It's not just on here, clearly we're not passing the sexy test to the nation this season (1 Viewer)

[Saintsphere]

Last year we were the sexy team. Explosive offense early on, blowout wins...

Not so much this year. We've won three straight and yet many still aren't impressed with us. The old saying "it's better to win ugly than lose pretty" doesn't seem to be followed currently by many fans and analysts.

Case in point, the NFL.com power rankings have us behind Seattle AND SF. Mind you, we've beat Seattle in Seattle without Drew AND the 49ers have lost two games during our current three game win stretch.

NFL Power Rankings, Week 14: Ravens supplant 49ers at No. 1

The 49ers' four-week reign in the No. 1 spot is over. Who claims the throne? And how far do the Patriots fall? Dan Hanzus updates his Power Rankings in the wake of Week 13.

www.nfl.com

ESPN.com's power rankings somehow have SF in front us and Seattle, but us in front Seattle.

Week 14 NFL Power Rankings: 1-32 poll, plus who's under fire in the final month

These players, coaches and executives won't be playing out the string, as the final month of the season could make or break their futures.

www.espn.com

This is not a thread to complain. This is simply an observation. The 49ers are the sexy team this season. And they deserve their props. Blowout wins can do a lot to sway a fan/analyst. They had dominant performances for a nationwide audience vs CAR and GB. We've yet to have that one complete game. Because of this, when the 49ers nearly let ARZ comeback vs them the first game they played or needed a comeback to beat Arizona the second game, it's not seen as a knock. When the 49ers beat the Redskins 3-0, they are looked at as a team that can win no matter what. Us? We're simply not that sexy a team to people as last year. "Been there done that". "Yeah that girl is still cute but did you see the new freshman student who just arrived on campus...wow is she hot!"

If the 49ers had the same performance we did vs the Falcons Thanksgiving against the Cardinals, the conversation would be on their 9 sacks and how dominant the defense is no matter what position they are put in and how Nick Bosa (Cam) is the best defensive player in the NFL. We do it and it's..."man, last year the Saints were blowing teams out. Now they look average."

It's the "price to pay" with sustained success. There will always be a new, sexier team that comes around. Hopefully, we do like the Patriots, and just stack up wins, style points be damned. And keep on winning all the way until February.

 

[Sean]

What did being a sexy team get us in 2011, 2017, 2018?? I’m ok with getting back to pounding the rock all day like we were with Teddy and being ugly lol...

 

[Saintsphere]

And again, this is not a "no respect!" thread. It's not a "We're better than SF and Seattle!" thread. And it's certainly not a thread saying "we will beat SF Sunday" thread. I know all our team's shortcomings and we can talk about that in other threads.

This is a thread making the general observation that we aren't the sexy team this year and our lack of style points isn't helping.

Heck next year, SF may be 9-3 at this point, but you can bet if Kyler Murray gets hot and has the Cardinals at 9-3/8-4 guess who everyone will throw to the side and start gawking more over?

 

[BoroSaint]

Losing to Atlanta at home by double digits will do that. Thankfully we don't have to impress anyone.

 

[Saintsphere]

What did being a sexy team get us in 2011, 2017, 2018?? I’m ok with getting back to pounding the rock all day like we were with Teddy and being ugly lol...

Yup. I'm 100% ok with fans discussing our flaws and shortcomings and wanting us to play better. And our team has to if we want to get the Lombardi.

But I also make sure to take lots of time to enjoy each win and this season in general because this has the potential to go down as the apex year of football in Louisiana and I damn sure don't wanna spend my time during it fretting because we didn't beat this bad team by 28 points like we beat that bad team by 28 points in 2018.

 

[Doug B]

I'd like to compare notes with other Saintsreport members on what they're reading & hearing from national outlets regarding the 49ers @ Saints game. I only catch a small number of prognosticators myself. So I figure as a collective ... we can add in a lot more data points and get a clearer picture.

My impression, with little data, is that few are giving the Saints a shot at bearing SF, even in the Superdome. On to the first data point:

Tues 12/3: Bob Papa and Charlie Weis Show, Sirius XM NFL Channel -- Weis feels the Niners are simply a better team than the Saints and will win Sunday.

 

[Mackenzie]

All the more reason why this Sunday is so important. If we pull this win off it’s a huge confidence builder for us.

 

[fdl16]

Tues 12/3: Bob Papa and Charlie Weis Show, Sirius XM NFL Channel -- Weis feels the Niners are simply a better team than the Saints and will win Sunday.

Just like how the 7-9 Seahawks shouldn't have even bothered showing up to the stadium against the 11-5 Saints.

 

[football]

Really a few penalties not being called or a few catches not being drop would of change that. But really I am happy not being the "sexy" team. The scores don't tell the whole story. But who cares, as long as we are winning and winning in February, they can keep all that sexiness to themselves.

 

[Saint Taysom]

“Everyone” was all over the Packers and how good they were, until they got their face caved in by San Fran a couple of weeks ago. I never really bought into the hype around the Packers, but after seeing that game, I don’t believe the Packers are viable contenders.

With that said, if the Saints get pimp-slapped by the 49ers on Sunday, then they’ll be written off as a pretender for the rest of the season.

 

[fishing4food]

Watching the Vikings, Seattle, Baltimore and San Francisco play the last few weeks vs the Saints against the Falcons and Tampa Bay, I could see why the Saints are not being labeled as Sexy. But, we're sitting in a pretty good spot right now 10-2.

 

[DeuceMcAllisterFan]

I don’t want respect from the media this season. I want the team to fly under the radar and be disregarded as contenders and play with a chip on their shoulders. I don’t care how ugly the wins are and how boringly effective our team plays, we just need to stay on course and show them what’s up in the playoffs. The regular season awards don’t impress us. We have bigger fish to fry.

 

[Saint Spud]

We are right where we should be based on recent results.

However, those results are also pretty consistent with our typical divisional game performances under Payton.

A win on Sunday would flip all this.

 

[nelopiceral1]

I mean...analyst opinions don't matter...just wins. BUT, last night on TV when they were discussing who are the best teams in the league...SF, Ravens, Bills, Packers, and Seattle were all discussed at length without a peep about the Saints...who at that moment were the actual #1 seed above all but one of them. I think if we had emerged from the Bridgewater period and showed up as dominant, folks would gladly have more faith in us. After all, we were a sexy superbowl pick the last couple years. Everyone agrees that our defense is playing well and Thomas is on another level, but there's something missing in the eye test. Part of the discussion was that all of these teams have a strong run game, and subjectively I don't think we've shown that consistently. I see it in certain games, but the AK/Murray combo should make their presence felt in every game unless we're trying to climb back and have to air it out. I mean heck...let Taysom run it more too.

 

[BiloxiSaint1]

This is not a thread to complain. This is simply an observation. The 49ers are the sexy team this season.