0 and 2… a beginning or an end?

0 and 2. Three little words that bring the taste of bile to one’s mouth, they make you nauseous, angry, sad, and most of all confused. This was (and is) a team that was celebrated as the most talented in franchise history, a team that was not only supposed to perform well… but to dominate. How then does a team with such enormous potential lose in such a depressing fashion two weeks in a row? To a certain degree it would almost be preferable to get blown out two weeks in a row instead of losing the way we did… by giving the game away at the end. Two weeks, two fourth quarter leads, and two losses. As it currently stands at this moment that is how this Saints team will be remembered. However, at the end of the day that is also all it is… two games, two weeks, and two losses. I don’t want them, as a fan I won’t excuse them, but I also refuse to give them more weight than they deserve.

I have seen some question the narrative of whether or not this was truly one of the most talented teams in history and I will get to that soon. First let’s look at the stat we have all seen by now: only 12% of teams who start 0-2 make the playoffs. There is no arguing with that stat, it is simply a mathematical reality, but the good side is that no statistic is truly relevant without the context that accompanies it. It is from that context that the Saints can still see a faint light of hope on the horizon. The reason that so many of those teams rarely make the playoffs is that among their numbers are teams like the Raiders, Jags, Jets, Bills and the other various dumpster fires that exist throughout the league on a consistent basis. The Saints are not one of those teams and have lost both games by a combined 5 points while also being an elite and balanced offense (yes, they have for once been balanced). That isn’t to say that I am now proclaiming the Saints a shoo in for the playoffs, it just means I acknowledge that all hope is not lost.
Now on to the team’s talent level. Are they really an all time team in franchise history from a talent perspective? Without question. This Saints team is 100% one of the most talented rosters in the NFL this year. How is that possible while also performing the way they have up to this point? Because there are (to me) three components to a team: talent, emotion, and poise (encompassing all mental aspects of the game). The Saints are elite in the talent compartment, and while I have personally expressed my wish for some members of the team to show more passion…I have seen enough to know this team cares. They are all in and they are just as pissed with their performances as we are, I think that was the impetus behind certain players lashing out at fans…misplaced passion. This brings us to the component that can make or break a season, poise. This is the single greatest flaw of the Saints team this year, and no player encompasses this flaw more than Patrick Robinson. He is tremendously talented and has all the tools to be an elite cover corner in the league, but he is constantly plagued by his own mental lapses and inability to master proper technique. From the very beginning of the opener at Atlanta it has been apparent to me that this defense is out of sync and not on the same page which exacerbates the issues Prob-lem brings to the field. The final play against Cleveland was a perfect example of that; the Saints had multiple people cover the same receiver and ended up leaving someone preposterously wide open. This is a mental issue not a talent issue, but the upside is mental issues can be fixed…you can’t teach talent.
The Safeties are there, the offense is elite, the coaches are all great, (not looking so at the moment, but they are all proven) and believe it or not but there have been signs of a pass rush that is just waiting to explode. The Saints actually got some fairly consistent pressure on the Browns and if they had been more disciplined and poised the game would have ended very differently. I truly believe that this defense is a few ‘big plays’ away from emerging from its cocoon of incompetence and emerging as the butterfly we were all promised. They need to prove to themselves that they can do it, and they need some kind of big play early in the game to spark them. This team may have been a disaster so far in the poise department, but I believe that they can compensate for that by making a major play and rallying around it. As a former athlete I can personally attest that a single play can galvanize a team, cause them to pull together, and totally change the landscape of a game/season…let’s hope that they have it in them.