The New Orleans Saints were defeated for the second time on Sunday in almost the same fashion as the previous Sunday in Atlanta. The Browns offense was able to move the ball on the Saint's defense when it counted the most and the Saints were sent home 0-2.
This writer saw very little progress in the Saint's defensive performance from the first game even though defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was quoted as saying in the Times Picayune of Saturday, "I guarantee we'll be better." And TP writers Larry Holder and Jim Duncan's comments before and after the Browns game were silly at best. Part of Holder's headline in Sunday mornings paper read, "0-2, don't even think about it." Duncan said Cleveland has had just 3 winning seasons since 1989 like that would be a factor in the Saints favor.
Then on Monday Holder trys to inform his readers that since 1990 23 teams made the play offs after starting 0-2. Is that some kind of prediction for the Saints Larry? Before the regular season started Saints fans were told that the team had regained that "swagger" they displayed the year they won the Super Bowl. That "swagger" has not been visible to this writer on offense or defense.
Two of the Times Picayune seven sports writers took the "PolitiDose" challenge and picked the Browns to beat the Saints. Marcus Carmouche picked the Browns 27-23 very close to the actual score. Terrance Harris picked the Browns 24-17. The other five went with the line and picked the Saints. I compliment Marcus and Terrance for their call and decision to break with the line on the game.
The Saints loss to the Browns was their 6 in the last 9 regular season games. Drew Brees did not earn his big salary increase last year nor has he earned it so far this year. Ditto Coach Payton. As I see it the Saints lost their continuity during the 2012 season when they had to play without their head coach because of Payton's irresponsible act of allowing bounty gate to happen. The situation was made worse by the dumb decision to split the head coaching responsibility between two assistant coaches allowing each to coach 8 games. Does any one really believe continuity can exist under such conditions?
I wrote several past commentary questioning the Saints future under Payton and Brees and I see no reason to change at the present time.
This commentary written by John Lucia.
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