Halo

HORSEWHIPPED Saints run over by Broncos before they know what hit them

Benson calls it 'worst performance' he's seen since he bought the team


Monday, November 22, 2004
By Jeff Duncan
Staff writer
The charade is over.

The Saints' dreams and hopes of making a late-season playoff run exploded in spectacular fashion during a 34-13 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday at the Superdome that was as shocking in its suddenness as it was in its thoroughness.

Mathematically, the Saints still are alive in the NFC playoff race.

Realistically, they're dead.

After one of the Saints' ugliest performances under Coach Jim Haslett, owner Tom Benson all but buried the demoralized club, issuing a pointed and unsolicited comment to reporters afterward.

"You can quote me on this," the normally media-wary owner said. "This is the worst performance I've seen by them in the 20 years I've owned them. They looked just like high school kids."

An embattled Haslett shrugged off the comment in his postgame press conference, saying, "He owns the team. He should be able to say what he wants to say."

It would be difficult to argue with Benson's assessment after watching the Saints' drop to 4-6. They coughed up a season-high four turnovers, committed 10 penalties and never led for a minute for the fifth time in 10 games this season.

The game was blacked out to local television viewers, which might have been fortuitous considering Benson's public push to secure a new long-term deal with the state.

"We got our heads beat in today," center LeCharles Bentley said.

And the beating started from the opening seconds.

READ MORE...
http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index...1203384720.xml