Year later, Saints swear they've learned lesson from Seattle debacle
 

METAIRIE, La. -- Last year during the bye week between the NFC championship game and Super Bowl XLV, two reporters and I chatted for more than an hour with Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and his son, Blake, who is also a Saints assistant while standing at the top of a steep hill at a high school stadium in Mobile, Ala.

If you're in Mobile at that time, you're at the Senior Bowl. You're not preparing for the Super Bowl.

"I'm really pissed that I'm sitting here at the Senior Bowl," Williams said during our chat. "Because you know that we had an off day. Had we not had that day ..."

That day was when Marshawn Lynch left Saints defenders scattered all over Qwest Field like a busted bag of Skittles in what has become the lasting moment from New Orleans' 2010 season. It's the day the Saints endured one of the biggest upsets in NFL playoff history when the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks stunned the defending Super Bowl-champion Saints in the NFC Wild Card round.

"I've watched (the Lynch run) once when I was grading, and every time it comes on TV I turn the channel. ... I don't shut it off (the memory) very well. I never have shut it off very well," Williams said.

Williams later added: "If it doesn't hurt as a coach and it doesn't hurt as a player, then we've got the wrong player."

The Saints enter this year's postseason in a very similar setting. They're double-digit favorites going into Saturday night's wild card game against the Lions in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints knocked off the Lions a month ago just as the Saints had eased past the Seahawks earlier in the 2010 season.

There's a difference this season.

This year's Saints team is the hottest in the NFL, having won eight consecutive games, wrapping up the season 13-3 and setting at least a dozen single-season offensive records once Week 17's win over the Panthers commenced.

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Hopefully Joique Bell doesn't reprise the role of Mr. Lynch!!

I'm glad we're addressing this issue and not ignoring it. Our defense was especially awful in that game....

I think our D is going into the playoffs on a 5 game roll themselves. As far as the O, ball security and no Int's and we will be fine.

Why is it yearS later, not "a year later"?

Hopefully we learned by the next day.

Big differences between this year and last, namely that it's unlikely we give up another career day to a mediocre QB, and the Lions don't have Lynch (not that bigname RBs have hurt us this year). Oh yeah, and we are at home.

I'm still sayin' that game boiled down to us not having a single running back. By the time of the Seattle game, our defense or whatever it had become had been on the field far too much and Sean was down to calling screen pass, then short to mid length pass, then a long pass. I was amazed we actually made it to the playoffs last year.

I would be surprised if he was even active.

It's difficult to argue with success.

GW is a coordinator for a team that wins.

I have some negative thoughts on our defense.

Not many are personnel driven.

I can't help but think what Jack Del-Rio would do with our players.........

The way the playoffs are organized is pathetic - IF & I mean IF you must have a division winner - Ok. BUT if that division winner has a record worse than ANY OTHER TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS - they should NOT get a home game!!

Go more by record & less by division winner

Beware the unknown...

I know Mitch. I can't help but wonder.

As long as the offense scores 30-plus, it's all good.

If the offense struggles and "only" scores 27..........

The defense had a very bad day in the Seattle game, and don't think for a minute that GW doesn't know it. My theory is that a lot of it had to do with not knowing who the quarterback for Seattle was going to be, until late Thursday. I think they probably prepared for both Whitehurst and Hasselback, and wasted a lot of time doing that. I puzzled over this one for a while, and if you go back and look at the games where the D looks really bad, and people on forums freak out about it afterward, time and time again -- when the Saints D looks flat or has a bad day, it's usually against a quarterback that the team was not expecting or prepared for, or a guy that there isn't a lot of film on. Titans game, the D barely held it together at the end, when rookie what's-his-face came in instead of Hasselback. The Rams game, was AJ Feeley instead of Bradford....the Cardinals game last year was Max Hall, instead of what's-his-face who started the first half of the season for them....there's more of these games, I just can't remember them all right now.

That's a "Oh ****!" moment

That Seattle loss was the perfect storm.

Our team was decimated with injury and on top of that they played poorly.

Conversely, the Seahawks had a record day from various positions - most notably, the QB.

The game against Detroit this Saturday is one of two teams going in opposite directions.

Saints all the way.

What's unknown? He played here, coached here. He's been in the league 16 years.
I'd say the only drawback is that he will probably get another HC job in the next 2 years, so he definitely isn't the long term answer.

Don't quote me, I think Bell will be active . . . I wouldn't be too concerned with it though, I mean, he really hasn't had much time to learn the offense and would probably only be used in the event of a RB injury, which we see quite a bit. Glad to hear you guys think highly of him though, he's a local MI boy and I hope he's on the team next season.

go Lions.

last year at this time he would've been a starter. this year 5th string

What happened with him? I actually watched him play at Wayne State and kind of wished the Lions would have grabbed him up . . . the way our RBs have been going down, he's a welcome addition to the roster.

go Lions.

Last year we were down to Ladell Betts and Julius Jones for our playoff game (Reggie got hurt in the 1st quarter). Joique Bell is better than both of them.

But this year we have a healthy PT, Sproles, Ivory and Ingram (until recently), therfore Bell would be a 5th stringer.

If your curious, I think he plays a lot like Pierre Thomas. Same skill set. Not a blazer but has great balance, falls forward and a pretty decent receiver out of the backfield.

Had Ingram had his setback a week earlier, Bell wouldn't have been available for you guys to claim.

Just didn't have a way to get him on the roster. We went from running back broke in the wild card round last year to an embarrassment of riches this year.

EDIT:
What Danno said.

Panthers coach Ron Rivera sent out a warning shot following his team's blowout loss to the Saints in Week 17 for the rest of the playoff teams about what type of challenge the Saints present: "When you put the tape on and watch how they played against Atlanta and watch how they played against us, the first thing that you say to yourself is, 'I hope we don't have to play them.' That's what's going to happen."

I NEVER IN MY LIFE thought I would EVER hear anyone, much less a head coach of another NFL team say something like this about our Saints. I LOVE IT!!!