4 years (1 Viewer)

[HouseCall]

My friend is a high school coach. He said Tampa brought everyone up, covered close, and dared Brees to throw deep. That's next year if Brees come back.. I think that CSP should be on the block at the end of next year if we underachieved again.

Oh absolutely! It’s what the Vikings did last year and the Rams in 2018.

 

[Poison]

Quite honestly, I've gotten to the point where I'm so incredibly over "28-3", Minnesota, etc.

To get to that Super Bowl, Atlanta had to go through a quarterback on one of the hottest 6 or 7 week runs that I've maybe ever seen in Aaron Rodgers. They comfortably handled business at home in that NFC title game. And I wish we had a chance to be up on somebody 28 to 3 in a Super Bowl in these last few seasons.

Minnesota has ended our season twice on a final play.

For a team that has been built to win so much over the last 4 years, I don't understand why we've constantly invented ways to lose when it counts the most.

If I could like this more than once, I would.

The 28-3 business was amusing when I was in Atlanta in 2017 and Dirty Coast arranged for the "28-3 Never Forget" banner flyover, and we all had 28-3 stickers to wear to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That was a year later and the first of four consecutive divisional titles for New Orleans. It was recent at the time, and the Atlanta fans really had nothing with which to return serve.

Four years down the line and we have lost four eminently winnable playoff games - three of which we were clear favourites. Many older fans in particular appear to have PTSD because of the early years and seem content with a "near enough is good enough" mantra. But this isn't the Saints team of our parents' generation. This is a well-built, well-run organisation. Yet, we're the first team to win 49 regular season games in a four year stretch and not make the Super Bowl at least once. We haven't failed as spectacularly as Atlanta did in that one Super Bowl, but we've choked more consistently than them - or anyone.

It is far from Coach Payton's fault, of course. He has made some dubious decisions at times (being pass-happy, particularly at the end of the NFCCG when we should have run down the clock; not putting Hill in against Minnesota last year, etc.). Fairly or unfairly though, he is crafting a legacy of being a very good regular season coach whose teams simply cannot get the job done when it counts. I hope that thought lights a fire under Sean from next season: not just to prove that he can consistently win without Brees, but to prove he can build teams capable of post-season success.

 

[DerrickB]

we gave it to them

 

[renegadewa]

The problem is, the Saints never make big moves to get players. Demario Davis was an outstanding addition to the Defense, and while Alexander played well, apparently the reason he was so cheap was he can't stay on the field. The Bucs added Antonio Brown and Leonard Fournette DURING the season. The Saints could have added Earl Thomas relatively cheap. They have GOT to make some moves to get some more talent on this team.

So yeah you would have been on board with bringing in a known mal-content and a known locker room cancer into the culture that took the Saints a couple of years to rebuild.

There's a reason why the Saints didn't bring Thomas in.