I've been a Saints fan for 45 years....... (12 Viewers)

[Broad St. Saint]

This feels like the end of the Mora era but not as bad as the Ditka years…yet.

I think definitely worse than the late Mora era, approaching the Ditka years.

Mora coached just well enough to get to playoffs and lose every time. Part of that was over conservative offense. But part of it was that the Saints acquired some impressive talent while Jim Finks was GM, and then started failing at player acquisition late in Mora's era (with Roaf as a notable exception), after Finks' resignation, him having developed the cancer that would ultimately kill him. Mora was very solid, but with a fatal flaw, which was better than Allen.

Ditka is a former HOF TE who as HC led a team to one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. However, by the time the Saints signed him as HC, the game had passed him by. So, while one could have respect for the man, the team was run as a circus, and not a top-tier circus, more like one of those you've never heard of, with sick animals, that tour around Florida.

Allen is what his record says he is (to paraphrase a much better and more successful coach, Bill Parcells).

Allen is a 26-50 head coach, that is, a .342 winning percentage, with zero playoff appearances in six seasons started as a head coach, with two different teams. This is in a league where almost half the teams in each conference make the playoffs (7/16) each year. If you judge a head coach by his ability to win, win in the playoffs, and ultimately win the Super Bowl, Dennis Allen has shown over a long enough time period that he's nowhere close, and never has been. And he's in his 50s now, which is not particularly young for an NFL coach

Amy Trask, the longtime Raiders exec, warned us when Allen was hired. And now it seems like she knew what she was talking about.

 

[SRAddict]

This feels like the end of the Mora era but not as bad as the Ditka years…yet.

This is exactly how I feel. I do feel somewhat optimistic about Rattler.

 

[solarbear88]

About 35 years myself. I don't know what to think about a team that does not block or tackle well. You don't win many ball games like that.

And yeah it has the same vibe as the end of the Mora era. A whole bunch of teams that shoulda, woulda, coulda but didn't. At least Mora won some close games vs division rivals, DA never has.

 

[Grand Master BJC]

I sat in the SuperDome for every second of the 55-21 drubbing the Colts put on us in 2003. This one brought about a similar feeling.

The regression is happening at a rapid pace and now the wheels are completely off.

There is no hope for this team in its present form.

As a fan for many years, I too feel as though we are a long way away from seeing the Saints in the playoffs again.

I was there for that one too. Yep. It feels like the Ditka/Haslett years all over again. Flashes of excitement for consistently inconsistent and no discipline which leads back to an ineffective Head Coach.

 

[saintfan1972]

This game today is a fire the coach on Monday game. I've always tried to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but it's time to make a change. I would fire Allen tomorrow!

 

[CincyShoe]

Yep and It's painful to watch. There's some hope that the DA experiment is at the end, particularly if they lose to Payton at Home Thursday.

I did see enough from Rattler slinging it today though, to know that at least it's not as bad as the Billy Jo X 2 Ditka era.

 

[GTSaint]

This game today is a fire the coach on Monday game. I've always tried to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but it's time to make a change. I would fire Allen tomorrow!

I know. Rarely can you lose a game with a score like 51-27 and say that the game wasn’t as close as the score made it seem. You can make excuses, like too many injuries, or short week, but at the end of the day, it comes back to the HC. And when the players who are playing don’t even have the fundamentals down by game 6, it says a lot about the process.

 

[saintfan1972]

I know. Rarely can you lose a game with a score like 51-27 and say that the game wasn’t as close as the score made it seem. You can make excuses, like too many injuries, or short week, but at the end of the day, it comes back to the HC. And when the players who are playing don’t even have the fundamentals down by game 6, it says a lot about the process.

Defense got their manhood taken today. Horrible.

 

[sammymvpknight]

I've experienced some highs and I've experienced a lot of lows with this team. I'm always cheering.

It has been a while since I've had no hope for this team and Dennis Allen is the main guy that's bringing that back.

Do any of the older Saints fans feel the same way?

I just want it to end. It’s felt like we’ve been watching this slow death since Brees started his decline. Just die already.

 

[solarbear88]

This game today is a fire the coach on Monday game. I've always tried to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but it's time to make a change. I would fire Allen tomorrow!

TBH I don't think that will do any good. I really think that as problems go Loomis and Ireland are bigger issues than DA. The team reflects the consistent draft and free agent misses of the last 5 years. Can't add 2 players per year from the draft, pay declining players big money, and expect to field a good team. 2021 draft 2 players, 2022 draft 3 players, 2023 2 players, 2024 2 players. No Pro Bowlers amongst all those picks. You can't build a roster like that.

 

[longtime lurker]

We’ve seen it before. The ship is taking on heavy water and sinking fast.

 

[JvilleJoe]

I've been a fan since '67 and recall many periods like this over these last 57 years. This one IMO is just another lean period and I do believe that it is more than Dennis Allen. Our front office and scouting departments have consistently underperformed over the last few years and we now don't have a HOFer in Drew Brees to mask the deficiencies.

I don't see any way Mickey Loomis will pull the plug on DA until season end, but I do now believe that absent an unprecendented turnaround in wins and losses, this will be his last year. I also believe that a number of the older veterans will also be gone, absent some salary cap limitations that would cause the front office to keep them another year!

Sad time but things IMO will eventually turnaround. Sadly at my advance age I may not see it!!!

 

[Epic Brownie]

I've experienced some highs and I've experienced a lot of lows with this team. I'm always cheering.

It has been a while since I've had no hope for this team and Dennis Allen is the main guy that's bringing that back.

Do any of the older Saints fans feel the same way?

Yes I do

 

[SEASON1FAN]

Like JvilleJoe I watched the first game in ‘67 and have been a diehard since. The performance today brings ugly flashbacks. The team has the looks of a rudderless ship on a treacherous sea.

 

[Bill]

I’ve been around for every Saints season. The vast majority of our teams have been less than stellar and have required true fanship to continue to watch and support our beloved team.

The Saints have had worse teams and worse coaching. But the game has changed a lot in the last decade or so. What has never changed is the need to have good starting talent and decent depth, especially at key positions.

Would our Saints be a better team if we had all of our starting players healthy? Without a doubt. Are our backups such a drop off in talent that they can’t play well enough to win? Apparently so. Should the coaches be good enough to make these rag tag backups play like a real contender? I don’t know how anyone could even argue that such a thing is possible.

I’m not trying to make excuses for Dennis Allen. He has enough time at his position to make the Saints a better team than they are now. But the same can be said of Mickey Loomis. Ultimately Loomis has to gather the pieces together. If the talent is there, a good coach will make sure to bring it out for every game. But if the talent is lacking, there is no coach on the planet that can make them a consistent winner.

It’s the nature of trying to ‘win at all cost’ that eventually the cost actually keeps you from winning. Very high priced players get old & ineffective, and newer players generally only excel when other good players are working shoulder to shoulder with them.

The Saints have second & third string quality players that are having to carry the load of making the playbook run smoothly on Sunday. But they can’t. Things as fundamental as making sure tackles are not being executed effectively during the most important plays of the game. The result is more than just a loss. The game becomes a gut-kicking blowout.

The Saints cannot do anything about the key starters who are watching their struggling team from the sidelines. But after Weeks 1 & 2 this is what we’ve been reduced to. And with no end in sight of these crippling, roster-depleting injuries each week, there’s nothing else we can expect from our team but to see a lot more of the same.

Blowing it all up and starting over is never in a GMs vocabulary. His job each season is to convince the fans that his team is just one or two key players from being able to contend for a championship. But the Saints are far more than a few players (or coaches) away from being great again. I know that, YOU know that, and (if he’s being honest) MICKEY knows that.

But we are fans and this is our team. To me the off-season is long and empty. I have chosen to follow my team whether they are legitimately in the playoff hunt or not. Clearly this year we are NOT. But I can’t change this reality any more than any of you can. I must say that it’s been a long time since it’s been this bad and this hopeless. But maybe something will change when some of our injured players are back on the field after our BYE week. Then again, this train may never stop wrecking.