The Saints 2007 Season: Is This Glass of Poison Half Empty or Half Full?

Courtesy: Michael Democker/Times Picayune

What could be worse than watching your favorite football team follow a kick-ass season with an 0-4 start? Well don’t look at us for the answers. We’re just trying to survive this ordeal without losing a liver.

In our quest to find a silver lining on this black and gold cloud, we considered the following:
1) The Saints are just in their second year of rebuilding following the Ditka and Haslett coaching regimes. Between 1997 and 2005, both coaches produced a total of only two winning seasons.
2) In 2006, the stars aligned, particularly with our schedule. We played Cleveland and struggled to beat them. We managed to build on that victory in week 2 by overcoming a dismal first quarter to defeat the Packers. Then the inspiring and emotional homecoming game in the Superdome against the Falcons set the stage for the rest of the season.
We didn’t start out last year playing the Super Bowl champions. Things might be different in 2007 if we hadn’t gotten our butts handed to us in the first game of the season on national television. Then again, maybe not.
3) If producing back-to-back playoff caliber seasons was easy, wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

Allow us to keep our rose colored glasses on for just a few more moments. We go into Seattle winless on Sunday, largely due to avoidable mistakes, a permeable offensive line, an obviously rattled QB, and a groin-impaired kicker. (And a quick note to the FOX game announcers… it’s “groin” which rhymes with “coin”, not “groan” which rhymes with “moan.”)

Our only glimmer of hope is that the Saints are doing well on run defense. They’ve allowed an average of only 3.6 yards per rush, ranking them 5th in the league. Shaun Alexander, the heart and soul of the Seahawks' offense, has averaged 2.58 yards a carry the last two games with 93 yards on 36 carries. He’s also playing while wielding a cast on his left wrist.

Another concern for the Seahawk offense is that their key wide receivers, Deion Branch and DJ Hackett, are both out. This could put a potential crimp in their passing attack forcing them to rely more heavily on their running game. Our defense has proven, especially in the last two games, that they will do whatever is necessary to keep the team in the game. (No matter how much our offense tries to blow it).
So with all that said, will we win on Sunday? Oh who cares. Can we just show up! But we’ll go ahead and stick with tradition.

Chicks Prediction: Saints 21 – Seahawks 17

Note: For the preservation of our sanity, this score does not rely on points from field goals.


-Chick-A-Dee