The Saints ended the regular season with a loss to the Carolina Panthers in the Dome. The Saints and the Rams won-loss record was 13 - 3, best in the NFL. It was the Saints third winning season in the last seven years. The Saints also secured the home field advantage through out the playoffs and high expectations for the team to reach the Super Bowl has been on the fans mind for months. Ditto for the sports writers and sport shows in New Orleans.
This writer believes there are some objective thoughts that should be expressed so here goes: The NFL has produced only 15 teams with a winning record out of the 32 teams that competed. That takes place almost every year so there are too many poorly coached teams, especially on defense. The Saints beat only 5 teams with a winning record out of their 13 total wins. So the Saints beat a lot of poorly coached losing teams during the regular season.
When the Saints play teams that are well coached and especially know how to play defense, Payton and Brees offense become just an average offense. Dallas, Carolina and Baltimore proved that. The Saints averaged only 14 points per game against those three teams and Dallas is the only one of those 3 teams that have an opportunity to face the Saints in the playoffs. It remains to be seen just how tough the Saint's opponents play defense and how tight they play the Saint's receivers.
This writer believes the key to the Saints advancing in the playoffs lie in how their opponents play defense. The playoff should dictate that the defense should play the Saints tight. But as the record shows, there are a lot of teams who are poorly coached on defense. Time will be the judge if the Saints opponents learned anything.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
