Announcement: Saints fans, please do not panic. Silly of us to ever think that our favorite team is among the upper echelon of the National Football League. We were hoodwinked and bamboozled into believing in paper champions. They were calling our beloved New Orleans Saints, “The New America’s Team,” and we bought into it.

There are many reasons for the unintentional deception. They should have left well-enough alone, however our psyche got screwed in the process. Here we are one quarter of the 2007 football season in and it is 2001 all over again. This is definitely our father’s Saints team and there will be no quick turnaround. If we can take off the black and gold colored glasses for a second, let’s be real. We are two years behind the rest of the NFC South. Last year’s success really put us further away than we think. In reality, I enjoyed going for the ride last year but it will get worse before we take a turn for the better.

When the announcement came in January of 2006 that Sean Payton was going to be our head coach, my first reaction was one of “huh?” After all this was the same guy that had his play calling duties stripped on a couple of occasions. Case in point, we are now near the bottom of every offensive statistic there is. On another note, the Saints defense is just what it is. There are absolutely no playmakers on the defense and we tied up a boatload of money in a defensive end who is good for nothing but turning a play back inside. Our marquee free agent signees can’t even sniff the field, and our two greatest needs from last offseason have not been addressed efficiently.

I found a couple of mock drafts that I composed for this past year’s draft and found guys names that we could’ve made plays for. Tanard Jackson, Sabby Piscatelli, Gaines Adams are all contributing heavily to the Buccaneers. Chris Houston, Jamaal Anderson, David Irons, Stephen Nicholas, Laurent Robinson are all getting valuable playing time with the Falcons. Jon Beason will be a monster for the Panthers. Exactly what do the Saints have to offer from the 2007 draft. We drafted a one year wonder in Robert Meachem who is still inactive, another small school enigma in Usama Young, gave away 1 early round pick for a 5’8 cornerback who doesn’t even play our scheme. We gave away another early round pick to draft a running back who didn’t even make the team. David Jones and Marvin Mitchell played two positions of need for us and we didn’t fill those needs with playmakers in the first two rounds. We gave up our sure footed kicker and a draft pick for Olinda Mare, who struggles with extra points. Decisions like this leave Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton on the hook. They should be taken to task for not putting this organization in the best possible position to succeed.

Here are my thoughts on personnel moves. Josh Bullocks should have been gone a long time ago. Fred Thomas should have been gone the day after the NFC Championship game. Mark Simoneau, Scott Shanle are not NFL starters. Danny Clark should have been retained. Charles Grant should have been on the trading block on draft day. Jon Stinchcomb needs to be moved before next season. Jamal Brown should be move back to the right side. Promote Jermon Bushrod to starter at left tackle. Robert Meachem and Devery Henderson need to be moved. (Stay tuned for part two of this series)

Nathan T. Rideaux

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We are three games into the season. As everyone knows we have not won yet. Do not lose faith though. We still have a good shot of making the playoffs because our remaining schedule is not to difficult. The loss of Deuce McAllister will severely damage our running game with Reggie Bush not being an every down back yet. Aaron Stecker will be asked to handle some of the load which he can do since he does have seven years of NFL experience. Another last option we have is to use some of the un-drafted rookie Pierre Thomas, who showed great potential during the last few games of the pre-season. Reggie Bush can do the job, he has showed maturity in being able to run downhill and hit the holes harder and gain the more hard earned yards. We can open up the down field passing game now and hopefully with a week off Drew Brees can regain the form of last year and hit Devery Henderson and Marques Colston down the field for bigger gaines. Lastly the Defense which has not played that bad but still is allowing over 30 points a game can improve there is still time in the season to let Jason David gain control of his starting cornerback position and Usama Young will come along and help guard the oppositions slot receivers. Lastly I would like to say DO NOT LOSE FAITH we can still make the playoffs and win our division which is wide open.

First, it was nice to be back in the Dome, especially with it raining Monday night.

It was also nice to see the hallway areas in the Club level were carpeted. Last year, I saw numerous people slip and fall when the floor got wet.

The Club level social areas look wonderful, but the food was terrible. The fried shrimp po’boy was something I would expect in Nebraska. Another complaint is they took the Real New Orleans daiquiris out, and replaced them with bars that served frozen generic sugar water. I guess the Dome management is looking to make squeeze more profits out. Also the final indignation, there was NO peanuts to be found at all. Can we get a Dome Food Czar in and make some changes?!?! At the end of the day, if I was walking out the Dome celebrating a Saints victory I may not be complaining about the food…. but then again, I am a New Orleanian food counts!

Once we were in out seats, we noticed that the sound system was off. The entire time all we heard was echos. Did they test the new sound system?? I have been sitting in the same seats for over 20 years and this is the first game I could not understand what was being said. Very frustrating.

Another frustration with the Dome is the refusal to show questionable plays that are challenged by the coaches, or should be challenged. In Tampa stadium their replays are proactive and they will start replaying plays that should be challenged by the home team before the coaches throw the flag. Then during the 90 seconds of review they loop through the different camera angles like they do on TV.

My question is why don’t we do this? This is not the first year, I have noticed it before. Is it a matter of censorship or incompetence. One would think fans who pay $100+ per ticket should have the same access to information ( replays) as those sitting at home watching for free.

Another positive is the Saintsations - from my perspective it looks like we have some nice new blood. On the past I felt that the team was focused on seniority of cheerleaders rather then talent and looks. Not only were the new girls “lookers’ but they danced better as well. With the Saints season sinking fast, at least we will have something else to enjoy on the sidelines.

Evaluating different forums and blogs can really be comical. Bloggers were geared up to celebrate winning the Superbowl and now are asking for Payton’s cranium.

Let’s be pragmatic and recognize the Saints have problems. What could ignite our problems is for the community to abandon the team and have the players realize what fickle fans the city has. They need our support and want to win as much as we the fans want to. Do you really think they enjoy losing and want to give up? If you were at the game then it is obvious the fans are hungry. They were standing, yelling and excited for any small positive occurrence. A first down would draw a huge applause. Let’s support the team and here is my take on our problems.

OFFENSE

What is wrong? This is the scariest part. I am not sure if Sean Payton knows! My belief is it all starts at the line of scrimmage. The offensive line played over their head last year and is playing terrible. This is because the Saints do not have any confidence and every team we are playing is stacking the line. If you look at everyone’s defensive converge against us they place everyone in the box. Last year we used a lot of passing plays that the West Coast offense employs. The best way to prevent this is to stack the box and play short. If there is good pressure on the quarter back then you defeat it unless you can throw deep. The offense is where the problem starts. The line play needs to improve.

Dropped balls! Count them please. The receivers are averaging five dropped passes a game. How does this affect Drew Brees? Well this is obvious, and he needs to have confidence in his receivers. He also needs time to throw. The Saints were still in the game when Brees’ fumbled the ball The Saints were driving and it was the difference maker of the game. As I said last week we need this week off. Let’s see how good Payton is now and makes adjustments to beat the cover 2 and the stacking of the line.

We were actually still in the game till the 4^th quarter. Turnovers! Yes four of them. There is no team in the NFL that throws 4 interceptions in one quarter that can win a game. Yes believe it or not there was a little positive news for us. The offense finally started to move the ball down the field. Let’s hope the Saints offense has a break out game against our division rivals the Carolina Panthers next game.

Deuce hurt – Look for Pierre Thomas to surprise some people

DEFENSE

Defensive line, middle linebackers and well you get the picture. The whole defense. Again the line play was not up to par. It could be because the receivers are wide open but I think everyone is watching the Indy tape and just copying their playbook. “How to beat the Saints”

If the offense can score some points nobody expects this defense to shut anyone out. I never thought I would be defending the defense but here it is. If they can keep us in the game the offense needs to score about 27 to 31 points then we will win. The defense actually showed a little promise. The turnovers also hurt the defense because they were on the field too long. No defense can be on the field as long as they were in the beginning of the game and perform adequately.

Jason David hurt – Look for Usama Young to step up and play well

I know it might seem impractical but we still have 5 Divisional games to play. Also after everyone plays each other we will be in the mix for our Division. You are hearing it here first. The saints will be in the Divisional race by the November 25^th game against
Carolina. We need to start a streak and not worry about anyone else. Here is the rest of the Schedule

In response to a flood of phone calls from fans across the region who want to stage an event to show their support for the team, the New Orleans Saints are holding a fan rally on Friday, Sept. 21 at the club’s training facility in Metairie, it was announced today by Owner Tom Benson.

Gates open at 3 p.m. for the rally, and there will be concessions, a live band, as well as a performance by the Saintsations. Head Coach Sean Payton and players will address the fans, though there will be no autographs during the event. The event will end at 5:30 pm. The pep rally is open to the public and free of charge!

The Who Dat Nation was strong in Tampa. The whole weekend, through out Tampa we saw proud members of the Who Dat Nation flying their Saints colors - we saw them at the mall, the beach, the bars, and the game. I tip my hat to everyone who made the trip to Tampa, enduring 110 degrees in the stadium to pull for our boy in Black and Gold!

2 things I will take away from this experience.

1) The Who Dat Nation is growing and even in defeat are the best fans on the planet.
2) I will never say a bad word about the Dome again. I hope the AC is cranking Monday night!!

The GOOD news, which should not take too long to write.

This is the second game of the season and we have 14 more games.

We have a bye week after Monday night. (At first I thought this is way too early in the year but we definitely need it to regroup.)

Injuries: We lost Mark Campbell, a tight end, for the Year and Deuce has a bruise on his eye. On the whole we are Healthy.

Our Division:

Tampa 1 and 1
Carolina 1 and 1
New Orleans 0 and 2
Atlanta 0 and 2

The BAD news.

I predicted this game would be won at the line of scrimmage. Well you would have to be blind if you did not see this. The problem was it was the BUCS linemen dominating the SAINTS linemen. This was on both sides of the ball.

Cornell (Cadillac) Williams did play and the Saints were able to contain him. It should be noted that the BUCS did not need a running game. The BUCS used the pass just like the COLTS and we could not stop them.

There was some obvious holding on Smith and Grant that the officials did not call but it happens to every lineman. Neither of them looked like they were up to their all Pro form.

I thought we would use some safety blitzes, we did - too late too little!

I had expected the Saints to throw deep and to Henderson. It is hard to throw to somebody on the bench. Devery Henderson dropped three balls and sat the bench for the rest of the game. If Henderson is back to his rookie form look for Terrance Copper and Lance Moore to fill in. This might be Henderson’s’ last season with the Saints if he does not improve fast. If he does not improve he might not make it till the end of the season.

Drew Brees is Gun shy and is rushing his passes. This happens when he keeps getting hit and the receivers drop passes. The team needs a win bad this week going into the bye week. Brees needs to regain his confidence in his linemen and receivers.

When I said “I know we will have a good following at the game and it should be over by the third quarter if not sooner so look for the black and gold in the stands since most of the Bucs fans will be leaving before the 2:00 mark in the fourth.” I did not think it would be the BUCS in control and their fans leaving since it was a blow out.

Last note: I am still worried about Orlindo Mare. He did miss another Field Goal and it did not matter since it was a blow out. Let’s hope he gets this straight before it is an important one that could win or lose a game.

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More touches for Deuce. Deuce opens up the rest of the offense. Give the man a chance to beat and wear on the defense.