Said it a thousand times and I will say it again

No matter how good your game plan is or how good your offense is, the best laid game plan will always goes to awry if the entire game, from opening kick off to the final gun is spent playing keep up.

A team is behind the 8 ball if they feel they must put up points on the board on every drive.

It is the recipe for self destruction.

Football is more a mental game than most realize.

Time to get back to dictating the the pace of the game and making teams one dimensional yet again.

Said it a thousand times and I will say it again

No matter how good your game plan is or how good your offense is, the best laid game plan will always goes to awry if the entire game, from opening kick off to the final gun is spent playing keep up.

A team is behind the 8 ball if they feel they must put up points on the board on every drive.

It is the recipe for self destruction.

Football is more a mental game than most realize.

Time to get back to dictating the the pace of the game and making teams one dimensional yet again.

The offense can't make that excuse in the games where they were at their worst. The defense showed up in all the games where the offense went silent.

So while I agree in principle with what you're saying about playing catch up, it didn't necessarily apply to this team. When we only needed a decent performance from the offense, they were terrible. In games when we only needed the defense to have a slight pulse, they didn't have one.

On average, the defense was obviously the bigger problem. But the offense had no excuse in those games where they completely disappeared. Add in the horrid special teams play, and the bottom line is this team couldn't find a way to play together often enough to win. They found ways to lose.

The offense can't make that excuse in the games where they were at their worst. The defense showed up in all the games where the offense went silent.

So while I agree in principle with what you're saying about playing catch up, it didn't necessarily apply to this team. When we only needed a decent performance from the offense, they were terrible. In games when we only needed the defense to have a slight pulse, they didn't have one.

On average, the defense was obviously the bigger problem. But the offense had no excuse in those games where they completely disappeared. Add in the horrid special teams play, and the bottom line is this team couldn't find a way to play together often enough to win. They found ways to lose.

While the offense had no excuse, with an improved defense and special teams they can easily take us to the Super Bowl. Do you doubt that?

That wasn't the discussion. There was a specific argument made that the offense failed to show up in certain games, and some make the argument that the defense puts too much pressure on the offense. That is a logical argument in many cases, but my point was simply that it didn't apply to this team. My comment wasn't about how good or bad the offense is, overall.

Are they good enough to win the Super Bowl if the defense and special teams improve? Maybe. That depends on just how much improvement we're talking about. Because the problem with this offense disappearing against some of the better teams on our schedule, is that if we're going to make a run through the playoffs, that can't happen.

We still have to improve guard play, and I would prefer to replace Strief, also. It's an offense that's easily good enough to make the playoffs, but Super Bowl? That's a maybe, but not about to be easy, in my opinion.

That wasn't the discussion. There was a specific argument made that the offense failed to show up in certain games, and some make the argument that the defense puts too much pressure on the offense. That is a logical argument in many cases, but my point was simply that it didn't apply to this team. My comment wasn't about how good or bad the offense is, overall.

Are they good enough to win the Super Bowl if the defense and special teams improve? Maybe. That depends on just how much improvement we're talking about. Because the problem with this offense disappearing against some of the better teams on our schedule, is that if we're going to make a run through the playoffs, that can't happen.

We still have to improve guard play, and I would prefer to replace Strief, also. It's an offense that's easily good enough to make the playoffs, but Super Bowl? That's a maybe, but not about to be easy, in my opinion.

The Saints defense played better at times in 2016. The group was still too much of the same, though.

New Orleans allowed too many points and too many third-down conversions. The Saints also slacked again in pressuring the quarterback and creating takeaways through the air. There's only been one year in the past five where we weren't discussing these same issues.

The Saints surrendered 454 points in 2016, ranking 31st in the league. That's even more than the 1-15 Cleveland Browns. Only San Francisco (2-14) finished with more points allowed. This was actually a slight improvement for the Saints from 476 points allowed in 2015. New Orleans "only" gave up 424 points in 2014.

The sack totals seem like a never-ending issue with the Saints. They finished 27th in the NFL with 30 sacks. This year's total was the fewest sacks by the Saints the past three seasons. New Orleans only tallied 31 last season and 34 in 2014.

Interception totals lingered near the bottom of the league once again. The Saints picked off nine passes. Only Jacksonville (seven), Chicago, the Jets and Indianapolis (all three with eight) had fewer interceptions.

New Orleans also ranked 28th in third-down conversions allowed at 43.3 percent. The Saints had a 40.3 percent rate in 2015 and a 46.1 percent rate in 2014.

Then there were the special teams snafus.

The maddening issues on field goals cost the Saints on numerous occasions. Blocked kicks brought back for scores occurred against the Giants and the Broncos. A third blocked kick nearly resulted in points at Carolina (a touchdown occurred on the following play).

At least rookie kicker Wil Lutz rebounded better than anyone expected once the Saints added Kevin O'Dea, a third special teams coach. Lutz hit all 12 field goals after Payton hired O'Dea.

The return game never improved, though.

Right now, the Saints have no one fitting the description as a viable kick/punt returner. The Saints ranked 31st in the league with on a 16.5 yards average per return.

The Saints have already started their attempt to rectify the issues within the unit by cutting ties with special team coordinator Greg McMahon and assistant special teams coach Stan Kwan. The next step will be to find someone who can actually reach the 25-yard line on a kickoff return.