Overachievers or Inconsistant? (1 Viewer)

DefensePlease

Jeff
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Many people thought we overachieved in 06 with average to mediocre players at many positions. Some think that theory was proved in 07. Other people believed that we were a good football team in 06, and given another season to gel we would be great in 07. These people might still blame injuries and inconsistant play for the 07 season.

Its obvious this year that even the coaching staff realized that more needed to be done than adding "depth only" free-agents. They might not have added superstars(dont read vilma), but there are definate potential starters.


I personally cant help but to agree with the people who think we shouldnt beat the panick button, rather just blame the injuries and inconsistant play. I think if we hit on one or two free agents, and our #10, 40 and last years first rounder can all contribute.....we will be a force.

My reasoning for this feeling is that there were some games last year that just puzzle the heck out of me. A lucky(overachieving) team doesnt beat the snot out of seattle and jacksonville the way we did. However, an inconsistant team will not show up for a stl or houston game, or give away games to carolina and Tampa.



My vote..Inconsistant
 
I think it was a little bit of both. History has shown that when you have a superstar qb u can win with mediocre talent around him, but you will eventually hit a wall cause i think a lack of talent will be exposed eventually, but with that how many teams have talent from top to bottom on there roster. Not too many. The only team that i can say that is probably the Chargers, the Cowboys as much as i hate to say it have alot of talent as well. But where has that got those two teams, NO WHERE. You can win in this league with a selected few core players and role players around them. For example, the Pat's follow that formula to a T. You have arguably the best qb and wr in our era at the fore front. A O-line that are great as a unit but some that is due to the qb ala Brees and the Saints o-line. O there d it isn't too many guys outside of Seymour, there NT, i can't think of the name and once upon a time samuel, and in certain situations Harrison that u had to keep an eye on.They have had smart LBs for a while that fit what they do. As a defense they haven't been world beaters by any means.But people will relate that back to "SPYGATE". Any team that has had a history of underachieveing regardless of talent, will be considered flukes until u are a contender on a consistent basis.
Remember Brady took the Pats to the Conference championship the yr before last with wr's that are now a 4th Caldwell and 4th Gaffney as there 1st and 2nd in 06.
 
IMO as well, it's a bit of both. We did however, go into last season with obvious weaknesses in our secondary and our interior DL. Neither were adequately addressed. We tried unsuccessfully to improve our D with less than stellar FA pickups. You can do this when the surrounding cast of players is strong enough to compensate for it but that is not our situation. We lack depth at many positions. We need to do whatever is necessary to bring pressure on opposing QB's. Until we do, our D will struggle. Our secondary is weak but sufficient pressure will really help.
Last year as hard as we tried we drank the koolaid. Our team bought into the hype that they were on the cusp. This year they will not make that mistake. If Vilma and Morgan can remain healthy, our D will be improved but we are still missing that stud DT that punishes the OL and requires double teaming. I'm hoping that Coach O will bring some consistency to our DL because it appears they may have to do the job without significant improvement unless we get lucky. I think this year's team will pull it together and play more consistently but nobody has control over injuries and if we are plagued by enough of them, who knows?
 
Guys, we sucked something terrible last year, only showed up for two games, had a host of injuries, had no FA or draft contributions, and had some wierd coaching decisions. With all of this, the '07 Saints were still in a position to make the playoffs in week 17 (admittedly a long shot). There is very good to great talent on this team in a multitude of positions. The problem is, unlike the Pats, Colts, Cowboys, and Chargers, our holes are huge, not small and easily covered up. We are in the midst of a 5 year run with this team, I just hope it doesn't get screwed up.
 
I actually think we under achieved in 2006. We should have won atleast 12 games.

But we were inconsistant, especially the o-line. Look the defense was terrible and we should take whatever they could possibly give to us. But I thought our o-line had the talent to do much better and it seemed like some games they did great, other games, they got destroyed.
 
It all started with the beginning of the season, played easy teams in '06 and got on a roll, played hard ones in '07 and lost our confidence. Now we've improved, but I'm hoping for Cheifs week 1.
 
Our '07 draft class just had a horrible rookie year. If we can get 3-4 legitimate starters between our '08 draft and the players we kept from our '07 draft, I think we'll be closer to our '06 form than our '07 form.
 
Combination of underacheiving (LB and CB play was ALOT worst in 07).

Inconcistant (OLine had a hard time blocking, WRs dopped more passes, Drew was not Drew)

Injuries (We had injuries at every level of our team wheras we stayed relatively healthy in 06).
 
I don't think we overachieved nor do I think we were inconsistant. I think we played to our potential in 2006, and in 2007 I think the morale of the team was sunk too low because of 4 losses in a row as well as Deuce's knee injury. That's hard to overcome, seeing how Deuce is the heart and soul of this franchise, and 4 losses when we defenitly should have won 3 of those 4 games. No one was beating the Colts in Week 1, but the next 3 should have been won.
 
Man, you all make good points on this. I also think that Payton's first year as coach he surprised some teams and put a whooping on them. The second year, teams had an idea how he calls his games and adjusted somewhat.

So if you add in a touch of underachievement, some bad luck with injuries, having to play Indy the first game (how they always destroy us just kills me), and some other things that ya'll already mentioned...you bascially have our '07 season.

I think in '08 Payton will make some adjustments to his coaching style, the team as a whole with players, etc., I think the Saints will bounce back to our '06 form and better.
 

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