WhoDat

You can\'t blame the guy for making a mistake. If he had made LOTS of mistakes, that\'s something else. Also, he corrected the problem IN-SEASON. That\'s more than I can say for most of the rest of the coaches on the team. I thought the switch to using Deuce more like the Rams used to use Faulk was not a bad idea. The two TE set stuff was unwise, no question. Both failed, but this offense was still dangerous and scored a lot again.

I\'m not so sure those changes were that deadly in the beginning of the year either. For example:

The first 8 games, the offense average 21.4 points per game. They had 4 games of 28 or more, and 4 games under 20. Meanwhile the defense allowed an AVERAGE of 29.25 points per game. Zero games under 20. They had 3 games where they allowed more than 34!! Most of the time the offense was down 10 or more (sometimes 20) in the first 15 or 20 minutes.

In the second half of the season when they \"turned it around,\" the offense averaged a whopping 22.1 points per game. A difference of less than 7 point over 8 games. The big difference was consistency. Only one game under 20. Zero games of 28 or more. The last 6 were 21, 21, 27, 21, 26, 21. The difference was that the defense allowed only 21.4 per game. 5 games of 20 or less. In the 4 game winning streak they allowed 13, 17, 13, and 18.

Look, McCarthy needs to get a little more out of the offense. No question. Fewer 3 and outs. Fewer penalties. They probably need to average 25 or so points a game for the team to really be successful. But the offense isn\'t the problem, the defense is. You also have to give the guy credit considering his all-star RB was out and look at his QB. I think that limits his scheme and play-calling. The defense doesn\'t help much either. Playing from 20 points down isn\'t easy either.

\"Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s all anyone ever makes for the New Orleans Saints’ organization.\" - Eric Narcisse


\"Being a Saints fan is almost like being addicted to crack,\" he said.[i]\"You know you should stop, but you just can\'t.\"

saintswhodi

You forgot the most telling offensive stat of them all WHO. Remind me again how many games our offense didn\'t score in the first quarter consecutively? 13? Outscored 100 and some odd points to ten or 13? Don\'t we gameplan all week for Sundays? Do we script our first quarter? You would think by sheer luck or happen stance the offense would be able to SCORE in the first quarter, but no. They only score when they are down and open up. The points they averaged, I am willing to wager 75% of them came in the second half when we were winging the ball like the Jim Kelly Buffalo Bills. So at what point does out coordinator do something to change this? No point apparently cause we rode the seaon out the same way. He has to go also.

MatthewT

Looks like Mike McCarthy will be with the team for a while. His contract does not expire until March, and Haz has denied permission from other teams wishing to interview him. This basically means that when his contract expires in March, he will probably have no other option than to sign back with the Saints.

If for some reason McCarthy does leave, how about hiring Marv Levy? Marv is very interested in getting back into coaching, even on the coordinator level. Why not give the guy a chance? He is very proven. Maybe, lets hire him right now as an assistant head coach just to be on the safe side. The only thing Marv has going against him is his age. To me, this is no reason to keep him out of the league.

If Mike Sheppard is offered the job in Baltimore, I think he will do a good job. I think he got more out of Aaron Brooks than most coaches could have possibly dreamed.

As to demoting Venturi back to a position coach, I do not see it happening. Venturi being fired, I doubt it seriously. This dude is not going anywhere. Yes, the numbers have been bad during his tenure. I will give him one thing to his credit, the players on defense have been questionable at best. At least, at times, the defense has been at least okay. Not many times, but at least sometimes.

Well, I\'ve added nothing to the solution for resolving the Saints problems. Guess I am just another clueless fan who keeps dreaming of a Saints Superbowl victory. \"Maybe next year\"...