CheramieIII

It's about time somebody actually started saying it and not trying to hide all the mistakes:

Bad movie rerun just keeps playing
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
John DeShazier
Being on the job for 11 seasons hasn't hardened Saints tackle Wayne Gandy to the point that the losses just roll off, which is a good thing.

You'd worry if he didn't care, or if anyone inside the Saints' locker room felt there was a way to explain away Sunday's season-opening loss to Seattle without wanting to hang his head in disgust.

"With me, it's becoming a little harder," Gandy said Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours after a 21-7 drubbing that seemed much more like a step back than a setback. "Because this is like the 17th minute of a bad movie.

"When we lose, we lose like we did (Sunday). We drop passes (five), have penalties (eight), turn the ball over (three times). When we win, we have two drops, one turnover . . .

"You kind of feel like, 'I saw this movie before.' (But) you take heart in knowing that, if we don't do that, we win."

The team will have to take heart. Fans, on the other hand, too often have been left feeling as if theirs have been yanked out and stomped on.

After spending the offseason targeting the season opener and promising to improve, the Saints collapsed into a heap of inadequacy against the Seahawks. And, as peeved as Gandy was, he couldn't possibly relate to the level of disappointment experienced by the thousands of people who bought in to what the Saints were selling and, by the end of the game, felt they'd been sold a bill of goods.

The first one is in the books and nothing can be done about it, other than the Saints attempting to improve upon it. And improvement virtually is guaranteed, since the odds are against a team weekly (or weakly) dropping five passes and committing three turnovers and eight penalties.

The problem with the Saints is over the past 49 games, in which they've built a record of 24-25, the pattern has been for them to play a pristine game and follow it with a mess, play two good games and follow with two bad, play like Hummers in five of six games and follow like Metros in five of six. It's dangerous to make too much of an emotional investment in a team like that.

Now the franchise must re-sell the same product it has peddled since the end of last season, even though the seal has been broken, the product has been used and the consumers are more inclined to demand their money back than buy more of what they are looking at.

"This league now, there are 32 teams and everybody is basically even," Gandy said. "The good teams are good basically because they don't beat themselves. The best teams usually execute.

"It's about not jumping offsides, at home, when there's no reason to jump offsides."

http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index...1314190020.xml