I looked out my window last night after the game and everything appeared normal. The soft blanket of snow that beautifully covered uptown New Orleans yesterday morning had melted. As quickly as it had arrived, it was gone. As much joy and excitement it brought to all of us here in the Big Easy, it was just a depressing reminder of what we don't get to enjoy down here.
Just like the Saints.
It's a rare occurence when snow falls in New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana. So much so that many of us thought perhaps this could mean good things for our Saints. The Saints never win in Chicago and it never snows in New Orleans. Maybe we've got something here. But it wasn't a sign of good or bad things to come. Rather, it was symbolic. A metaphor in the form of a weather pattern. Much like that rare flurry on the bayou, the Saints can sometimes show that flash of brilliance and greatness. But just as a light snowfall turns into rain and melts quickly on the ground never to be seen again for years, so too does any semblance of quality and consistent football from our beloved Saints.
The rest of my notes:
- Drew is now off the pace to break Dan Marino's record. Salt in an open wound. Speaking of Drew, he hasn't been his usual self as of late.
- I think we just have to call the whole referee situation last night as a wash. We got some good calls and we got some bad calls. It all evens out in the end. But the officiating was poor.
- Tons of dropped balls. I was worried it was going to be a problem and it was. We should have all expected this.
- I'm sure we'll have lots of "Fire Gary Gibbs" rhetoric this week. Deserved?
- Same problems in the secondary. Devin Hester did a pretty good job making them look like...well...the Saints secondary. Are we going back to hating Jason David again? Maybe Roman Harper should be the focus of our spite. They're both too easy.
- There is nothing I can say about Pierre that I haven't said already one hundred times over.
- 3rd and short and 4th and short plays continue to haunt the Saints. Is it bad running, bad blocking or bad play calling?
- Not sure what happened with Reggie. He returned a punt even in the midst of not being used in the offense.
- Colston missed a catch, maybe two, but came up big on a couple of third downs and of course the touchdown.
- Special teams sucked. They gave up 192 yards in kick returns including the opening touchdown.
- Penalties were obviously also a problem. Another 97 yards.
- Does anyone else find it ironic that the Saints got no pressure all game and never touched Orton until the final play with two seconds remaining when the sack probably wound up costing them the win?
- The linebackers played great. All three of them were the top three leading tacklers on the night. Vilma's fumble recovery and Fujita's pick were both crucial. Vilma almost had a pick of his own as well.
- Usama Young made a nice play at the goaline on a Saints punt to pin the Bears on their own 1-yard line.
- I want to like Shockey. I really, really do. He's been pretty valuable the last few weeks. And I want to see him finally get into the end zone. But he has got to help himself. Dropping easy catches with plenty of room to run make it so hard for me to get on board the Shockey train.
I will leave the rest of the commiserating, finger-pointing and name-calling to you guys. Go nuts.