darstep

We rolled the dice all season and managed not to crap out until the first round of the playoffs against a 7-9 division winner that's going to get crushed next week.
If we lined it up again and played another 60 minutes tomorrow, we would probably beat these guys 43-13. That's who we are. That's who we were this season. We CAN man handle the league leader in their house and could just as easily lose to a gutter dweller in the Superdome.
How do you take that kind of inconsistency into the post season where you have to be on point every weekend? We brought that to Seattle with us and showed it to the world. Throw in some injuries and we can come up with 17 reasons why we lost this game. Sure injuries had something to do with it, but we were 11-5 with injuries and a rocks throw from Conf/Div lead.
I've heard all yaer how "a win is a win". I disagree. How you win matters, and how you lose matters. Each week carries over to the next week. Good blocking and good tackling becomes habitual. Having Breesus resurrect us from the dead with 2 minutes left becomes a safety net and kind of makes the missed assignments of the 1st 3 quarters somewhat acceptable.
Payton decided to, in effect, just give those guys the ball on the 45yrd line early on, rather than kick the ball to Washington and force him to make a play - and challenge our guys to make a play. We loss this one between the ears first, then it showed up on the field. We got away with a lot, this year and last year. It worked for us last year, they just left a 20 on the table this year.
We have got to get more consistent week to week, where there are things we can depend on week in and week out. This season showed us that we just can't do what we did. We have to get better and improve to stay ahead of our competition. We did much better than many thought we would: Superbowl let down, Madden curse, injury bug, and so on. We will never sneak up on anybody ever again. We have to start knocking people out, or getting unanimous decisions. Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis have work to do.

**SaintSince67**

st thomas

well put darstep. senerio that could have helped.

niteadept

Agreed. Stab in the heart, but honest. Roll on next year. In the meantime, fix what's broken. Period.

GeauxForMore

Overhaul the D. Top to bottom.

RailBoss

Good post Darstep you think about that Viking game last season and without that crazy INT from Favre that game was over. I guess fate, luck, lack of injuries and mental toughness all need to be swinging a teams way.

AlaskaSaints

Well put, bro.

Our luck was shallow and our defense overrated.

I'm crushed because my sneaking suspicion was confirmed.

Alaska

Sinner

Good points Dar... but THAT was the most pathetic Defensive performance I have EVER witnessed. EVER.