The 2006 Offseason Excuse Thread
 

LOL

No, I'm not really that negative... yet... but I do enjoy predicting the next year's offseason excuses at about this time of year to explain why, once again, the Saints were 8-8 and didn't make the playoffs.

Before we start, here's a recap of the actual excuses the last few years:

2001 - Locker Room Problems, Fatigue (Solution: Get rid of Pro Bowlers and trusty veterans like Roaf, Glover, Johnson, Williams, Knight, Blake, give Brooks a new top 5 contract. Build a new practice facility)

2002 - Youth, Injuries, Fatigue again. (Solution: Cut more veterans - that helps the youth problem, lol - especailly the fat worthless ones in the middle like Hand and Jackson. Draft Jonathan Sullivan. Sign and draft for speed, b/c fast defenses will work better. Promote Rick Venturi)

2003 - Injuries, Time Playing Together, Professionality - (Solution: Don't to much, the injuries hurt the defense. They really just needed time to jell before they could reach their full potential. After that, just look. Their defense was the highest ranked in the league... wait, you mean the highest number doesn't mean best? Draft and sign "character" guys. )

2004 - O-line, key injuries, Minnesota. (Solution: there really isn't a problem, b/c if Minnesota had just beat Washington the Saints would have made the playoffs. Otherwise, it's all the o-line's fault and Deuce's for getting hurt and coming back out of shape. The 32nd ranked defense played well for a few games, so they're OK. Sign and draft offensive linemen, injury-prone WRs, and another talented QB that you'll let leave through FA in a few years).



OK, so after the 2005 season, what will be the excuse for 8-8? LOL


My first idea: Kicking (which, PS, was kind of the excuse after 2003). Carney will show his age this year and miss some kicks. The Saints will go 8-8 and say, if we only made those few extra kicks, we'd have been to the playoffs. Solution: We sign a "hecuva" kicker in 2006 to fix the problem.

If -- and I say if -- we are 8-8 the excuse will be the following :

Fan support -- nobody in the stands -- season ticket sales down -- but it was not the team or the team's talent

Ooh that's a good one. I like that.

Kicking, Fans, Bad Stadium. I think that might be my new guess for the 2005 season. :)

Carney may be a scapegoat, but the fans will definitely bear the brunt of the blame - especially from Benson. He lready started it this summer and then approves an ad saying we gotta have faith. I've got faith alright...8-8 here we come.

First year in a new, scaled down offense with new terminology :)

Actually, wd, i can sum up why there were all the excuses in 6 words,
THEY DID'NT HAVE THEIR SHIZ TOGETHER..............
as i've said the past 2or3 yrs, if we win the opener, look out.......
and, further, no one puts a lot into the preseason, but i disagree.....
this is where you see what the 1st unit and more importantly, the 2nd and 3rd units can do if anything happens to the first.........
i put a lot more in preseason faith as most probably do because this is where you'll actually see if they have their shiz together......smitty

I agree ssmitty. The preseason is very important, and I think it tells you a lot also. A lot of people (e.g. the poster formerly known as Billy Baloo) mistake the "experts" when they say preseason doesn't matter. I think the better statement is: Preseason Record doesn't matter.

Others claim that the playbooks are totally scaled down and that the "vanilla" schemes that you see aren't representative of what you'll see in the regular season. That may be true, but BOTH teams are likely using the same vanilla schemes. What that means is you can evaluate talent and performance.

If your 1st team QB is throwing balls in the dirt - that does tell you something. If the opponent rushes for 45 yards on 2 series against your 1st team defense, that signals a problem. Winning or losing the game isn't important to me, b/c coaches are experimenting, pushing guys to see how they'll do in different formations or different levels of pressure and situations. But how your first team plays against opposing first teams does tell you something.



All that said, you're far too serious. What the excuse going to be next year ssmitty? Bad turf? Too many fights on airplanes? What?

Gumbo the mascot ate my playbook!

Players ate too much fried chicken before games.

i'll stick with the same one.........it tells it all...............smitty

ok..on a related topic...
let me be the first one this preseason who uses this phrase:

"It's just preseason.... everything is vanilla... they don't want to show their hand..."

du dudu duduDU duu.. ice ice baby!!!

Dude, it's

du du du dadadudu da du du du dadadudu - get with it TR. LOL

Lay off him, WD, you know some people just don't have any rhythm.

Sad, really sad. :(

I'll bet you guys are a blast at parties.

Karaoke, especially. Ask WhoDat to show you his Liberace impression. He nailed it.

All of these excuses you're pointing to weren't the reasons we didn't make the playoffs. But leave it to the pessimists to try and play the I told you so, when they actually didn't. The pessimist's M.O. I really feel sorry for you guys.

Pessy: "All you dumbasses don't know squat. We didn't win because we didn't get a DT" I told you, ha-ha, nanny-nanny-boo-boo. Yeah, so I predicted the same thing all you optimists did, but that doesn't matter. You guys are stupid to think we can win with a mediocre DT."

And my favorite contradiction: "Our players suck, and our coach sucks"

If the players suck, Haz did a pretty damn good job getting them to 8-8.

ITS COACHING STUPID!!!!

LMAO.

..whatcha talkin' about, ese?!?!!? I'm Latino... I make my belt buckle shine every time...

I beg to differ, dude, but it's...du du du dahdadudah da du du du dahdaduda

Yo, VIP, Let's kick it!

Ice Ice Baby, Ice Ice Baby
All right stop, Collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Then I flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo -- I don't know
Turn off the lights and I'll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle.

Dance, Bum rush the speaker that booms
I'm killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it, You better gain way
You better hit bull's eye, The kid don't play
If there was a problem, Yo, I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla
Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla

Now that the party is jumping
With the bass kicked in, the Vegas are pumpin'
Quick to the point, to the point no faking
I'm cooking MCs like a pound of bacon
Burning them if they're not quick and nimble
I go crazy when I hear a cymbal
And a hi hat with a souped up tempo
I'm on a roll and it's time to go solo
Rollin' in my 5.0
With my ragtop down so my hair can blow
The girlies on standby, Waving just to say Hi
Did you stop? No -- I just drove by
Kept on pursuing to the next stop
I busted a left and I'm heading to the next block
That block was dead

Yo -- so I continued to A1A Beachfront Ave.
Girls were hot wearing less than bikinis
Rockman lovers driving Lamborghinis
Jealous 'cause I'm out geting mine
Shay with a gauge and Vanilla with a nine
Reading for the chumps on the wall
The chumps acting ill because they're so full of "Eight Ball"
Gunshots ranged out like a bell
I grabbed my nine -- All I heard were shells
Falling on the concrete real fast
Jumped in my car, slammed on the gas
Bumper to bumper the avenue's packed
I'm trying to get away before the jackers jack
Police on the scene, You know what I mean
They passed me up, confronted all the dope fiends
If there was a problem, You, I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla
Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla

Take heed, 'cause I'm a lyrical poet
Miami's on the scene just in case you didn't know it
My town, that created all the bass sound
Enough to shake and kick holes in the ground
'Cause my style's like a chemical spill
Feasible rhymes that you can vision and feel
Conducted and formed, This is a hell of a concept
We make it hype and you want to step with this
Shay plays on the fade, slice like a ninja
Cut like a razor blade so fast, Other DJs say, "damn"
If my rhyme was a drug, I'd sell it by the gram
Keep my composure when it's time to get loose
Magnetized by the mic while I kick my juice
If there was a problem, Yo -- I'll solve it!
Check out the hook while Deshay revolves it.

Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla
Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla

Yo man -- Let's get out of here! Word to your mother!

Ice Ice Baby take a ho, Ice Ice Baby take a ho take a ho
Ice Ice Baby take a ho take a ho, Ice Ice Baby take a ho take a ho

..don't know what's more disturbing...

..that Saint_LB actually posted the lyrics...
... or that I actually read the entire lyrics...
...or that Vanilla Ice could actually memorize all of that...

...or the fact that I've sang that song word for word since I was 5 years old. Its great for parties...now-a-days.

This has to be one of the lowest points in BNG.net history. :wink:

LB did you write all those lyrics from memory? What is going on around here?! LOL

Of course!! :D You ought to see me do "Can't touch this", and dance like MC Hammer! 8)

... how does that one go?

DUUUdudu...du DuDu DuDu DUUUdudu...du DuDu DuDuaaaaa

That's pretty close...Duuududadu oh-oh oh oh oh-oh-oh....Duuududadu oh-oh oh oh oh-oh-oh...my, my,my..... :lol:

Fill in the blank.


And this has____________ to do with the Saints or football in general. :?:

... according to the Saints coaching staff, players, and some fans, the play we see in preseason is vanilla (ice)...
... the Falcons are the Saints longest standing rival, and they used an MC Hammer song , "2 legit to quit"...

...had to reach waaaay up... :)

I have to go with my favorite Hasbeen statement :

"We work on it, we stress it," Haslett said. "I don't know what it is. If you have any suggestions, send 'em in. This has been going on for two years now. We work on it. We stress it. I'm at a loss. I don't know what else you can do."

The answer Hasbeen is :

Resign and let a real coach take the job ..........

Back on topic, I wouldn't be suprised if some people's excuse is one name. Aaron Brooks. Not saying I am one of those people, but you know thats what people are going to say.

That's kinda like going to change a diaper and saying, "The baby did it, I know he did!"

Lighten up Danno. It's a joke. :)

See:


And for the record, I think the only thing worse than people complaining about the Saints, are the people who complain about the fans. Have fun with it - I promise you'll feel better. :)

.. I rather be a pessy than a possy...

But what would you rather eat? 8)

I hate this thread. Just like I hate the Jonathan Sullivan discussions implying that we should cut him RIGHT NOW.

I can honestly say I feel more optimistic about this season than I have about any other prior season. We know what the offense can do.......we've seen Aaron Brooks turn a corner by winning that "must-win" game in Carolina that seemed to elude him in prior years.......

And in other news, for the first time in 2 or 3 years, our starting cornerbacks aren't named Ashley Ambrose and Fred Thomas. Couple that with the addition of Dwight Smith, a known playmaker and a member of a Super Bowl team.....and you have reason for optimism. How about our young stud linebackers. More optimism?

No, this isn't just any other year. Let's play some football. I'm ready.

P.S. I've seen a lot of anti-Carney talk lately. I'm predicting he has another solid year.

Solid as in anything beyond the 28-31 yard line we have to go for it or punt? Cause his range only seems to be 45-48 yards and in now, plus shallow kickoffs. I was hoping we would get Edinger when Chicago cut him. That guy has a rocket for a leg. Just hope we don't need any 50 yarders for game winners.

Doesn't Berger handle the kickoffs?

What ???

This is some serious glory holeing if I have ever seen it ....

The Saints went out and got a cover 2 safety . The Saints are not a cover 2 defense , Smith played a soft zone in Tampa and if Venturi even get's the terminology right for the defense , it could turn out this guy get's lost in the Saints defensive system if you can call it a system .

You could be right LB. But then, doesn't that mean that Carney has shallow kick-offs? :D

Yes, it does...not to mention the fact that if the opposition had someone running free in open field with only the kicker to beat, I'd rather it be Berger than Carney, if only because Berger would be a little harder to run over.

It's too bad that his leg is not a little stronger, because you have to like his accuracy. I know he missed that extra point at the end of the '03 season, but am I the only one who knew at the time that he missed that kick that we were already eliminated from the playoffs? The way you hear people talk about it, you would think that it cost us a playoff appearance, but it didn't.

Funny thing about missing that extra point, Carney had complained to Haslett weeks earlier that he was having a problem with the holder, who I think was Berger at that time. HE complained to Haz after missing a late field goal in the Carolina game a few weeks earlier. Haz told him to deal with it. Then he missed that extra point. Needless to say someone else was holding last year. Either Berger was the holder in 03 that got switched, or someone else was holding and they switched to Berger. I really can't recall who was holding last year.