Cowboys Drum Saints in Shreveport, 30-7
WWL and NOPF's Kenny Wilkerson's take

posted August 21, 2006 - print me!
neworleansprofootball.com

QB Drew Bledose passes past DE Will Smith (AP)

Read neworleanssaints.com's game story here.

It Is What It Is

I have come to hate that expression but what else can you say about the Saints at this time. Oh, you could say quite a few things about this team right now but not a lot of it you can print. So we will stick with “it is what it is“ and IS is not very good. <P>After the Saints were dominated by the Cowboys on Monday Night Football before a national TV audience head coach Sean Payton said his team had a lot of work to do. Last week he said they have a long way to go and I compared it to having to cross the Causeway. Well now that there is a lot of work to do I would say it’s about like having to rebuild the 9 th Ward or Chalmette. In this case we are talking about having to gut the first floor but the 2 nd floor only has minimal damage. What I mean by that is, as we have said since camp started, this is team does have some pretty good football players and a few outstanding players. So it’s not like having to start from the ground up. But if you have been paying attention then you have to admit that things don’t look to good right now.

Case in point, when you aren’t able to pick up your initial first down until late in the second quarter. That’s a pretty good indication that you are struggling. Or, when one of the best defensive players on the field for you is an undersized defensive end (Rob Ninkovich). That should tell you something and that something is not a story about a team simply fine tuning a couple of areas.

In the past we probably would be hearing that they just have a few things to clean up. If anybody tries to say that now, I’d make sure you get away from that person quickly because lightning may be striking soon.

My feeling is after watching and listening for three weeks and talking to as many folks, that have the power to do something about the problems with this football team, that they won’t sit still and feed us a bunch of bologna. And they won’t try to coach up players they know aren’t going to get any better. Sure there are players on this team that will get better in time but I would think after this coaching staff looks at this game on tape they will be having long talks with the front office about getting a bunch of different players in here. Even if that means bringing in older guys that are way past their prime they should do it.

The building blocks are there for the future but they also need to address putting a team on the field this year that can compete. And right now folks they are not there. The way things look they would have a hard time even improving on last years 3-13 record.

Remember this team will play the second toughest schedule in the NFL this year and if they do that with the players they have right now it won’t be pretty. So go out and bring in some veterans that end up being cut from other teams and at least make it respectable. Worry about the rebuilding process when you can do something about it: next year in the draft and in free agency. For now, they can’t put blinders on. I mean folks they were torn apart in a preseason game by a Dallas team that wasn’t even a playoff team last year. Enough said.

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