Saints Report # 1 - September 9, 2018

There have been many extraordinarily disappointing losses for the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome.   Sunday, Ryan Fitzpatrick joined the ranks of Anthony Carter, Joe Montana, and Kenny Stabler in the Heartbreak Hotel.  Optimism for a new season drained away with each Fitzmagic bomb. 

The 48-40 smackdown that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers put on the Saints was as surprising as an opener can be. 

Nobody saw this coming.  Journeyman Fitzpatrick may have relegated suspended Quarterback Jameis Winston to a career of bagging crab legs.  Fitz picked over the rumored-to-be-great Saints defense like a werewolf does a carcass, which is ok, since he looks like he is in mid-transformation and you half expect Kate Beckinsale to be chasing him. (Insert joke here about how she would've done better....) Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson were toasting the cornerbacks like they were in an Easy-bake oven.  Patrick Robinson played exactly the way he played when he was here before, Marshon Lattimore proved to be mortal, and Kenneth Crawley was last seen running with his back turned, and it might as well have a target on it.    Every offensive coordinator in the league is licking his chops, promising Ken ample action.

But it wasn’t just them, the defensive line bunched up in front of the quarterback, and the only time they touched him, they did it roughly, drawing flags of celebration from the zebras.  Not only did they not hurry Fitz, they couldn’t keep him in the pocket, making him look like a 21 year old Randall Cunningham.  But even when he, or a running back, were running loose, the Saints linebackers were….wait where did they go?  Sorry, the linebackers still look like the weakest link to this defense, as they have been since the Super Bowl, which seems a long time ago.

Yet the amazing Drew Brees, he of dubious arm strength, exploited the Bucs to the tune of 40 points, which should be enough to win.  Bringing the Saints back from a 48-24 deficit was exciting and the Saints are never out of a game with him.  But alas, the Saints abandoned the running game early and decided that a shootout could be fun.  It wasn’t.  The ground support gone, Brees threw and threw.  For the Saints, a shoot out is at best a 50-50 proposition.  Shock and Awe is not a great football strategy.  Running the ball controls the clock and leaves our defense on the bench, sucking oxygen, which is preferable to just sucking.  Let's not overlook how terrific Michael Thomas (16 receptions - a Saints single game record) and Alvin Kamara were.  They just couldn't play defense.

While Aaron Rodgers was bringing his team back, and Drew Brees was running out of time to do a similar comeback, I was posing questions to Sean Payton, that of course he will not have to answer:

1.     Sean, why did you bring in Mike Gillislee, a fumblerooski running back?  He never carried once for the Saints in the preseason, and it was the not-exactly-running-back-rich Patriots who cut him.  Draft Pick Boston Scott looked good enough to be the back up to Alvin Kamara.  Gillislee’s fumble that was returned for a touchdown was the biggest mistake of the day.

2.      

          Sean, you’ve lost 5 openers in a row.  It might be time to do something different, like play some starters in the final preseason game.  Shouldn’t we try something different to get off to a fast start?  Training Camp in Wisconsin?  You could start the pre-season by telling them not to eat the cheese.

3.      Sean, why didn’t you onside kick with 3 minutes left?  After having to burn a timeout for a 2 point conversion attempt, the Bucs only needed one first down to run out the clock, which they did when Steve Young scrambled for a first down.  Oh, I forgot to mention him as a tormentor. 

4.     

          Sean, with Tom Benson gone, maybe I can host the post-game review, huh?

No one expected Ryan Fitz-average to have his best day ever as a pro.  The Saints have a history of making stars out of quarterbacks, but this "star is born" was just too much.  Especially when some knowledgeable and revered prognosticators had you pegged for 19-0.  The early schedule was supposed to be stepping stones to a great season.  Instead, the Saints are back in their early season quicksand. 

At least they weren't around for that playoff game.  Most Saints were not born yet.  Although they do have their own Viking playoff game nightmare to remember. Fortunately, Brett and Adrian are sandwiched in between.

Next come the high flying Hard Knocks crew from Cleveland.  For 2 years they’ve been a cure for what has ailed teams.  Will that continue, or will the Saints lay a game 2 egg?  This was either a wake up call, or a tap on the snooze button.  Saints fans are scared to find out which.

Meanwhile, clap for the wolfman.

NFL Preview 2018

February 3, 2019.  The day the obnoxious Miami Dolphin geezers had to put away the champagne, when the two great geezer Quarterbacks, Drew Brees and Tom Brady, met before both announcing their retirements..

The New Orleans Saints did it.  They completed the first undefeated 19 – 0 season by rolling over their last opponent, The New England Patriots, by a 43 -14 score in the Super Bowl.  The irony was thick.  They defeated the only team to previously get close, the Patriots who had their bid for immortality stymied back in 2008 by the New York Giants, and it happened in the Falcon’s home stadium.  The Falcons seemed on the verge of beating the Patriots in Super Bowl 51 when they blew a 28 – 3 lead.

The Saints would not blow their lead today.  Drew Brees was a perfect 30-30 for 300 yards passing, Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram had over 150 yards from scrimmage each, and the Saints defense, which allowed less than 7 points per game was equally impressive.  The Saints were simply the most dominating team in NFL history.

That's the way the Saints season will go.

Or they could go 8-8 and be a major disappointment.

Who knows? The Saints appear loaded. They have a dominant offensive line, a hall of fame quarterback, a running back tandem that can dominate, and a continually improving defense.  Their kicking games is sound, and they appear healthy.  They have a receiver who has caught more passes in his first two years than anyone ever has.  They have built through the draft and are young and talented.

Here’s the problem.  Just getting out of the division will be a task.  The Falcons and Panthers aren’t going away. The biggest problem with going 16 – 0 is that would mean you have to go 6 – 0 in the division, and probably still face a divisional team somewhere in the playoffs.  The Panthers, Falcons and Saints all made the playoffs last year, and the Saints beat the Panthers three times, accounting for half of the Panthers 6 losses.  Think the Panthers have been watching film all summer?  Then there are the two unknowns – injuries and zebras. 

So, we have a couple days left to dream.  Then, we’ll see how long before the limb I just went out on breaks. When in doubt, dream.

At the Cinema - August 2018

Mama Mia – Here We Go Again – 8

While the audiences wait for the 4^th iteration of “A Star is Born” they can look no further than this frenetic wafer of a film to see it actually happen.  Lily James sets the screen on fire as the young Donna of Donna and the Dynamos, played by Meryl Streep in the first Mama Mia, and briefly in this movie.  You see, the Meryl version of Donna has died of either movie disease or contract negotiations, leaving Pierce Brosnan alone to paint well and sing poorly on their Greek island.  Her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is still singing and has taken over the restoration of her mother’s hotel project.  Early on, a storm comes and goes as the movie does the time warp shuffle between past and present.

Apparently, the budget was modified to bring on Cher as Meryl’s mother (I know) to sing a couple of songs.  To put it kindly, she looks like someone slapped white paint on Mt Rushmore.  But she can still sing, and it’s very helpful that the former boyfriend she runs into is named, wait for it, .. Fernando.

Once you throw all this in the pot, you have a fairly entertaining movie, a tad better than the first one, mostly due to the casting of the young Donna and the Dynamos, led by Lily James, who would be perfect in the fifth Star is Born.  The 40 year old pop of Abba is reprised, including some lesser known songs and if you liked the first Mia, you’ll like this one too.

 

RBG – 9

As it turns out, there is a lot to learn about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  She was a prominent lawyer in the Women’s Liberation Movement, winning 5 of 6 cases she argued before the Supreme Court.  Prior to that she was a pioneering female student at Harvard Law School.  After that she was a Judge renown for her thoughtful opinions. In this wonderful documentary, friends, family, and foes speak glowingly about her persistence, her intellect, and her work ethic.  Her friendship with her polar opposite, the late Anthony Scalia, is examined and it seems they met their intellectual matches with each other.  Finally, it chronicles her tacking to the left as the court continues to move to the right.  This movie will be shown on CNN soon, and it’s another one of many great documentaries in 2018  

Scanning the Satellite:

The Sinner: Season 1 – 10

In keeping with the Binge economy – “I’ll give you 8-10 terrific episodes” – the USA network gets into the Fargo – True Detective act with this terrific series.  The first season, available on Netflix, stars Jessica Biel as a woman who goes berserk on a beach one day, and stabs a man who is being to cozy with his girlfriend.  The story is so far-fetched that it is riveting.  Biel and costar Bill Pullam (as a troubled detective) have never been better.  Got a weekend?  Take the plunge.

Sharp Objects – 1
HBO’s highly acclaimed summer series stars Amy Adams, and the accolades end there for me.  While Amy is terrific, the series is a muddled mess of misdirection.  It’s a sure sign that your murder mystery is a calamity when after 8 episodes you don’t reveal the killer until half way through the closing credits (hope half the audience hadn’t tuned out by then) and it’s so obscured that you better have a recorder so you can slow it down and look at it frame by frame.  More ridiculous than you can imagine, even with the high brow praise.  Got a weekend?  Go to the beach.

Succession – 3

HBO’s other summer entry was one that I gave up on after about 4 episodes.  It has not one interesting or sympathetic character.  Hard to watch when you have no one to root for in a family of megalomaniacs.