You'd think a Saints fan would be used to their favorite team staying home for the playoffs. We are but it hasn't gotten any easier over these last 40+ years. I was a kid when the Saints came into being. Beginning to think I may never experience a championship season. In another context, yesterday's loss would have been gut-wrenching. With 17 players on injured reserve, Pierre Thomas and Jeremy Shockey not playing, nothing whatever for the team to play for, and spotting the Panthers two costly turnovers, the Saints made Carolina give everything they had to win their "must" game. It was fun and I'm OK with the outcome because of the higher draft position that will result. Another thing Saints fans are used to ... always looking forward to next year.
Quote of the Day
We did not play to what my expectations were this season.
Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Okay, so blowing a 20 point fourth quarter lead then rallying late to win the game with a John Kasay field goal wasn't exactly the prettiest win in the world, but the Panthers managed to lock up the division, the number two seed in the playoffs, and a first round bye, with their win over the division rival Saints. At least they did it in classic Carolina fashion."
It was a tough luck season for the Saints. They need to do some work on defense, but they have some great players on offense if they can stay reasonably healthy. I'd take the Saints WRs over ours any day.
They were in every game, even the Carolina and Atlanta games where the score indicates they weren't. They need a couple of players on defense and they need to make some of the plays they missed this season. They richly deserve their 8-8 record and idle January.
As for WRs, Colston really came on late in the year and Lance Moore was a pleasant surprise. Meachem is still a work in progress and Devery Henderson hasn't improved a bit over last year or the year before. They'll have to stand pat with this group next year, though, because there are just way too many other priorities.
What was the deal with Meachem anyway? I drafted him late as a possible sleeper and was kind of excited to see him break some long catches early on, and then he dropped off the radar. I dropped him after a few weeks anyway to make another pickup, but I had meant to ask you about that.
He got extended playing time when Colston and David Patten got hurt, seemed to be playing OK but disappeared once Lance Moore emerged and Colston came back. Had a couple of decent plays this year but why he's not contributing more is a bit of a mystery to all of us.