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Sean Payton isn't on the hot seat. But he is under the gun.

If the Saints head coach wasn't feeling the pressure to right the New Orleans Saints' foundering franchise before Sunday, he certainly does today.

In the wake of Sunday's 36-20 loss to the New England Patriots, Payton finds himself staring at the greatest challenge of his coaching career. In the weeks ahead, he must somehow rebuild his team's sagging confidence and keep hope alive after yet another slow start.



In case you haven't heard, the Saints are now 1-11 in the first month of the past four seasons. The last time they won a game in September was in 2014. That was so long ago that only eight players that played in that 20-9 victory against the Minnesota Vikings were on the field Sunday and one of them played for the Patriots (Brandin Cooks).

The most disturbing thing about the slow starts is that the Saints put in so much time this offseason in trying to resolve the issue. They've studied the slow starts, tried to determine their root causes and researched ways to avoid them. They devoted extra practice time to 2-minute drills and situational football in an effort to improve their performance in close games.

And none of it has worked.

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WillMacKenzie

It's the fire. It's the expectation. I think players are sitting around waiting for the coaches or the saints' old reputation to suddenly kick in and lift them to winning...which obviously can't happen

It's up to you. You cannot allow yourself to walk out the door with another loss, you must DEMAND a win. Sometimes in life you have to just stick your nose in the traffic and take your spot or you'll miss your turn.

I'm not seeing that brash Sean Payton any more.

CharityMike

Couldn't agree more. Remember the early days how we would hear stories about players never wanting to mess up and get the death stare? Where has that intensity gone? Every week its the same ole same ole. credit this..credit that. Come on..if he just went off in his press conference, I would feel so much better. i want to see some passion. I want to see him pissed off.

CheramieIII

Sean Payton is on the hot seat and it's blistering hot. We start out 0-2 or 0-3 and end up 7-9. We keep spending money and getting nothing. We win just enough to get a middle of the road draft pick that's always hit or miss for us. We spend 15% of our cap on 1 player that frankly we probably should have traded last year and now we'll get nothing except 20 million more on players that will be poorly evaluated and broken or lost very quickly. Our injury bug is a lot more than just dumb luck, there is a correlation between our coaching and the players. We should keep a few coaches and probably about 35 to 40 of our players realistically and blow up the rest and start over now and I mean now so we don't have to go through this crap again next year. Let's start with a young team and watch it grow instead of trying to put limbs on a tree when **** don't grow that way!

Golf and sex are about the only things you can enjoy without being good at them.
Jimmy Demaret

neugey

I wish I made 8+ million a year to feign.

jnormand

I'm not for getting rid of Brees. I think he's a great QB. Do we need to find his successor? Yes, eventually. Now I've been on the Payton train forever. But if he can't right this ship, he needs to go.

bobdog86

I believe if Bellichek has this exact roster, we be a lot better, We do have some pretty solid players on this roster, he could do more, well let's say he could get out of them. And a large part of that is I think his players and coaches have bought into the program. Similarly as in Seattle, Atlanta, Denver, GB. Not sure it's the same here. We need coaches who can coach

dizzle88

You could tell which side was better coached, talent had nothing to do with it as the patriots were down 4 starters at the beginning of the game and lost 3 WR's during the game.

The Patriots split out on nearly every play and forced our Linebackers and safeties into mismatches because they know we get confused easily.

I really don't know what our D line was doing, on a handful of plays - the gronk TD comes to mind - they were in the backfield with Brady but just stood there not trying to get him.

The bit that is most worrying for me is that the fact our offense came up empty on 5 or 6 straight drives against a team that allowed 42 points the week prior.

The offense is not what it used to be, high profile RB's dont belong in this offense, we were best when we subbed in guys like Khiry Robinson etc

Many people say we have been rebuilding for years and it's a slow process, but we have gone backwards during this process not forwards.

Take a look at the raiders, draft a QB and bring in Del Rio - who for years, did absolutely nothing in Jacksonville, all of a sudden Oakland look like a top 5 team.

Your bonehead creator picked a fine chapter to omit from your memory bank....let me ask you, does a machine like yourself ever experience fear? - Vegeta, DBZ

bobdog86

I think 1-11 in September says quite a bit.

Rugby Saint II

On the bright side we play better after September.