A little perspective, maybe

I thought I would try to add a little cheer to a very frustrating end to the season. It sucked, no doubt about it. And, let me tell you, there is nothing worse than sitting in a Patriots bar and being the only one around to be cheering (to the point I lost my voice for most of this week - I was louder than all of the opponents fans put together ;~)) for the Saints. I may have mentioned before that, even here (god help me), I found some cheer. The reason the Pats fans, two weeks in a row, were cheering for our opponent, was that the last team in the lists that they wanted to face was the Saints. Cheery thought #1.

More importantly, what struck me, was that, after years and years of never getting near the playoffs, we took a step and occasionally got into the playoffs over the last couple of decades or so. Now, though, we have consistently been playoff contenders for five years. I also believe, what I wished for the most happened this year. We put our stamp on the division. I don't think anyone relishes the thought of facing us. No, of course, that doesn't mean we will make it to the playoffs every year but I'd put our odds way above 50%. Cheery thought #2.

I am hoping like crazy that SpagNOLA is the last key ingredient. And, yes, it may be more hope than anything else. I promise you, you've never seen anybody with a better ability to look at the bright side, even at midnight on a cloudy, moonless night. Anyways, one of the things that I think was missing is something that Spaggs can bring, which is a little more of a team spirit on the defense. I don't know, maybe GW had this, to some extent, but it sounds like part of Spagg's signature. I like our players, I think we have some of the best around on defense. We have a not-to-be-ignored defense, already. Now, maybe we can take that step to utterly-feared defense. Cheery thought #3

Anyways, we are in a division that is becoming waaaay potent on offense, so a rock-hard defense that doesn't blow it at the oddest times, would certainly be a great help. I still cannot argue that GW was a terrible DC by any stretch of the imagination. We didn't have the best defense, for sure. But, if you look at opponents P.O.M.P., we weren't that bad. Certainly better than anyone in the division and better than all but three within the conference. Cheery thought #4.

So, though it would have been great to win the Superbowl, maybe (wow! is this a stretch! even for me!! but, I'll go there, anyways) it worked out best in that I would like to crush our opponents week in and week out on both offense and defense. Maybe Spaggs brings us that last little piece. Maybe just being premier in our division can be supplanted by premier within the conference and, often, owner of that nice shiny football. Final cheery thought.