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At the best. If Leon stays, then 3-5

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You just can\'t have a serious discussion here.......

Damn you guys. Damn you, I say...... :P

Look, the team won 8 games with \"Leon\" with the 32nd ranked defense. Now y\'all got us winning only 4 or 5 games?

And with a new offensive coordinator comes growing pains, WhoDat? I KNOW you can do much better than that.

Sure, there could be some growing pains. But 5 or 6 wins? Come on!! That would mean we would be one of the worst teams in the NFL!!!

How many games did we win McCarthy\'s first year?

Amazing!!!!!!! Well, I can think of a better word, but I better not post that......... ;)



[Edited on 7/2/2005 by GumboBC]

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4 of those games the defense played better than it had all season and duece was healthy.

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i am serious. if the defense comes out the chute like last year and is the worst in the league i think they will fold and crumble. haz fired, venturi interim, vying for the #1 pick in the \'06 draft (leinhart? LOL)

conversely, if the defense just gets beyond the bottom quarter of the league, say 20-24th, i think they would win the division and be a super bowl contender. i actually think that is more plausible. wasn\'t the stat that for the last 4 weeks of the season the defense was like 5th in the entire league? that was quite opposite of the high schoolers weeks before.

the question was what if 32nd though.

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This is aimed at no one in particular.....

But -- Not only did we have the 32nd ranked defense (and that\'s counting the improvent) we also had an injured Decue and the 26th ranked running game.

AND WE STILL WON 8 GAMES!!

Unless you think Deuce is going to get injured again, then that should mean an IMPROVEMENT.

Sure, we could only win 1 game. It\'s possible. And it\'s possible we will win only 4 games like you guys say.
But, I don\'t think that\'s likely.

I think somewhere around 7 or 8 games is the more likely scenario considering the weapons we have on offense.

The only point I was trying to make by starting this poll is that when a team has the worst defense (or one of the worst) its not wise to expect us to be a playoff team.

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way too early for expectations for me. see what happens in free agency and the draft. BUT in the age of salary caps and parity i think there is no telling what can happen from year to year now. most any team could change 8 games w-l one way or another. you might have expected anyone of these teams to improve or fall off from 2003 but i dont remember anyone predicting changes anywhere as large as these teams moved-
2003 and 2004 record
SD 4-12 to 12-4
Atl 5-11 to 11-5
Pitt 6-10 to 15-1
KC 13-3 to 7-9
Ten 12-4 to 5-11
Mia 10-6 to 4-12

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It really depends on if they are giving up TD\'s or FG\'s, but I honestly feel like our D will be one of the best in the league as long as they fill a couple of holes in the off season.

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Lemme see, 8-8 with a mediocre season from Brooks, and an overweight, out of shape, injury prone McAllister, a rookie FB, disappointing play from our TE\'s, horrid play from our O-line...

I\'d say 9-7 is quite possible if certain parts of the offense are addressed properly.

But it would be much easier if the dang defense was at least mid-pack.

A mid-pack defense and this team should win 10 games easily.

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Have you seen our schedule for next year?

We are on the road to Pats,Jets,Vikings,Rams,and Green Bay.

If these offences are gunning and our defence is tanking, and if the outdoor games are later in the schedule then I would not give us more than 6 wins next year. We simply cannot have the 32nd ranked defense again because we do not have the softer teams to eke out ugly wins against. Sorry Billy but you\'re way off base if you think 32nd is going to be enough to keep us in the hunt. IMHO

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Billy - in the last 4 years we\'ve won 7, 9, 8, and 8 games. The last two years we\'ve played some really poor teams - which may hold true next season, but it\'s still relevant. Here\'s the constant - an explosive offense. Our offense was the worst its been in the 5 years this season and where did that get us? 4-8. When the defense started playing well, the team got much better. But what happens when that proves to be an anomoly? I\'m not convinced the defense is much better than a mid-twenties ranked team. Next season we\'ll have all the same problems - no NT, and an undersized DT, probably minus Howard. We\'ll have the same LBs, the same Safeties. Most importantly - the same coordinator. The BEST Venturi has made a defense was 18th, and IMO, that ranking was not realistic b/c the run defense was so absolutely terrible that teams didn\'t rack up yards or point through the air b/c they didn\'t have to. Realistically that defense was probably more like 25th. So, I don\'t believe the D until I see it.

Likewise, the offense has been slowly declining. Now, as per usual with the Saints, a respected coordinator leaves and do they go out and find a proven replacement? No. They promote the next guy in line. The problem with the offense has been consistency and discipline. Sheppard has coached the MOST UNDISCIPLINED AND INCONSISTENT player on the team for 4 years. What happens if Sheppard is to McCarthy as Venturi was to Zook?

I have a hard time buying into a belief that this defense is going to get more than 10 spots better without a change at coach or key spots (personnel wise). Likewise, I have a hard time believing that the offense is not going to at least experience some additional problems as a new coordinator takes over and the scheme is changed so that poor AB can get simplified play calls. So if the offense drops, say 5 spots to 20th, and the defense improves dramatically, up to 22nd from 32nd - I\'m supposed to believe a team with the 20th ranked O and 22nd ranked D is going to win more than 8 games?