The Dude

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.

Audiotom

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

The Dude

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.

Jack Vegas

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.

jnormand

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!

TheOak

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.

SaintsBro

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

Danno

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

The Dude

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.

TheOak

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.