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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.

Full article.
Year later, Saints swear they've learned lesson from Seattle debacle - NFL - CBSSports.com News, Rumors, Scores, Stats, Fantasy Advice

WhoDat!656

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

Halo

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

halloween 65

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.

ScottF

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.

Seer1

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.

AsylumGuido

I would be surprised if he was even active.

RockyMountainSaint

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.........

homerj07

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

|Mitch|

Beware the unknown...