New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Article Loomis happy with season, but knows Saints didn't meet expectations

MOBILE, Ala. — It’s not that Saints general manager Mickey Loomis is conflicted about the 2013 season.

He realizes the 12-6 record and the road playoff victory are something to be proud of in a league in which both are exceedingly difficult to do.
It’s more that expectations for a franchise once known for mediocrity are now regularly to go deeper into the postseason than just the divisional round of the playoffs.

“A lot of real good things … to feel good about,” Loomis said from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. “And yet it wasn’t a great year because we’re not in the Super Bowl. And that’s just where we’re at as a program. We expect and want, you know we want to play in that game and we want to win it. And we had a chance.”

That belief meshes with coach Sean Payton’s, who a week earlier delivered a similar message to the players during exit interviews.

“The disappointment comes from our expectation level of (not) getting to that Championship game and then getting to the Super Bowl,” Payton said. “I thought they handled a lot of things this year coming off everything a year ago, the injuries, none of these things were ever discussed as excuses. But just any time we had a tough setback, tough losses, the response the next week – they made it very not only enjoyable, but stimulating to coach because we were always on to the next challenge.”

Read more: Loomis happy with season, but knows Saints didn't meet expectations | wwltv.com New Orleans