This concussion protocol always seems to work to keep Saints players out for extended periods

Other teams - not so much

I stand by what I said. By our position now I was talking about having an elite QB, RB, WR, and offensive line. Most of the league would love to be in that position.

And, by all means, luck played a part in the Saints Lombardi. Luck ALWAYS plays a part in winning. Ask any player or coach. That is a truism. That is an absolute. Avoiding injuries is a matter of luck. The way a loose ball bounces is luck. The flip of a coin at the beginning of the game or the beginning of overtime is luck. The timing of when or who might get COVID is a matter of luck. The best team doesn't always win. Luck plays a part every week.

Not buying it. Luck exists across the board for all teams and on every play. Leaning on “luck” as the reason why any team wins or loses immediately discredits all the hard work that went into that success, or lack thereof in a failure. Regardless, since “luck” exists equally across the board, for all teams and all plays, then it makes both sides of the equation balanced. Making “luck” completely moot.

We were discussing win/loss record which is easily quantifiable, NOT qualitative statements re: how good our players are. You brought up the number of teams ahead of us, and how our record “could be” if we won those games leaving us with a “very high seeding”. Which is absolutely true. But -

Every. Single. Other. Team. In the NFL right now can make the same argument. Nobody has been eliminated yet, nor has anybody clinched.

NFC Playoff Standings

Tm	W	L	T	Position	Reason
Seattle Seahawks (1)	6	1	0	West Champion
Green Bay Packers (2)	5	2	0	North Champion	head-to-head record
New Orleans Saints (3)	5	2	0	South Champion	head-to-head record
Philadelphia Eagles (4)	3	4	1	East Champion
Arizona Cardinals (5)	5	2	0	Wild Card #1	conference win percentage
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6)	5	2	0	Wild Card #2
Los Angeles Rams	5	3	0		head-to-head record
Chicago Bears	5	3	0

Just an update, my friend.

Saints were in that same spot last three years in a row, give or take. The best predictor for future behavior is past behavior, and a 2-3 playoff record over the last three years, leading to last year’s 13-3 record and not even winning one playoff game is not healthy omniscience for this season, if we even make it to the playoffs.

I’m very happy with the record! Nothing would make me happier for the Saints to have gone 19-0 and be unambiguously the SB winners that you predicted..., but you’ve already made two changes to that forecast and we’re not even halfway through the season yet. I fully expect TB to retake the 1st place spot away from the Saints 12 hours from now, give or take an hour or two, lol. Stranger things have happened though and TB could lose. Regardless, It’s not “luck” that the Saints are where they are and in 1st place NFC South. It’s winning key, individual battles in critical spots of the game. None of our record is “luck”, for the better or worse. The same level of luck exists for all teams, it can’t be quantified, therefore it’s useless, just an excuse for failure. The record you have is representative of the team that owns it, with or without blemishes. We just have some serious, imho, blemishes, and man coverage (possibly entire defensive philosophy) is one of them, along with DB#9’s arm strength.

But, this is a gutsy, refuse to quit team, and that was a well coached 5-2 team the Saints just beat. Three items come to mind wrt this game specifically:

1) Nagy was 5-0 after a loss, coming into that game. The man knows how to refocus his troops. The Payton led Saints beat the Nagy led Bears. It wasn’t “luck”.

2) Away stadium that wasn’t very environmentally friendly to how the Saints operate. Getting the W showed me grit, and I liked it, a lot. Teammates defending CJGJ getting sucker-punched showed me the defense is on the same page of music. Wasn’t professional, at all, but I liked it..., a lot.

3) Nagy’s teams were 12-4, iirc, in their games after a short week of prep. Once again, no “luck” involved there. Just a “roll our sleeves up” and “get to work” mentality. I liked it, a lot.

Lots of bad things in the game to hyper-analyze, but the Saints came out with the W, and should be very proud of their effort, mistakes and all. They earned the win, they didn’t “luck” into it.

Returning to DB’s arm strength..., I very clearly remember you discussing, before the season began, how strong his arm was, and it’s never been stronger and he’s regularly throwing 57, 58 yard passes in practice. I remember making the statement that I would like to see him do it with defenders trying to pound him in the ground. My question to you now is: “How many 50+ yard passes has DB#9 made, heck, even attempted almost halfway through this season? How many 40 yard passes has he made, or attempted? How many 30 yard passes? How many 20”..., you get the point. Trust me, those numbers, or complete lack thereof almost, ain’t pretty.