Of the 3 teams in Second Place in the NFC... (1 Viewer)

[DMaestro]

The Saints are not as strong defensively as the other teams. Defense wins championships. To predict the Saints will fold is the safe bet.

Saints rank better yardage-wise in overall defense than the Panties. I know this is a hard fact for some to accept, but it's true.

Having a bunch of sexy names doesn't make you a playoff team much less a division winner, and this is something the numbnuts analysts just don't get.

 

[MJ in Calif]

Three teams being Seattle, NO, and Giants. ESPN's Mark "the Stink" Schlereth predicted that the Saints to be the one to fall out of the lead in their division and possibly miss the playoffs because a surging Panthers team will overtake them. These guys just hate the fact that the Saints are winning.

Both Schlereth and Hodge are complete idiots. I can cite so many statements made by these two cretins to indicate how ridiculous they are. I just don't watch them. I come here instead

 

[tdbush25]

I think this is just a case of another sportswriter who is still clinging to his pre-season predictions to give himself a little bit of credibility. In my opinion, until the Panthers find a way to move the ball without Steve Smith involved there not going anywhere.

 

[SuperSaint]

Ding, Ding,,,,,,We have a winner.

This is the reason everyone is picking us to fall behind. The love affair with the 'surging' panthers + everyones preseason rediction of where we would end up(including alot of us fans)+ the fact that our defense has a lot of holes that will take another year of FA/draft to correct = the odd man out and the safe bet that we will fall behind in the division lead.

This isn't a bad analysis. Our defense is still a work in progress. Hopefully they will continue to improve each week. When we don't turn the ball over, we win, so I think that if the 'D' can just be average for the rest of the season, that might be enough, combined with our offense to get us in.

 

[lifelongsaint]

oh my stars, its strange seeing all the negative. I see us winning this game big time.
this coaching staff will have this team ready, these players will be ready.
im still fired us just seeing the changes now from over the years. I know its soon, but i truly belive in them.
man, this offence is about to light up, im not sure when it might be this sunday, or it might be the last 2-3 games. I truly believe in my heart its going to be sooner than later.
GEAUX SAINTS

 

[Speck Killer]

Let the Panthers play like they played Monday night and watch the Rams whip them.

 

[Lee Newell]

well of that list carolina is the best second place team, so the answer would be the saints or nobody

but as far as wildcard i think we wold have the edge over the eagles, and the cowboys should we beat them - and we know what happened last time the saints and rams were tied and the saints beat them in the regular season, the rams got in , not us

Yeah, I remember being po'ed about that. It was explained because there was a three way tie-breaker between the Saints, Rams, and Vikings. The tie-breaker switched from head up battles to division and conference records. The Saints had the worst division and or conference record of the three teams, thus losing the tie-breaker.
Keep in mind that this is why it's more important to win NFC and your division games. So far so good though. We are 6-3 with only 1 division and conference loss to the Panthers. That means we have 5 conference wins and 3 division wins already with 6 NFC games left to play. This game against Cincy is the last AFC opponent! The magic number is 10 wins. With the state of the NFC at this point we only need 4 more wins to make the play-offs. How big was that win over Philly?

 

[fnholmes]

I am just peeved at the fact that everyone is bashing the defense. The big plays have come off of man to man coverage with receivers making truly spectacular plays. If Harper and Ninko didn't get hurt this defense would easily be in the top 5 in all stats. We just haven't been able to get the push that we had early on with the exception of Will Smith and Brian Young. I think that if we open up the D the turnovers will come. As long as the O keeps rocking we'll be just fine. Go Saints!

 

[Pure Energy]

I can see how an analyst would doubt the Saints ability to finish. What they've seen of late is an explosive offense but an undisciplined team who's turned the ball over 9 times in the past 3 games. The Defense has given up big plays to their opponents and only managed 2 turnovers during those 3 games.

Teams that give up big plays and consistently turn the ball over are products of poor coaching. They're not going to win many games down the stretch if they continue to concede 2 turnovers to the opponent.

As a Saints fan, I'm hoping this lack of focus is simply a temporary blip and this team will fix this negative tendency.

 

[Random Fan]

Three teams being Seattle, NO, and Giants. ESPN's Mark "the Stink" Schlereth predicted that the Saints to be the one to fall out of the lead in their division and possibly miss the playoffs because a surging Panthers team will overtake them. These guys just hate the fact that the Saints are winning.

Or they are just giving an honest and reasonable opinion. People need to stop taking differences of opinion so personally.