Very encouraged by this preseason (1 Viewer)

st dude

The dotless one
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I gave my tickets to my youngest son for this game. He is back from a year in Spain where he taught English for a year in a small town. He and his girl friend are taking two LSU exchange students from Madrid to their first US football game.

My other son just left our NO condo where I am happy as can be with a plate of cheese and glass of wine watching the pregame. He is going to game and just left. Before he left he asked me our annual question, " hey pop, how we gonna do this year?"

Let me preface my response with a confession. Every year for the last forty nine years I have rationalized some path for the Saints to do well. I am the opposite of objective.

That being said, this year I think I have a case to make we will have a much more fun team to watch this year. Why? Somehow, some way, we seem to have a bunch of young and aggressive defensive players mixed in with a few veterans that gives me hope we could have at worst an average defense and at best, a good one.

During the Mora years when we had a great defense and an awful offense I yearned for a good offense. Offenses are more fun too watch. Of course everyone wants a great offense and great defense, but for most teams you get one or the other, not both.

We have been spoiled during the Brees years with for the most part of that time an outstanding offense. But the last few years have been painful to watch as our defense has been historically bad. I find myself yearning for the dome patrol. Good defense is just as fun to watch for me.

So in answer to my sons question about how we are gonna do this year, my response is that things are looking up.

The defense in preseason has exceeded my expectations by a mile. Yes the offense has struggled, but somehow that doesn't worry me that much. There has been no year, not one, in the Brees era that our offense has not been good. Even in down years, our offense has been better than most.

I have little doubt the offense will come around. I think we see that trend turn around tonite. I just hope the defense is as improved as it looks so far. Pouring me another glass of wine now and about to find out.
 
I will never forget my favorite SR thread of all time:

You wrote a story about how you went to Emeril's restaurant and all kinds of Saints players were there. Turned out to be a fictional story, but when reading it, I thought it was true. You are the man sir!
 
Ahhhhhhh.... always refreshing to get a SR post from the Dotless one.

Good story. I'm sure your son appreciated your doing this. And I too am encouraged by what we've seen so far (...less the questions on the O-line). :covri:

We all hope you have time for KWTPF this season, bro (wink, wink). :ezbill:

:gosaints:
 
Children and their non-stop questions, amirite. Can I have some supper? Can you take me to the ER?? How does a 401k work???

Are the Saints going to be good this year?!?

Dotless One, bang on with your response, I could not agree more. I see a glimmer of hope with this defense, this year, and I can't wait. Let's geaux, who dat!!!
 
I have been out of country for first two preseason games. So all I have to go on is what I have read about our new stingy defense.

Hopefully they get stingy as the game goes on. The first drive looked a lot like last year.:covri:

I still have faith. Time for the offense to step up.
 
Lol at me. :covri::covri::covri: But yes, I still think they will figure it out. :ezbill:
 
This team is in deep trouble. Very low in talent and leadership.
 
Now look, they are waking up a bit.

Of course, Roethlisberger is out of the game.
 
I gave my tickets to my youngest son for this game. He is back from a year in Spain where he taught English for a year in a small town. He and his girl friend are taking two LSU exchange students from Madrid to their first US football game.

My other son just left our NO condo where I am happy as can be with a plate of cheese and glass of wine watching the pregame. He is going to game and just left. Before he left he asked me our annual question, " hey pop, how we gonna do this year?"

Let me preface my response with a confession. Every year for the last forty nine years I have rationalized some path for the Saints to do well. I am the opposite of objective.

That being said, this year I think I have a case to make we will have a much more fun team to watch this year. Why? Somehow, some way, we seem to have a bunch of young and aggressive defensive players mixed in with a few veterans that gives me hope we could have at worst an average defense and at best, a good one.

During the Mora years when we had a great defense and an awful offense I yearned for a good offense. Offenses are more fun too watch. Of course everyone wants a great offense and great defense, but for most teams you get one or the other, not both.

We have been spoiled during the Brees years with for the most part of that time an outstanding offense. But the last few years have been painful to watch as our defense has been historically bad. I find myself yearning for the dome patrol. Good defense is just as fun to watch for me.

So in answer to my sons question about how we are gonna do this year, my response is that things are looking up.

The defense in preseason has exceeded my expectations by a mile. Yes the offense has struggled, but somehow that doesn't worry me that much. There has been no year, not one, in the Brees era that our offense has not been good. Even in down years, our offense has been better than most.

I have little doubt the offense will come around. I think we see that trend turn around tonite. I just hope the defense is as improved as it looks so far. Pouring me another glass of wine now and about to find out.

Ok my friend, how do you feel now? Me? Not so hopeful.
 
Ok my friend, how do you feel now? Me? Not so hopeful.

Why not? This was a practice game. We obviously forced the ball to Fleener and Spiller to get them some touches early on. We ran the ball well. If they were concerned, Brees would have continued to play. For some reason, people are looking past this as more than just a glorified practice. Even on the defensive side of the ball. Do you honestly think we'll run that much zone defense? Do you honestly think we would have left a rookie corner one on one with AB? These are all great teaching moments in order for these guys to continue on the steep learning curve in the NFL. Just think back to Breaux last year. Lots and lots of mistakes in preseason and in the beginning of the regular season. These are young guys that will progress as the season goes on. I don't understand how the Saints got worse in everyone's eyes. This is what the preseason is for and they'll learn from it.
 
Why not? This was a practice game. We obviously forced the ball to Fleener and Spiller to get them some touches early on. We ran the ball well. If they were concerned, Brees would have continued to play. For some reason, people are looking past this as more than just a glorified practice. Even on the defensive side of the ball. Do you honestly think we'll run that much zone defense? Do you honestly think we would have left a rookie corner one on one with AB? These are all great teaching moments in order for these guys to continue on the steep learning curve in the NFL. Just think back to Breaux last year. Lots and lots of mistakes in preseason and in the beginning of the regular season. These are young guys that will progress as the season goes on. I don't understand how the Saints got worse in everyone's eyes. This is what the preseason is for and they'll learn from it.

I see what you're getting at, and agree with you, but no one can say that anything about the O-Line as improved in any aspect at all based on what we've seen so far through 3 games. That's my biggest and really only worry. And its a Yuge one. Not using complex blocking schemes during the preseason and all that has been said, but when you get ran over every play, you're just getting ran over nearly every play. Scheme or no scheme, someone is gonna get hurt behind that line.

I'm gonna remain hopeful, and try to stay positive because there was improvement out there, just not where I was hoping it would be.
 
Ok my friend, how do you feel now? Me? Not so hopeful.

Well no doubt it was not a pretty performance Champ.

But how do I feel? Still very hopeful. You and I being from the same era have seen lots of preseason games over the years. Rarely have they been much of an indication how the season will go. We have kicked butt in preseason and been awful in the regular season (our first year as I recall). We have done poorly in preseason and played well.

We went to a wedding on magazine street tonite and on the way back had our first mother/daughter uber driver. They were two African-American women and the mom was riding shotgun.

The headcovers on their headrests were fleurdelis's, so I said somethings about the Saints being awful last night. The mom responded not to worry, they will figure it out by the time the season starts. :plus-un2:

What I have learned over the years is that if I go into the year feeling great or if I go into the year thinking we have no chance, my feelings have no impact on the outcome.

So like my uber mother friend today, I choose to be hopeful and look for my silver linings. Everyone is different and how we feel about our team is not a right or wrong thing, it's how we feel.

I feel we will be okay, I really do. We have a hall of fame qb, few teams can say that. Our young defense got schooled by Roethlisberger, it was a good lesson. But I still feel our defense will be better and I think even with our O-line problems, we will be better than most on offense because we have Drew.

But I feel good about how we are going to do every year, so my average is not that great. :ezbill:
 
I gave my tickets to my youngest son for this game. He is back from a year in Spain where he taught English for a year in a small town. He and his girl friend are taking two LSU exchange students from Madrid to their first US football game.

My other son just left our NO condo where I am happy as can be with a plate of cheese and glass of wine watching the pregame. He is going to game and just left. Before he left he asked me our annual question, " hey pop, how we gonna do this year?"

Let me preface my response with a confession. Every year for the last forty nine years I have rationalized some path for the Saints to do well. I am the opposite of objective.

That being said, this year I think I have a case to make we will have a much more fun team to watch this year. Why? Somehow, some way, we seem to have a bunch of young and aggressive defensive players mixed in with a few veterans that gives me hope we could have at worst an average defense and at best, a good one.

During the Mora years when we had a great defense and an awful offense I yearned for a good offense. Offenses are more fun too watch. Of course everyone wants a great offense and great defense, but for most teams you get one or the other, not both.

We have been spoiled during the Brees years with for the most part of that time an outstanding offense. But the last few years have been painful to watch as our defense has been historically bad. I find myself yearning for the dome patrol. Good defense is just as fun to watch for me.

So in answer to my sons question about how we are gonna do this year, my response is that things are looking up.

The defense in preseason has exceeded my expectations by a mile. Yes the offense has struggled, but somehow that doesn't worry me that much. There has been no year, not one, in the Brees era that our offense has not been good. Even in down years, our offense has been better than most.

I have little doubt the offense will come around. I think we see that trend turn around tonite. I just hope the defense is as improved as it looks so far. Pouring me another glass of wine now and about to find out.


Very good. I want to share your outlook for the season. This team seems stacked with exciting young talent on both sides of the football. However, excuse my competitiveness but I just hate watching in the way we are losing. It reminds me of the old days when we didn't have good coaching, nor planning. Turnovers, and mistakes can and should be fixed, but it ain't happening. Hopefully the coaches are focused on those areas. If not I won't have an enjoyable season, and neither will those around me for a couple of days.I will be a SAINTS fan always, just a little P-O'd because of their neglect to correct the obvious errors that cost you wins. My family and friends would appreciate that. I have enjoyed a certain amount of comfort, therefore spoiled by the success of our SAINTS past seasons.
Now Coaches Fix It !!!
Rrrhumpt'. Thank You.
 

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