Re: You knew the Saints wouldn’t win
 

I thought we would win ... until I saw the first 10 - 12 minutes. Then, I knew it was just not gonna be our day. I mean Payton has got to be doing some soul searching right now because that was a team effort. They were not prepared. How does that happen for a playoff game in the dome? And, do not blame it on Brees. OK, it definitely was not his best day ... but come on. There were very few bright spots. A few big plays and none of them when it counted.

Re: You knew the Saints wouldn’t win
 

I've been saying this for a few years now.

Re: You knew the Saints wouldn’t win
 

Been saying this for a few years now.

Re: You knew the Saints wouldn’t win
 

I had a bad feeling all week leading up to the game because Minnesota matched up poorly with us. Everyone wrote off Kirk Cousins, but the Saints have a history of mediocre QBs at best turning into Pro Bowlers against them in the playoffs. I knew we were going to be in trouble when the spread went to 6+ and everyone talking about Green Bay and how this would be an easy blow out win for us. Even the team's attitude going into this game told us that they were overlooking the Vikings.

OP is half right - the Vikings did come into the game with this "us against the world" mentality. They were motivated.

What was the Saints mentality going into the playoffs? We were robbed last year and are owed a SB. That's why no one feels sorry for us and are happy we lost. This team made victimhood into their identity all year. Instead of being motivated and wanting to overcome their mistakes, they just wanted sympathy cause "we got robbed" as it was repeated non-stop. People quit feeling sorry for us cause they got sick to death of hearing about it and any time some other team got screwed on a non-call PI, they had a reason to be angry with Payton for pushing that rule and opening the pandora's box to all this crap.

Remember those 49ers teams coached by Jim Harbaugh years ago? Remember how they spent all their time whining and moaning about the non-calls in their post season losses?
2011 it was the the Jacobs fumble being whistled.
2012 it was the non-call PI in the end zone at the end of the SB.
2013 it was several non-calls vs Seattle and some bad officiating. (Let's also not forget their fans talking about the roughing the passer call against them vs us in that regular season game)

Yeah... that's what we have become. Harbaugh spent all his time freaking out at refs and whining after these losses. Their fans had all these excuses, usually overlooking the glaring red flags that their team wasn't that good. One of those red flags was where they would get blown out badly in a number of losses (something that has followed Harbaugh into Michigan)

In a weird sick way, it almost feels like karma for our over-reaction to the non-call. Like the NFL gods are punishing us for being so obnoxious and unbearable about it.



2017 - Goodell made us get in a 17-0 hole to start the game and then give up a hail mary pass to end it? Really?

2018 - Goodell told us to blow a 13-0 and 20-10 lead, oh and give up 50 yards for the Rams to force OT, then Brees to throw an INT in the endzone? Gotcha.

2019 - Goodell made us play like **** for 3 quarters with our 40 year old QB looking terrible, turn the ball over twice, then give up a 40 yard bomb pass in OT too? Wow, Goodell is good at this!