The Saints Guy is an avid TV watcher.
Sports, sitcoms, dramas; you name it, and I’ve probably watched it a time or two.
And since you asked, my top five favorite TV characters of all time in no order are Larry David, George Costanza, Don Draper, Dwight Schrute, and Hank Hill. (Side note: and even though I said top five earlier, I’m adding the entire casts of “Arrested Development” and “30 Rock” because it’s my blog. So there.)
In one of the better Seinfeld episodes, which I've watched thousands of times, George devises the idea to combine his three favorite things (food, TV, and sex) into one. Naturally, this doesn’t work- his relationship fails and causes him to utter this famous line: “I flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami.” George’s problem? He tried taking on three things when his focus should have been on one. Do I have to explain it any further how this parallels to the Saints?
We all went to bed Saturday night and woke up Sunday morning with the same sinking feeling in our stomachs. And I can’t help myself… I have to point a finger and put the blame on someone: this one is on us. Every Saints fan. We shouldn’t blame the team as much as we should blame ourselves for how we feel right now.
To be honest, I was as guilty as anybody else. I kept dropping the company line to everybody about how I was only concerned about home-field advantage when deep down I wanted 19-0 really badly.
And why not? We’ve had four decades of incompetence, poor luck, and bad decisions. It took two decades after the team was founded to finally have a winning record. Two decades. What better way to break away from a foundation of losing than doing the impossible 19-0?
Before you ask, by the way, yes, yes, yes, I know: nothing—repeat NOTHING— we do as fans has any actual effect on the team on the field, but it needs to be said that if we’re upset or feeling bad over a loss, we can’t pin it all on to what happened in the Dome Saturday.
Guys, we’ve won two playoff games in four decades of service. Those two wins didn’t come in the same postseason. The last time we sniffed the Superbowl, Reggie Bush was doing a front flip into the end zone at Soldier Field in the 2007 NFC Championship Game. I don’t have to tell you how euphoric we felt that day when we had the lead, and how low we felt after Chicago ended up winning.
That was the last time we were close. And it was the first time we’ve ever tasted a Superbowl. Just like that it was gone.
Is it gone now? Certainly not. Yes, this team has some holes and seems narcoleptic in the first half of games. We have a run defense that is suspect, and the Cowboys proved this weekend that a good pass rush can disrupt our fluid offense. So it begs to be asked: why are so many people devastated right now over our first loss of the 2009 season?
Look at it this way: in September, I ended up in a chat with ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas who covers the NFC South. This was our brief exchange:
Saints Guy
Pat -- Why is everyone set on the Saints at 3rd in the division when the D is clearly upgraded and the schedule is stupid easy for the most part? I'm smelling anywhere from 13-3 to 10-6.
Pat Yasinskas
Could happen. I think a lot of experts are just hesitant because of last two years. But Saints should be better.
I remember typing that message on my computer being ecstatic about the thought of going 10-6 and getting into the playoffs. Now? We’re sulking this week at 13-1. We wanted perfection so badly that we’ve taken our eyes off of what’s important. What’s 19-0 without the most important part? It’s 18-1 with a Superbowl loss. We need the Lombardi Trophy first before we should EVER talk perfection.
And that’s the beauty of what the upcoming postseason could bring. The Saints’ future is still in their hands. I purposely waited until two days after to see what would happen with Carolina and Minnesota. Sure enough, the underachieving Panthers handed the Vikings their third loss of the season meaning we didn’t lose any ground this weekend with the Dallas loss. We have that same Carolina team and Tampa Bay left on the schedule. One more win—just ONE more win—and we ensure home-field advantage in the post season.
And a few after that? We'll forget the Cowboys game in a heartbeat.
What we need the Saints to do now is figure out what it will take to win the Superbowl. What they need us to do now is give them the same standing ovation everyday the Dome gave them after the Cowboys game was over.
Come back off the ledge, people. It only hurts because it’s the Cowboys, I swear.
Coming up: The Saints Guy will attempt a Time Line of Sunday’s Tampa Bay for his next blog since he will be in the Superdome as New Orleans tries to clinch home-field advantage against the Bucs.
