Tampa Bay came to the Super Dome on Sunday and was ready to play football and in the process destroyed the Saints defensive unit. It was the fifth straight year the Saints loss their opening regular season game. It was showtime for an overrated Saint's defense that goes back to last season and made worse by the hype, clichés and apple polishing comments by sports writers who are incapable of being objective in evaluating the Saints.
The offseason, training camp and preseason witnessed stories by New Orleans sports writers, especially those in the Times Picayune of how talented the 2018 Saints team would be, how deep in talent at all positions, the experience and of course the projection that the Saints would be Super Bowl contenders. They wrote a lot about Brees being in position to break several personal individual passing records this year like as if that guaranteed the team success. And their huge mistake of overrating the Saints defense last year and promoting them as one of the best this year.
One game does not make a season and Jeff Duncan in a Times Picayune column Monday could only come up with the usual clichés: NO ONE SAW THIS COMING. I DIDN'T, YOU DIDN'T. THE EXPERTS PREDICTING A SUPER BOWL RUN DIDN'T. Duncan also forgot that any team in the NFL can win on any day despite having journeyman quarterback as Duncan described Tampa Bay's quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Duncan admitted he DIDN'T SEE IT COMING and then made the self serving statement, YOU DIDN'T. Well Jeff, PolitiDose did see it coming and wrote in a commentary titled "Reflections and thoughts on the Saints 2017 season" dated January 17, 2018 and said. "The Saints defensive coordinator's ability to get the job done is still unsettled in this writers mind and I do not believe time is on his side. The article also stated the judgement that the Saints in 2018 will make little progress from where they finished last year.
The Saints team will have the time and ability to improve. Hype, Cliches and apple polishing stories by sports writers who refuse to be objective have little value. Payton's record for hiring good defensive coordinators has been dismal. And this writer believes Payton should put the cheat sheet down and leave it to the offensive coordinator to tall the plays so he can devote time and see what is taking place from the sidelines.
In the end, defense is still the major challenge.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
