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How will Saints respond? Dominance of '07 Patriots might provide clues - NFL - CBSSports.com News, Rumors, Scores, Stats, Fantasy

The Dude

No way. The sanctions handed down pretty much made sure our season is done, which is what they were intended to do. No way we can win a championship without a true leader, few draft picks, and poor officiating.

TheOak

Wow Dude... Really?

I am sorry.. I mean REALLY?

Rugby Saint II

Dude the skies not falling! Haven't you ever been knocked down and got up madder than hell? We have been sucker punched. Seeing my own blood is my most powerful motivator(just not much of it). I get that calm yet frenzied feeling. Most athletes and people who have had a couple of fist fights get this.
We've been knocked down, now it's time to get up with an attitude and take care of business! Oh, it's on now!!!

AsylumGuido

We still have plenty of leadership. Payton's coaching staff is an extension of himself. And we have five draft picks instead of six. Big deal. This just isn't as bad as you are making it out to be. It is more embarrassing than anything else.

Mardigras9

SUPERBOWL, New Orleans is the hometown for adversity.

ScottF

I think we will be unified and insprired, and I think the dome will actually be even louder. We will still win at least 10 games

No real way to know until we see what the player suspensions are.

Beastmode

Katrina was 10X worse (regarding the team) and they still managed to win 4 games with nowhere near the leadership the team has on the current roster and staff. Brees has to sign a long term deal though. Once that happens this is still a playoff capable team. He alone will get us 6-7 wins.

Danno

I'm conflicted on this one.

On one hand it may not have a huge affect.

1. We're a veteran team with veteran leadership. I don't see us falling apart because Sean's gone.

2. We have an elite QB who is basically an extension of the head coach. In fact some of our best games were when Drew ran the hurry up and called his own plays.

3. Our defensive gameplans have always been left up to the defensive coordinator. Payton has had negligible influence on that side of the ball. So at least that half of the team shouldn't be affected at all.

4. We've always played better as underdogs, and we now have a 16 game "us against the world" attitude to draw on.

5. We're a well oiled machine on offense that looks like it could win 10 games on autopilot. With Brees at the helm I can't imagine we'd see a huge dropoff in production.

6. We have 2 coaches that are on everyone's radar as potential head coaching candidates in Carmichael and Kromer, so there's definitely some coaching talent to depend on. Not to mention we have a DC that was a HC for 3 years.

On the downside, no team has had this happen to them so its unchartered territory. There are probably a zillion IF's we haven't thought of yet. When crap-X hits the fan, what will we do?

How much of our gameplans were the product of Payton's scheming? How much of our offensive succss was due to his play-calling? Do we have someone savvy enough to handle the last minutes of the game without screwing it up? Do we have anyone with re-play savvy?

I still think we're a 10 win team regardless, but a 12 win team with everyone on board.

saintfan

I'm thinking if we get off to a good start the league is in for quite a show.

I'm thinking if we get off to a bad start it could snowball into something none of us want to watch.