saintz08

3. Minnesota first-year coach Mike Tice has had a tough time at our hands. After his Sunday gambit, in which he called for a two-point conversion at the end of regulation, rather than kick an extra point and send the contest into overtime, he gets a break from us for the rest of the season. Honest. No more criticisms about that stupid "Randy Ratio" thing. No jabs, over the coming two weeks, about designing that throwback pass to quarterback Daunte Culpepper that was illegal, because the offensive left tackle wasn't "covered" by a legal receiver. No more yapping, at least until after the New Year, on all the bad decisions made in signing suspect defensive free agents. The two-point call, on which Culpepper scored after kicking the ball halfway around the Superdome carpet, took some, uh, guts. As for the Saints, that sound you hear in the background is a team trying unsuccessfully to swallow. Hold those executive of the year ballots, Randy Mueller Fan Club, that y'all were going to cast for the deposed New Orleans general manager. As they say in The Big Easy: Who dat going to make an early playoff exit? The Saints, that's who.