Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I'm not digging all the hype we are getting. Yes we look great on paper but how will it translate onto the field? Great players but so far have lacked discipline. That is what killed the Eagles dream team. I have no doubt Payton will straighten it out. Maybe I am just not used to the Saints getting this much national attention.
I would rather fly under the radar as usual. Its worked well for us in the past.
If they stay healthy this could be one hell of a team. Definitely one of the best in Saints history and probably up there in NFL history.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

Definitely flying under the radar is best

How we do on the road will be the telling sign

As will be how much time Drew has to throw

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I have been impressed with out line so far. Especially since Grubbs and Evans have been out. We have basically had our backups out there against starters and they have held their own.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I don't think there's any doubt that, at least on paper, this is the best roster the Saints have ever put together. So far we haven't really seen everything click like it did in 2009. Even in preseason of 09, there was a feeling that this could finally be "it." Wanna see some magic tomorrow night.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I know what we're all doing here. Trying to temper our own hype, aspirations and expectations so we don't get too let down if we don't do well. I've found myself doing the same. Lol. All us Saints fans are the same.

I say to hell with that though! We have a great coach, an awesome defense and a kick ass offense! Let's get this season started! This is going to be a great year! Believe that!

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

We did not fly under any radar in 2009. Between Kim K, Reggie bringing the wood, our pregame chant, Sharpers INTs, being undefeated through 14 weeks.

With Graham, Brees's records, Sproles, Etc...
Under the radar is far from what we have been since 2009.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I don't remember any serious discussion of Reggie's girlfriend in 2009, but if you went back and actually looked at articles and coverage, you would find that all through the 14 undefeated weeks, the media and talking heads were pretty consistently picking against the Saints and rooting for them to fail; each week a new team was supposed to put the Saints back in their place (Dolphins, Giants, Patriots, Cardinals, etc). They were outsiders and very "under the radar" in terms of the media's perception of them, especially through the first 10 or so wins. Nobody was picking them, I don't know where you are getting this idea that they were "on" anybody's radar. After the Patriots game that slowly started to change; but still, most media attention in the NFC hype was on Favre & Vikings, Chicago, the Packers and Kurt Warner and the Cardinals. Go back and look!

Maybe you're right, maybe the Saints weren't under the radar -- that must be why everybody in the media was saying it wasn't a big deal when they dropped that game to Tampa Bay, LOL, and that must be why Tony Dungy picked them for his Super Bowl pick, LOL. If Darren Sharper's INTs were "on the radar," then how come Charles Woodson won AP's defensive MVP??? They were so on the radar, that's why Brees won MVP, LOL. Come on, man. Name one commentator other than Ditka who was sad or acted surprised when the Cowboys beat them. It was like they were all jumping up and down, they were SO happy that somebody had finally beaten the pesky Saints. All year long, people couldn't wait to move on and talk about something else or pick the next team up against the Saints. It was like this all the way through to the week of Super Bowl hype. Don't you remember the famous Onion headline? I guess that never happened?

New Orleans Moves To No. 3 In NFL Power Rankings | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

Yep, we get every teams best shot and have since 2009. Teams don't need a radar for us, we right in front of them

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

For one, what killed the Eagles Dream Team, is that they weren't a dream team, they were a bad team. Vince Young saying they were a "dream team" didn't make it so.

This "under the radar" stuff... it's not like coaches from other teams turn to Sportcenter or Total Access to scout the Saints. <name of any "analyst"> saying this team is going to win the SB or that rookie is going to be the best player to ever play the game, doesn't make other teams in the league pay more attention...

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

usually game three is were you get a good idea about your starters. with all the injuries and sitting around i am not to sure if we will get a good grip on things. so key is injuries. we must stay healthy because looking good on paper and sitting in a whirlpool leaves you with a soggy mess that is useless.

by the way we have not flown under any ones radar in the past couple of years. they know we are coming and they all put up their A game. Beating the saints can at least make a losing season some what more bearable.

welcome to the elite status of the nfl.

now i want dynasty labeling.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

"Dude" is nervous...must be football time !!

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

We earned that during the season though. Reggie gave us a little more national press that we have had in the past but I have never heard so many people admit we have a scary team nationally.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

Anyhow I didn't mean under the radar so much as everyone seems to be expecting us to win and there is a lot of hype. I'll believe it when I see it.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

Last year, the media was all over the Seahawks & Broncos' jocks. They were right. Whether the media loves us or not can be a maddening topic, but totally irrelevant. Barring major injury, we are who they think we are. So, go ahead and crown us lol.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

It's the media hype not the other teams

I about stopped my car today when I heard some announcer on MAD DOG SPORTS comment that the Jets probably have the best pass rush in football right up there with the Saints and Seahawks

why are the Panthers known so well for their front seven
yes they are good but it's because they don't have a complimentary offense

the media respect Drew and company and Payton and Ryan's genius
but they are hesitant to embellish us
they practically bend over backwards for anything Brady
take away his o-line and see how successful he is

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

We get national hype because we beat the media's beloved, over-hyped, and over-publicized NFC East and their division champs Eagles in their house...in January...and outside in the cold where we are supposed to be an average-to-below average soft & finesse team.

We have a good running attack and a near elite defense; "they" always say that a good running game and a good defense travels well. My major concern is our kicking situation and the lack of discipline we've seen on both sides of the ball so far.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

Without a doubt this is the best Saints roster on paper in history.With Atlanta and Carolina both appearing weak. This could play out as a very favorable schedule for us. Yes Tampa looks better but I say Brees beats Josh McCown every time. We could go undefeated in the division. Meanwhile, Seattle's division includes the 49ers, the Cardinals and the improving Rams. Plus Richard Sherman graced one of the new Madden covers, so they're done. If we can get the 1 seed, I love our chances of playing in the SB.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

If we get #1 seed we will effing wreck shop all the way to the SB.

Saw some magic tonight, that's for sure.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I just finished a fresh pitcher of black and gold KoolAid. Barring injuries, NFC Championship game is where we land with a 12+ win regular season.

If the NFCCG in NOLA, place your bets, we're on to the Superbowl.

If it's not in NOLA and NOT in Seattle or San Fran or Green Bay - still think we are on to the Superbowl.

Otherwise it will take our A+ game and the ball to bounce our way several times (+1 or more in TO ratio or sack differential).

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

So we just gonna sit here and act like this guy can spell huh ?

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

Now we're just waiting on poydras and the season can start.


:cool:

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

There seems to be varying degrees to the interpretation of "under the radar". Reggie / Katrina / Bountygate / 1/2 dozen other things not 'how good we are' related has had us in discussions for a while.

As far as for the 'how good we are' radar, those days are gone. With our success in 2009 the words caints and aints were cremated and ashed spread. Before 2009 we were consistently inconsistent, having to go back 17 years to find a record better than 10-7 and we were never anyones gimme in the playoffs. So there really wasn't much to talk about from a National Media stand point, we were pretty meeeaahh..

I am excluding 2012 for a lot of reasons.

Since 2009 we won a SB, haven't missed the playoffs, 11-5 was our worst record, Brees has authored an NFL record book, Graham is making the league rethink the TE position, etc... No way on earth one could expect to fly under the radar with those accomplishments.

That said, you seem to be in a pickle. In order for us to be under any radar we would have to revert to mediocrity and that would send a lot of fans into a downward spiral. If we so much as look flat in a practice the worry engines auto engage.

The reason we were picked against so much in 2009 wasn't because we were not on anyone's radar. We were damned good and everyone knew it, they picked against the Saints because we had a long history of falling on our faces eventually and the odds were in the favor of that happening again just as soon as we started getting picked. They were gun shy. We do it here, every season... History has taught us that we are going to give up a game to a team that is inferior at least once a season and it will bite us in the arse come playoff time. We know we have a 14-2 team but we predict 12-4 because we get clumsy a couple games a season. :bng:

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I am a pessimistic optimist. :bng:

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I'm confident as the next man but Mid October to late November could be brutal. Either we play a really good offense or a really good defense during that stretch. I could easily see us winning the division though at 11-5. The panthers will have a strong defense again this year but their offense will be highly suspect. Atlanta still appears to be soft to me and not much better on defense. Tampa bay has a pretty poor line and their defense isn't that scary once you get past their d-line.

At the very least, we need to get off to a good start as I believe it will be important if we have some late season slip-ups

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

Well, remember this -- by all accounts the team looked pretty terrible, practicing in the rain up in Virginia. File that one away for later....

Then again, they looked pretty much unbeatable on the road up in Indy this weekend, in a quiet half empty indoor stadium. They looked scary good.

I am pumped up for this team, but I sincerely hope they can bring the intensity and fire on the road in bad weather and into hostile environments, because they have 4 outdoor games against tough teams in hostile stadiums on the schedule again this year. And they have 6-7 games at home that I'd consider "tough" or at least worrisome, based on the teams they're facing....

That's not much room for futzing around, or for surprises, or Rip Van Winkle acts where they go to sleep and go scoreless for whole quarters or halves of games... there's not much leeway for a "tough day at the office" scenario this year, where the Saints come out flat and shoot themselves in the foot against a really inferior team.

The Saints look good, but I think the rest of the division has actually gotten tighter, and closer together. The eyeball test says that the Saints ON THE ROAD last year were a completely different-looking animal -- they were tight, nervous and struggling hard against the Bucs, Falcs, Panthers, Patriots, and looked completely lost against the Seahawks.

But if the Saints go losing 5 games on the road again THIS year, in this tougher division, with tougher games at home, then I fear they will be outside looking in, maybe even no playoffs AT ALL. There is not a lot of room for dithering this year. Last year they were a good team at home, but on the road they kinda played "we'll fix the problems and get it put together soon", until there wasn't any room left in the season.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

But there's only 2 possible bad weather games, @Pittsburgh on November 30 and @ Chicago on December 15. Neither of those teams are even close to Seattle.

By the way, I'm officially considering the New England game a win, since we were F'd by the officials.

Lets not lose sight of the fact that we are one of the very best teams in the NFL on the road over the last several years.

And judging by the way we played in Philly in the playoffs, I don't expect another Jets game.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I totally expect a Jets-type game this year considering we have a pretty dang good team, and then we all have a nuclear meltdown on this site when it happens.

Even good-to-great teams lay at least one 'Road Turd' per season. It happens...we'll have one of our worst games while that home team plays out-of-its-head. Luckily we have a great HC and a great DC and one of the best QBs to ever play this game to help us rebound.

My 2014 Road Turd prediction? @ Cleveland. They have a below average QB with a pretty dang good all-around defense plus their Special Teams are pretty good, too. Our Special Teams will be the chili fries & malt liquor that causes us to crap ourselves in our sole 2014 Road Turd.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

It certainly is the exact type of team we overlook and get our asses whooped.

That was also my pick for our "lay an egg" game, that or Dallas.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I thought Dallas at first, but Payton seems to have Dallas' number of late & DAL's defense is a big bowl of incompetence and dysfunction. I picked a road turd @ CLE considering CLE's good D and CLE's good kick return coverage & kick return game. It doesn't help that @ CLE follows that HUGE road game with the team from Georgia to open the season, either.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I have a different logic for 2014, lets hope it pans out.

We have injected enough new and or different blood on both sides of the ball that we will not take a siesta one Sunday. Perhaps Byrd and Bailey can seed some cold weather tolerance into our defensive backs. This is Cooks and the rest of our draft picks first year so nothing is a "home game" until next year. Cooks also played in Oregon and should be accustomed..

The cold hurts old athletes, getting younger may help that.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

@ CLE is September 14th, so cold weather shouldn't be the deciding factor, although this has been one jacked-up year for weather forecasting and it could be a freakin' blizzard that day.

I like your rationale about injecting Bailey & Byrd for the DBs to provide leadership in preventing a Sunday siesta, and I like the fact that those 2 are more than accustomed to cold weather, outdoor games (cold weather, outdoors...wow, that was profound...I'm an idiot).

Anyways, Payton's teams have shown in the past with taking at least one Sunday siesta against an inferior team home or on the road...let's hope this year that doesn't cost us home field or for that matter a division championship. And help us all if it costs us a playoff spot...this site will melt down and we'll be pulling people off of bridges.

If we manage to avoid the trap games and win the games we're supposed to win by a good margin, it's a credit to the level of concentration this coaching staff has gotten this talented group of players.

Coordinator McMahon excluded, of course. He is an idiot.

Re: Im optomistic about this years team but...
 

I agree with Oak. We aren't flying under the radar anymore.

1. Drew Brees is in EVERY discussion on Elite QBs.

2. Bountygate - f---ing Gotohell

3. SP - since he became coach we have been in the discussion. Even in 2006. Since then he has only gotten better.

As long as we have coach and Drew we will never fly under the radar. So I hope that's for at least 10 more years. :bng: