New Orleans Saints fans have been subject to a rough past two weeks. They have had to listen to numerous national media outlets, whom just about all have their noses up in the air and their chests puffing out, while boasting that they were the ones saying, “I told you so.” Suspended head coach, suspended interim head coach, previously suspended team leaders, and a quarter back focused only on his money, are just a few of the media’s reasons the Saints have no shot to be successful this season. Are these beliefs warranted? Probably so, but in the hearts of “Who Dat Nation”, our team can overcome anything.
That’s the beauty of a professional sports team that has a love/hate relationship with their home team. Saints fans don’t boo their quarterback after he throws his 3rd interception in a rough game. Nor do they boo their entire team as they jog off the field for halftime, down 17-3. Why don’t we boo? It’s because we believe. Believing is what we do best.
This year isn’t the first time the black and gold have had the odds stacked against them and it surely won’t be the last. In 2006, the Saints were coming off of an abysmal 3-13 season, their city was in full re-build mode, and our new quarterback was coming off of an injury that would stop most from ever throwing a football again. It wasn’t until about a month before the season that the organization knew for sure that the Superdome would be ready for the team’s week 3 opener. Well, it was ready and Steve Gleason made himself a shining hero and future symbol of hope that all of us will lean on whenever our team struggles.
One of those times of struggle is happening already this season. “Why should we not panic?”, you may still be asking. There are a couple reasons to keep our heads up and believe it or not, they aren’t just motivational fan-hood reasons.
Let’s start with the Washington game. Without a doubt, this was a game that the Saints should have come in to better prepared, giving them a much better chance to win. The pessimists see this loss, solely as a loss to a rookie QB in his first professional game and he was on the road. Sure those are the facts, but think about the situation. First off, New Orleans was put to the complicated task of facing the reigning Heisman trophy winner Robert Griffin III, a player that some believed should have been taken ahead of the #1 overall pick, QB Andrew Luck from Stanford. Aside from preseason, which are hardly competitive games for starters, the Saints had zero NFL film to study and learn what RG3 would do with the Washington offense. Of course they had lots of college film to look at, but watching RG3 tear apart a less than capable Big 12 defense does no help. Second, they were entering this battle against a dynamic QB that they were largely unprepared for, while playing their first game in a brand new defense. Training camp and preseason games are by no means enough time to fully learn a new scheme. Lastly and most importantly, this game had “emotional letdown” written all over it. We hear games be given that term during the regular season, when a team moves on after winning a hardly fought game, sometimes vs. rivals or in a game in which they were underdogs. In the Saints’ case, they were coming of a controversial off-season full of nothing, but negativity. When the schedule came out, it’s likely that almost every coach, player, and certainly every fan, saw a Week 1 home game vs. a perceived inferior opponent. At that moment, just about everyone, including myself, was thinking, “Washington is in for it.” Little did we know, but the Saints were the ones that were in for it and it was largely a combination of the three factors above.
Moving on to the Carolina game, this was more of a situation where the Panthers simply came out as the better team and beat the Saints. It’s the NFL and that type of stuff happens often. You’ll hear many say, “It’s why we play the game.” Aside from Carolina being the better team this past Sunday, I do believe there were a few other factors leading to the Saints being inferior. First, the lack of familiarization with new defensive scheme that I noted previously for the Washington game, was still apparent. One game, in which the Saints were playing catch up, is not enough to make a night and day difference in executing the new scheme. Secondly, the Panthers had a bone to pick with the Saints. As a result of the publicized bounty scandal, Carolina felt like they were victims. Panthers’ Coach Ron Rivera believes that the Saints had a bounty on QB Cam Newton and that they took cheap shots at him during the two contests between New Orleans and Carolina last season. It was obvious from the amount of chippiness seen from numerous Panther players last week that they were out for revenge. Lastly, Carolina was also coming off of an ugly loss to Tampa Bay. Lucky for them, they got to play their rebound game in front of the home crowd, which is a huge emotional advantage for a team needing a boost. For the second straight week, the Saints fell short to a team led by one of the most athletic, dynamic players in the NFL.
Whether you believe that it’s just excuses or not, every factor mentioned is just another complication that makes beating an NFL team that much harder. It’s not always possible to pull out victories when all of the odds are stacked against you.
Now, as the dedicated Saints fans we are, let’s put Week 1 and 2 behind us and keep our heads up starting now. Kansas City should be a much more favorable opponent for the Saints and I fully expect New Orleans to momentarily silence the negativity that has surrounded this team for the last two weeks.
My prediction:
New Orleans 38 Kansas City 20
Who Dat
