saintz08

Where The Saints Went Wrong



As if New Orleans natives needed any more setbacks, they probably thought life couldn't get any worse. It seems the Saints have likely played their last game in New Orleans. Tom Benson isn't heartless. He isn't moving the team to spite the people. It's the reality of business. Benson needs individuals to show up at the game and buy tickets. But the population has decreased, and filling the Superdome seats would be a difficult task. But this franchise had problems before Hurricane Katrina.



How did we get to this point? I think a lot stems from one injury.

It was on November 19, 2000, the day the Saints took a turn for the worse.

In that Sunday's game against the Raiders, quarterback Jeff Blake fractured and dislocated his right foot. His foot was in bad shape. The bones were shattered. Blake needed three screws to help get things realigned properly.

First year Coach Jim Haslett called for a rookie quarterback who never had taken a regular-season NFL snap. Brooks went 3-2 as a starter and rallied the Saints into the playoffs. After Brooks captured the franchise's first playoff win in 31- 28 thriller over Kurt Warner's "greatest show on turf," he was essentially the King of Bourbon Street. He had won the hearts of fans with his mobility cool demeanor in the clutch.

But this was the climax of the Saint's success. The Vikings gave the Saints a 34-16 thumping to end their Cinderella story. Jeff Blake enjoyed career resurgence in 2001. He was steady and gaining more confidence and had the highest passer rating (82.7) of his eight NFL seasons. He had adapted nicely to a West Coast-style offense, and had let the Saints to six straight wins. Brook's legend grew in the off-season, and Blake couldn't regain the job before leaving New Orleans. But Brooks has only proven to be the most overrated quarterback in the NFL. He turns the ball over and lacks the accuracy necessary to be an effective quarterback. Brooks has never completed more than 60 % of his passes in his career, and completed only 53% of his passes in 2003. In 2002 he threw 26 touchdowns, but also threw 22 interceptions. He followed that up with 15 interceptions in 2003. Brooks will never be a winning quarterback for any NFL team. How much more talent can he be surrounded with?

Brooks is steadfast in his belief that he can lead the team to victory.

"Sooner or later, you're going to believe in Aaron Brooks," Brooks said. "Whether you want to or not."

Thanks for the confidence Aaron, but I'm pretty sure you've had enough opportunities.

When Brooks took the helm, the Saints had a sound running game with Ricky Williams taking the carries. Former coach Mike Dikta gave up the Saints entire draft in 1998 to select him. He rushed for over 3000 yards and had over a 1000 receiving yards in his three seasons in New Orleans. But despite Williams' production, management had grown tiresome of his unpredictable behavior. They used their first round pick in 2001 on Ole Miss tailback Deuce McAllister. He saw limited action in 2002, but showed potential. After missing the playoffs later that season, the Saints felt it was time to give McAllister a chance. Williams shipped to Miami and led the NFL in rushing with 1853 yards and added 16 touchdowns. McAllister is an effective back, but has been plagued by injuries and inconsistent play a la Brooks. Things could be much different. What if Ricky hung around?

What if Jeff Blake had won the starting job again? Maybe the Saints would have made some noise in the playoffs. Or maybe they might have even played hard for 16 games. We'll never know. It think with Blake and Williams still in the backfield, the Saints might be a contender.

And so the cycle revolves again with every gloomy Monday. The people of New Orleans are beginning to care less what the direction of this franchise is and more that they know that at least there is a direction.

San Antonio is a likely home for 2006 and Los Angeles is the preferred destination beyond that. The NFL could still include New Orleans as a Super Bowl site when the city is reconstructed, and expansion might even be a possibility, but that's years away. In the meantime, the Saints will just keep stinking.

Sure, they've been given an excuse to stink. But they'd stink anyway.

http://www.sportscolumn.com/story/20...nts_Went_Wrong

papz

Good read and I agree with it.

LordOfEntropy

As do I.

saintswhodi

Boy, if he woulda thrown a "and they let Jake Delhomme walk" in there, I would have thought I wrote that.

Euphoria

Saints downfall started with the firing of Randy.

FireVenturi

agreee with everyone, strongly agree with euphoria. Randy was very very good at what he did.

yasoon

This article is good initially, but they really gloss over the Ricky Williams thing. The 9 straight 100 yard games by Deuce, Ricky's threat to try out for the Rangers, his sudden retirement, his drug suspension, his all around flakiness. If you're gonna talk about unfortunate departures, you need to mention Jake, Roaf, Glover, etc. Ricky is one of the few times this braintrust actually got something right.

saintz08

I will take you one further , and see if you do not agree .

The day the Saints lost it all , was the day Jim Finks resigned .

The loss of Finks can be directly related to the downfall of Mora . Benson gains more control of the organization and begins an ever popular meddling act as an owner .

To me , Jim Finks resignation is one of the darkest days in Saints history .

jrmllb

I did cartwheels the day the Saints signed Blake, I had been a Blake fan for a while and wanted him in NO...Ricky leaving probably did help the team in the long run...Think about this though what if we had kept him and held Deuce back one more year and had a healthier Deuce last year and the year before that...Would we have had aother playoff year?

Tobias-Reiper

..Finks resigned because he was dying of cancer...