Why did this happen?
 

Six of seven defeats last year were by a touchdown or less and were lost in the fourth quarter.

I think I have an idea of why this happend, although not totally.

Can someone give me their opinion and tell me if they see some of the same problems this year?????

Why did this happen?
 

2 reasons

1st-Defensive meltdown. stamina, attitude and scheme. But we addressed them all.
Stamina- We hire one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the league
Attitude- After 3 seasons of cleaning house, the attitude problems should be gone
Scheme- We were SLOW, people figured out our schemes to hide it, now we are fast, and can be competitive even in the basic schemes we couldn\'t run last year.

2nd-Offensive meltdown. During the last 1/4 of the season our offense had way too many back-to-back 3-&-outs. Our defense fatiqued, and when you are already slow it simply compounded the problem. When your DT are 40-80 lbs overweight and can\'t get any rest on the sidelines, teams will start running all over them.
There are several reasons for the Offensive meltdown.
1-A banged up Deuce with a major dropoff in back-up talent
2-Brooks\' shoulder and inexperience (youth)
3-Dropped balls by TE\'s and WR\'s
4-McCarthy\'s schemes were exposed, he needs to grow more as an OC. Granted his butterfinger TE\'s, inconsistent QB, and hands-of-stone fullback didn\'t add to his options.

All 4 of these EXCUSES are now unacceptable for 2003. The only problem I see now is the pressure to perform because there are now no excuses. The honeymoon is officially over and its time to play all 16 or get the resume\'s updated.

Why did this happen?
 

I think it has to do with coaching and a lack of ability to motivate the team down the stretch. Because great coaches make teams play great all the time. I never saw the 49ers play down to their competition in all the years Bill Walsh was coach.

So Pak, Gator, Billy(s), Joe, Saintfan, Tweeky, lummox, etc... it\'s time to start the Haslet debates!

Why did this happen?
 

Halo,

Have you not read my completely unbiased report on Jimmy Haz??


But I agree that was part of the problem.

[Edited on 23/6/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

Why did this happen?
 

Unfair comparison. Walsh was one of the greatest coaches of all time. Imagine what he could do with this team. He\'s a notch below Lombardi, and it truly pains me to give the 9\'ers credit for anything.

Haslet is a GOOD coach, potential to grow into a great coach, but also has enough question marks to possibly flame out. I think we can all agree this is a make or break year for the following coaches/players
1. Haslet
2. Venturi
3. McCarthy
4. Brooks
5. Pathon
6. Sloan/Boo
7. Hodge
8. Grady Jackson
9. Victor Riley
10.Curtis Keaton.

Failure to improve will result in employment elsewhere, and I think they all know it

Why did this happen?
 

I think everyone would agree that Jim Mora was a good coach wouldn\'t they? He had one huge problem though \"Carl Smith\". Hopefullly Jim Haslett\'s huge problem wont be \"Rick Venturi\".

Why did this happen?
 

Mora and Smith, Haz and Venturi? Is there any truth to the rumor of same sex marriages? LOL. I hope these guys get their _______ together this year. :D

Why did this happen?
 

There are a lot of reasons for the melt down last year. Haslett not taking Brooks out when he was hurt, lack of leadership on both sides of the ball, and bad coaching at times. If I was the QB and wanted to show my leadership, I would not be smiling when I threw a bad pass or an interception like Brooks did plenty of times. Turley did not help in the attitidue department, in fact he was a major distraction for everyone. Carter being suspended for half the season, plus there are other issues that came about last year. Hoepfully all the distractions they had last year will not surface this year.

Why did this happen?
 

Any time you see a stat like 6 of 7 defeats were in the fourth quarter by a TD or less that means one of two things to me....

A. Conditioning.... we were fat and slow and when teams went to the hurry up we collapsed.

B. Coaching - if you can\'t come up with a big stop when it matter using properly timed blitzes or coverages you should be doing something else.

Why did this happen?
 

I read all the way to the end of the thread lookin for WhoDat\'s post. I incorrectly assumed he\'d pin it all on Brooks. hehe...c\'mon now WhoDat. Ya know I\'m only pullin\' your string!

I think all the posts here are accurate to a degree. Bottom line is, as it was posted earlier, there won\'t be any excuses for anyone this year, and yeah, WhoDat, that includes Brooks too.

Why did this happen?
 

Everyone made some very good point. Here\'s my take.........


I don\'t buy the not being in shape excuse thing. When I look at last year, what I see is that the offense wasn\'t as effective in most of those games, for what ever reason, which made us rely on our defense. What happened is the defense was exposed for what they were. Which was a defense that had a lot of players that were lacking in speed and talent.

When I look at the offensive break downs of last year, I see the injurys to Brooks and Duece as major factors. The coaching staff could have been more creative in their play calling and schemes.


For the most part I think the saints defense will be much beter this year. The offense will be very explosive, barring injurys.

Saints 13-3 this year.

If ya scared say ya scared !!!





[Edited on 24/6/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

Why did this happen?
 

I ain\'t scared. In fact I\'m down right excitted about the upcoming season. Just can\'t wait to see it all unfold.

Why did this happen?
 

When your defense is as bad as it was, then it never leaves your opponents out of a game, especially in the fourth quarter. Also, youth has a lot to do with it.

Let\'s review our offense, shall we?

Aaron Brooks:1999
Deuce Mcallister:2001
Terrelle Smith:2000
Joe Horn:1996(although didn\'t really have a season til 2000)
Donte\' Stallworth:2002
Lecharles Bentley:2002
Spencer Falauo:first year player for New Orleans

basically the only vet on the offensive side was Jerry Fontenot and Jerome Pathon, a center and a number 3 receiver. This is one of the reasons many columnists believe that it will be a couple of years before the Saints get to where they need to be, and sadly they may be right. When you have a young team with little experience it\'s tough to come up big in crunch time.

thanks
weston