The Dude

If you want a site that you can go to and every post is about how awesome the Saints are and that they are going to go 16-0 blowing teams out by 40+ points that is full of know it all elitist snobs who refuse to look at fact rather decide to look at everything through black and gold glasses I can definitely recommend one. People here are a bit more down to earth and are able to look at things objectively by removing themselves from the emotional attachment to the team that posters like you can't seem to grasp. Yea we would all love to believe our team will go 13-3 but the fact remains that if we do it would be one hell of an accomplishment given the diversity we faced this offseason, the suspensions, and a tougher schedule. To think we can repeat last years record when we played damn near perfect football on the offensive side of the ball, without a coach, interim HC, GM, starting MLB, and several other players on top of the fact we have a tougher schedule is a bit of a dream. You are entitled to dream the way you want to but don't belittle other posters for looking at things in a more sane perspective. Looking at things objectively is not hate and criticism.

GoofySaint

Pats went 18-1 after being punished.

Wonderful. You realize you're talking about a drew brees from like 5 years ago right?

Lol now you're just making stuff up. Where did I say we'd go 16-0?

I never said that I'm irked with people who have doubts.

I'm irked with people who are pessimistic douchbags who nitpick everything.

It's not objective when you think that the 1# offense(that has shown promise in the preseason) and a decent defense(that also has shown promise) is still gonna just barely gonna win a "meh" division. You yourself should know that. Mr. I'm gonna complain about lofton playing for a few snaps even though I knew nothing about it.

We're still talking about the suspensions as if they'd largely affect us but when I look at the numbers, the opposite is true.

|Mitch|

The Pats didn't lose their HC for a whole season, their Interim for 6 games, their GM for 8 games either...

We are in uncharted territory, no team has ever been punished this harshly... A 10-6 season would be more than respectable, we do have a pretty tough schedule...

And as for the "meh" division comment, division games are always the toughest... Doesn't seem to matter how bad the other division teams are, they're always close games and could go either way...

FinSaint

Regardless of the actual record the Saints will have after the coming season, my biggest concern is that if/when the Saints do well even under these conditions and with the staff they have - which is what I'm expecting - it'll mean that maybe all three of Spags, Carmichael, and Kromer could be gone because of it.

Both Carmichael and Kromer already interviewed for a HC position after last season (Carmichael for OAK and Kromer for IND), and Spags has openly stated that he has aspirations to have another crack at being a HC, so there might be some teams making calls to these guys if they are able to guide this Saints' team to a successful season.

It might mean that Payton will return to a much less crowded club house when his suspension finally ends, but I guess that's just something that one has to expect when their team is as good as the Saints are.

Potentially losing Kromer will probably hurt the most, and he'll be a hard guy to replace as the O-line and running game coach.

"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno

AlaskaSaints

You're not going to like me at all! LOL

Here's some pessimism for you:

Drew will throw 3 INT's in a loss this year.

We will get blown out by an inferior team at least once.

Hartley will be blamed for losing a game IF he's our kicker.

We'll lose at least one running back in regular season play.

We'll lose at least one receiver in regular season play.

... one starting corner.

... one starting safety.

... one lineman. At least one.

We'll see way too much of Shanle.

We'll blame a loss on a fumble by one of our stallions, and someone will fumble on a kickoff return.

Basically, anything other than taking things week-to-week will be nothing more than unbridled HOPE. This is the NFL. We beat the Giants last year and they won the Super Bowl.

Historically WE are the team who cannot win on the road OUTSIDE. We need to overcome that before we can predict anything.

SO MUCH TO LOOK FORWARD TO !!!

But I'm more of a Marine than a douchebag.

Now, a question for you; You got a Facebook friend named CANTON ?

Cheers and welcome,

Alaska

TheOak

Good Monday morning all you lovely Suns a biches!

No disrespect to anyone here.... If we are going to debate... wouldn't it be better served debating what we have seen and witnessed than getting way off into the weeds on intangibles?

"Feelings", are just that... and we are all wired a certain way... This has been a very stressful preseason for all of us and going after each other throat over a feeling is futile. We all state our feelings, instinctual assessments, and any retort that falls into those categories is just a point of reference which has to be played out to see what is correct and incorrect.

Both positive and negative natures have value in a forum. If we all agreed then this site would be less 400k posts.

Preseason games do not count but they do matter.... Everyone also has to keep in mind that preseason games are vanilla strategies and our execution in the regular season will look much different. Some teams actually play preseason with their full game plan... In those games its someones Superbowl winning strategy against... in our case.... A basic fundamental defense. It will look lopsided. Spags has thrown our defense at our offense, now he is throwing it at other offenses, but he is throwing basics at them to make sure we are lining up correctly, handling the assignments correctly, proper tackling, etc.... We have to execute the elementary... Once we do that, then the complex just becomes an extension of the basic.

If anyone is comparing our defensive performance to that of Houston, or SF,last year regular season... your doing your self a disservice. Compare our defense right now (with the idea that its vanilla) against our defense the last three years. With a scale from -5 to 0 to +5 (last years defense being the 0... We are at a 2 right now. We are getting more pressure on the QB than I have seen in a year or two. Our penetration is a hell of a lot better, we are forcing turnovers, we are a C-hair from multiple interceptions in a game, tackling is near where it should be (I have yet to see one of those GW era spear tackles)... Are there missed plays... yes there are... for every team.

Our offense is on point.
Our defense is +2 better than it was last year so far.

Unless we have a coaching melt down during a game I do not see us dropping many. At this point, access based on what you see and know, not what the talking heads keep regurgitating..The are the same people that called the Eagles, Dallas, and Jets Super Bowl contenders and in some cases Dream Teams..

We are not the Pats that went 16-0 after video gate.... We are not in the middle of a meltdown as the talking heads say... We are the New Orleans Saints, we have not won less than 11 games in 3 years and I can not for the life of me see how we are a worse team than we were in 2010.

We have not missed a playoff appearance in 3 years and we are not going to ***n start now.

Boutte

Good post x626. Just to be clear, I did not predict 10-6. My exact words were,"Winning 10 games will be an amazing accomplishment." I stand by that. I did predict we'd win the division. Does anyone think 10-6 will win it?

Goofysaint, I agree with most of what you say but your hostile tone and calling people douchebags for having a different opinion is uncalled for. It seems immature.

AsylumGuido

I think you are dead on! I was taken aback by Boutte's opening post, too. I see this team as a 12-14 win team WITH everything that has happened.

AsylumGuido

Winning ten games would be an amazing accomplishment for some teams, but it would be a total collapse for this Saints team.

|Mitch|

I'll be happy winning ten games with the adversity we have faced this offseason. I think we'll win more than 10, but no one knows how the team will handle themselves without their HC and Interim for 6 games...