The Saints defeated the Atlanta Falcons to give head coach Dennis Allen his very first winning season as a head coach. Beating Atlanta is nothing new for the Saints as they seem to have the Facons number over the years. The win gave the Saints a winning season at 9-8 and was a big disappointment to those who fail to be objective in their evaluation of the team. And the worse offenders are the local sports media and their reporters.
In a New Orleans Advocate article of 8/19/23 twenty eight local sports media people predicted the fate of the Saints for the 2023 season and as usual most were off the money. Most predicted a 10-7 or 11-6 won loss record. Bobby Hebert who heads up a local sports radio show called "sports talk" said the Saints would go 11-6. His show misses the mark often like the New Orleans Advocate sports writers. It is a show business thing for the media and not really an honest evaluation.
The bottom line did not change one bit for this year's team. (1) It was the third straight year that the Saints started the season with a quarterback that had not completed one full season as a Saints starting quarterback. (2) Saint's head coach Dennis Allen had never achieved a winning record as a head coach. (3) The Saints defense has not been a consistent defense for several years now. They play great some times and some times they play poorly. They can play great for 3 quarters and then fall apart at the most critical moment. Picking a team to go 10-7 or 11-6 and not knowing, or having any idea how those above 3 issues will be improved, how can one pick those kind of numbers?
Being aware of those 3 problems, does not give this writer the confidence that the Saints are ready to turn things around any time soon. Sean Payton left because he could see what was unfolding, and he and the front office was responsible for allowing the quarterback situation to get out of hand before Brees retired and not having a capable replacement. The situation is even worse now because the Saints are an aged team and no one yet knows if Carr is the answer at quarterback. This is a franchise that has never fully recovered from "bounty gate" and the media has ignored the issue.
With the right coaching staff and players there is hope for the future, mainly because the NFL has so many poor teams coached by many poor coaches. It can hardly get any worse when a 9-8 team can win their division and or qualify for the playoffs.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
Note: For the record, the Saints beat only two teams with a winning record this football season.
