Saints Report #16 - January 3rd 2010

My least favorite movie ending of recent years was 3:10 to Yuma. After 2 hours of brilliance in the midst of incredible action, our hero gets himself shot by turning his back to the killers. What a letdown.

The Saints go into the playoffs similarly wounded. The difference is that they aren’t dead and they have time to heal.

Sunday, the Saints lost their third straight game to close out their best regular season ever at 13 – 3. For those of us hoping for a perfect season, if only to shut Mercury Morris up, it was a little bit of a letdown, but let’s face it – it was always a long shot to go undefeated.

A month ago this NFL season was spectacular, with 2 teams undefeated, and several more rolling. Then, the wind died down. Not only did the Saints go skidding into the playoffs, but so did the other mid-season favorite, the Colts, who capitulated their way in. As the NFL considers extending the season to 18 regular season games, they should look back at the lackluster way this season ended. Four Months is a long time to stay sharp, and with all the talk about how hard you should play once you’ve wrapped up home field advantage, there’s a new poster boy for this argument. It looks like Wes Welker, a vital cog in the Patriots dynasty machine suffered a serious knee injury Sunday playing in a game he didn’t need to be playing in. Doubtful that the Patriots are long for the playoffs without one of the top ten offensive players in the league.

The Saints lost Sunday to Carolina, 24 – 10. Actually, the Saints didn’t play that poorly, considering it was essentially the same team they’d trot out for the final exhibition game. It must be said however, that Carolina Head Coach John Fox went to great pains to not run the score up, running the ball on 3rd and long on several occasions as to not embarrass the Saints.

We got to see some backups, and some of it wasn’t pretty. Lets just say Mark Brunel (9/17/70) looked more his age than Brett Favre (10/10/69). There should be renewed appreciation for the precision of Drew Brees who set a new NFL record for completion percentage at 70.6% - a number it did not appear Brunel could approach in an offensive run-through with no defense on the field. At this point he appears to have the arm strength of the typical NFL QB who should have retired three years ago.

When you make a list of off-season needs, backup QB needs to be somewhere on the list. One of the most distressing things about the game was the play of the wide receivers who didn’t appear to know where or when the ball was going to arrive and thus I thought they played very defensively, giving Brunel little help.

Meanwhile, some good news: Jabari Greer returned. Randall Gay played. Somehow the Saints were able to field a team and let their many injured players rest and recover. With 2 weeks to get healthy, let’s hope the 2nd season begins the way the 1st one did. Say what you want about their lack of momentum going into the playoffs – that doesn’t concern me near as much as their health. Sitting the injured today was the right thing to do. We’ll see if it turns out like The Sixth Sense, or 3:10 to Yuma.

But, let’s conclude the regular season with a tip of the hat to the Saints on their first 13 win season. The schedule was unique in that so many of the big games occurred in the dome. Remember, the Jets came in undefeated, the Giants came in undefeated, and the Patriots came in as a dynasty. One thrashing by the Cowboys and a inexplicable pancake by the Bucs not withstanding, it was an incredibly exciting year. Now the Saints, with one playoff win will match their best result ever, and with two will visit a destination they’ve rarely even dreamed of.

In Baseball momentum is defined as your next days’ starting pitcher. Let’s hope about 2 drives into the first playoff game, momentum has been reestablished.