The Saints vs Media

I'm not about to tell y'all anything new but the media obviously expects a big drop off in QB play from Drew, which is fair enough really, generally when you lose a Hall of Famer your offense takes a step back and more so when it's a HOF QB. I find it a bit irritating myself considering how downright disrespectful some of them have been regarding Drew the last two seasons but it is what it is. Because Drew retired, we're automatically rebuilding, even though a good portion of these guys were saying the team was carrying Drew rather than the other way around at multiple times over the last two seasons (which could be argued that was true at least in some games). That is their narrative, and they aren't going to bail on it after one week. I also think they're in shock that we basically won playing smash mouth football when one of their favorite criticisms over the years is that we're a finesse team under Payton, though as others have mentioned when Drew was out these last two years we tended to call a more balanced, smash mouth style game, which shows even that narrative is silly. The great thing for us is that it really doesn't matter what they have to say, as a matter of anecdotal fact (which I think most of Saints fans can relate too as well), I'd even go as far as to say things tend to work out much better for us historically when the media have doubted us, certainly during the Payton Era. Payton himself seems to loathe the media for the most part so I think it even gives him an edge honestly.

Some of their questions are valid, Can Winston be consistent is a valid question. If our defense has a down game can the offense win in shoot outs? I think it's arguable that we're more equipped to win in shoot outs now than we have been in the last few years if only because of the ******** air yards they rave about so much. We will see. Definitely don't let these people get you down after a win like that.