In the past few weeks, negative commentary has been hard to find…. This takes on a whole different slant. This is really old school Saints negativity. This is chicken little talk here.

There is another way to take this……….

Look at what we have in the hand. a winning season. NINE wins = that. that’s all.
period.
Where can we go from here? No guaranteed playoffs. Let’s just go one week at a time.

The Bucs? We beat the Bucs. Why? Because we are the re-incarnation of the 49ers. We got an offense, finally, to match a B- defense. WE BEAT the BUCS.

NO IF’s

First and foremost they’d better get a win as this game clearly has implications for the home field advantage going forward (Minnesota for practical purposes is already tied – their only loss is againts an AFC team).

If they win ugly again hopefully they will have a look at it and fix it, but there is nothing more important than winning this game… if it is not cute so be it…

I agree dillyberto… we are seing huge mood swings in the commentary… euphoria… gloom… I wonder what comes next….

Our game against the pats will be our true test even if some how we completely screw up this game i dont see a loss.
But a monday night game in the dome against the pats is about as big as it gets in the regular season.
So lets dispatch the bucs this week in any way possible and move on

I think it’ll give the team a lot of confidence going into the Patriots game. If there’s a repeat of the Rams game, how will the team feel going forward? Brady & Co aren’t going to roll over in the 4th quarter. We need to step up and win well this week. It’s nice to hear a 9-0 team saying they’re not happy and they need to perform better, but it’s nicer to see that translate into dominating games on the field.

I can write off the close games against Carolina and Atlanta because they are division rivals. But to barely eek out a win against Tampa Bay is pathetic. We need to get this team back on track and playing consistent football on both sides of the ball. We have not done that lately.

This will make me happy.

First, and this gets worse every week since New York Giants, I am afraid of this game because of the fact almost ALL pundits forget:

This is a league of professionals-not just players or coaches but the entire organization. To me, the biggest irritant is not that these so called experts don’t understand the game of football-it’s that they don’t appreciate that there is a large corporation, fan-base and many others backing the players.

You have, not only the best of the best OF THE BEST athletes on the field and tacticians on the sideline but, also the greatest and most thorough support staff behind the scenes. More than any other industry, professional sports epitomize capitalism where, IF YOU’RE NOT AN ASSET, YOU’RE A LIABILITY. Plus, you have a fan-base that work not for the weekend but for Sunday football.

With that being said, I get concerned at this point in the season because of the physical, psychological and emotional strain these guys are under. They miss their families-many of them board planes Sunday after the games, fly home til Tuesday night to get back for Wednesday morning practice…they, like anyone else, miss their kids’ plays, family events, birthdays, funerals…

All of that wears on these guys’ psyche-granted, they’re making millions of dollars but it affects them in the same ways it would you and me. Related to our Saints, besides the rest of our team, the medias’ constantly reminding Drew Brees of his tragedy is probably our greatest opponent.

So this is why I’m concerned-many of our players are getting worn-down…that, coupled with Brees’ mothers’ suicide-makes us extremely vulnerable this weekend. Yes, it may take a loss to wake them up but, more likely, a loss would just add another weight. As professionals they will over-come this but a loss is not the answer-it would further break-down morale…

In all honesty, I suspect the injection of new energy from Chris McAlister could be the spark to carry us into the post-season assuming he doesn’t-and I mean this with all due respect-withhold his true condition and drag the entire organization down as the other McAllister did last season. I know that wasn’t Deuce’s intention but we had PT on the roster last year-we should’ve been the NFC representatives last season and not Phoenix.

Win or lose, this is a league of champions and it’s not just the play on the field, coaching, the organization, fan base-it’s all of those plus some. Writers though who are basically paid to make something out of nothing, do all of us-and especially the players-an injustice

comments that Brees play will be affected by the ruling of suicide for his mother. This ruling was a result of the wait for toxicology results, but was in no way a surprise. It was suspected from the beginning that she committed suicide, this was strictly a formality and shouldn’t affect Brees at all.

Well…sorta right. A Saints loss to the Bucs would be worse than a narrow and badly-played win. But how the Saints actually play is important, too, because the way you win has ramifications for the future.

Think of it this way: suppose we wind up beating Tampa by three touchdowns, and Drew Brees breaks his throwing arm. All the same people who today are saying, “A win is a win, baby!” would be saying “There goes the **** season!” Admit it: you know you would.

But there’s no way you could really know that—the games remain to be played. All you know for sure—or believe you know—is that it doesn’t bode well for the future. And that’s all saints-nation is saying: a continued inability to cut down on turnovers, for instance, doesn’t bode well for the future. A continued inability to stop the run doesn’t bode well for the future. A continued inability to put away bad teams before the final seconds doesn’t bode well for the future.

I know that to the optimists, this all sounds like whining, bordering on cowardice. But to those of us who have concerns about the play of the team, the reluctance to accept and pay attention to the flaws in the Saints smacks of the same kind of denial that refuses to admit the cough that won’t go away, the lump in the breast, or the voices in the head. If something is wrong, you face up to it. Pointing out problems isn’t a buzz kill…it’s rational behavior.

Of course, partying is more fun than worrying, and neither will actually help or harm the Saints. And saints-nation should have added that how the Saints lose would also be more important than the loss itself. A single loss isn’t going to derail our season, but a demoralizing total breakdown might.

I’m actually looking for them to have a tight focus, and return to their early-season form…because I think the players themselves are more concerned than we are.

Tampa without a doubt has been getting better, and the saints will most likely struggle again as in the past.
Sean Payton will probally not show too much on offense, and Williams the same on defense.

Rational: If the saints perform subpar on offense and defense, it may give patriots a false sense of security. They may try to take advantage of our deficienies just to find out that they were exaggerated. By the time they figure that out they are already down 14 points and a interception has been thrown I truly believe that the saints are 10X better than they lead on to believe. However, coaching tactics may play into things.

I believe that the patriots will be the biggest obstacle for us to overcome for the duration of the season. I think the coaches understand this, and are preparing for this. Ellis could play but they hold him back. He attended practice several times, and bush has been banged up a little. Being out of this game against Tampa could give them more time watching tapes from New england’s game.

There is always a flip side to things.
What do you guys think?

We got the win, got an impressive performance, +3 on interceptions, no int’s for Brees. We’re ready for the Patriots.