I’ve never felt so old and sad as I did this week when I was looking up YouTube clips of the 2009 Saints. After watching the Atlanta Falcons run the ball 10 consecutive times to defeat the Saints and put Dennis Allen’s tenure as Saints head coach on shaky ground, I wanted the warm blanket of nostalgia.
Just some 2009 videos of Drew Brees lighting the Eagles, Giants, and Dolphins on fire to ease my current Saints pain. The comeback win against the Dolphins has an especially warm place in my heart as my wife and I went to that game in Miami.
The Saints entered the fourth quarter down 10, and while all the Dolphins fans were singing their little fight song, all I could do was smirk with the utmost confidence while thinking, “Saints are going to win this game. Drew about to cook y’all.”
If I close my eyes and let my mind drift it can feel like yesterday, but October 25, 2009 is a LONG time ago.
The best moment of being a Saints fan to me, besides winning the Super Bowl, are the exact moments you realize, “Oh yeah Saints are good again and all that losing is behind us.”
In 2006 when Sean Payton and Drew Brees arrived it was that Sunday night in Dallas when the Saints crushed the Dallas Cowboys on National TV. America tuned in to see the latest hot young Cowboy quarterback in Tony Romo, what they got instead was the Saints announcing, “We out here y’all. Get used to it.”
In 2000 after a decade of mediocrity and incompetence, the 5-3 Saints took a baseball bat to the once mighty San Fransisco 49ers. Saints coach Jim Haslett even rubbed in the 49ers' faces by going for it on fourth down a bunch of times deep in Saints territory.
When I tell you there was joy walking out of the Superdome, words can’t really do it justice. It was like an exorcism, merged with Mardi Gras and Christmas. The Saints had just kicked the 49ers head in and our decade in the wilderness of losing felt over.
Which brings me unfortunately back to 2023, as the Saints have re-entered the wilderness of losing and appear to have no real map or plan to find their way out.
The Saints have spent the last two years going all in first with Dennis Allen and now with Derek Carr.
The Saints' salary cap is finally the mess the nerds have been claiming it is for the last decade.
The Saints are $70 million over the 2024 cap and the only solution is to restructure and lengthen the commitments to players like Derek Carr, Ryan Ramczyk, and others. There’s no blowing up this roster and starting over in 2024.
The Saints are a year away from being a year away from being able to start over.
I won’t pretend like I was against how the Saints have operated the last two years. The NFC South is terrible, and wanting to win it was a fine idea.
The thing is none of it worked.
They hired Dennis Allen and I’ll be very generous as we near the holiday season and say the decision is looking questionable at best and appearing worse every passing week. The Saints appeared to have their decision made about Sean Payton’s replacement before they began the process to replace him.
That usually is never a good idea.
The Saints followed the Dennis Allen hire by jumping into the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes headfirst. That was such a terrible idea for so many reasons. There was a real feeling before the Cleveland Browns jumped in and saved the Saints from themselves by fully guaranteeing Watson’s $250 million contract that Watson was either going to be a Saint or an Atlanta Falcon. Watson has been an unmitigated disaster in Cleveland on the field before he was injured this year.
If you think things are in a dark place with the Saints now, can you imagine how bad we’d feel if Deshaun Watson was the quarterback, and he was terrible and injured? Watson is like Derek Carr but costs twice as much.
The decisions listed aren’t nearly all the bad choices. There’s the trade for Trevor Penning, who doesn’t play, even though the offensive line is bad, and the addition of two defensive tackles to improve the run defense, which is somehow worse.
It goes on and on.
The hope is almost gone from the Saints and THAT is when despair sets in.
People somehow think they are clever or proving something when they pull up old tweets of mine where I’m recklessly optimistic about the 2023 Saints after wins.
You got me! When Rashid Shaheed ran that punt back in Green Bay and the Saints were up 17-0, the possibilities for 2023 seemed unlimited. I enjoy being optimistic when the Saints look good. I’m a lunatic or something.
I want to hope and dream and believe silly things about the Saints. Like maybe they’ll find the end zone or score 30 points again. My dreams are vast and without limits.
The hope is nearly gone for 2023. Either the Saints can somehow find a way to reignite it or it’s time for change. Change never guarantees success but it does guarantee the possibility of something different.
Time’s up for this version of the New Orleans Saints. Their aggressive trades and cap management delivered incredible fun. It was great doing things differently than everyone else and winning. There’s something about being bold and winning that makes it even more fun.
That’s over. It’s time for change. The specifics don’t even matter but it’s time.
It’s either change or no real hope for the future. You decide Saints.
Saints Fan Mood and Mediation Music: A Hard Rain A Gonna Fall—Bob Dylan
I hate Bob Dylan. His voice, people telling me his music is good, his hair, pretty much everything about him.
The best Bob Dylan song is the one not playing.
So why a Dylan song for this week? Cause the Saints are making me suffer much like listening to Bob Dylan’s music makes me suffer. I want to believe the Saints next game will be better than the previous one, like when I listen to Bob Dylan. Sure, this song is awful, and his voice makes me question if hearing is overrated but maybe the next song will be better.
It never is. Like the 2023 Saints.
Last Week: 4-1
Season: 27-23
Detroit (-4) at New Orleans: I’ll keep this short and simple: I haven’t felt this confident about the Saints losing since they played the Dolphins on a Monday night in 2021 missing like 20 players and starting Ian Book at quarterback.
The Saints' offense is bad with healthy receivers, without them, it might be unwatchable.
The Lions have played pretty bad the last two weeks, but I’ll explain that away because games against division rivals can get weird.
It's get right week for the Lions.
Lions 38-17
Atlanta (-3) at the New York Jets: The Falcons get to play Tim Boyle and the Jets. Arthur Smith might not let Desmond Ridder throw 10 passes.
Falcons 23-6
Dallas (-9) vs Seattle: The feel-good story of the Seahawks is going off the rails.
Dallas 34-17
Los Angeles Chargers (-6) at New England: The Patriots lost 34-0 to the Saints and yet losing to Tommy Devito looked so much worse.
Chargers 23-10
Tampa (-5.0) vs Carolina: Tampa wins, Atlanta and Saints both lose…. 3-way tie in the NFC South at 5-7. I dream the most demented dreams.
Bucs 20-10
Denver (+3.5) at Houston: Sean Payton is going to drag the Broncos into the playoffs. Truly remarkable coaching job by him. Some of his best work. I hate everything.
Broncos 23-16
Ralph Malbrough is a contributing writer and Saints fan living in Houston. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at @SaintsForecast or download the Saints Happy Hour Podcast.
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