gosaints1

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.