of the Saints as contenders is ongoing.
Saints should be one of the favorites going into next season. Brees has a few years left and to me that’s an issue I wouldn’t try to address in the draft just yet. Maybe free agency, but not the draft.
Is it just my imagination or is ken Crawley the most interference penalized defencive back in the nfl this year! Dude can’t cover a blade of grass has to be someone better than him on the team what say you saints fans?
Most penalized defensive player on the Saints. But that's not really surprising, because he was getting all the throws. Was still 100% better than last year, much better than PJ Williams, and light years better than Devante Harris. If Breaux comes all the way back next year, we will be very solid at CB with him, Crawley and Lattimore as the top 3.
He was getting all the throws because every team in the league knows he can’t cover anybody and they will get the interference call every time they throw his way he cost us this game and many more this season!
