NFL

Sean Payton's Saints Have Had No Backbone

Posted Nov 30, 2008 6:04PM By Tom Mantzouranis (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Saints, NFL Coaching

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I was talking to FanHouse Head of Zebra Accountability, Matt Snyder, when the Bucs took a 20-10 lead over the Saints with plenty of time left in the third quarter of today's eventual 23-20 Tampa win. To me the game was, for all intents and purposes, over at that point, though Snyder raised the reasonable, logical point that there was plenty of time for one of the league's elite offenses to erase a 10-point deficit.

With most teams, a lead like that with so much time left is practically irrelevant. With powerhouses like the Giants, Patriots, or Colts, you could stick them with a 10-point deficit with less than five minutes left and I still wouldn't close the book on the game. Yet in Sean Payton's three years, the Saints have displayed an inability to overcome adversity. Today's game was just the same ole song and dance for Saints fans who have been able to mark wins and losses in ink by halftime.

Say what you will about Aaron Brooks (and I've said plenty, most of which is not suitable for this space), but he had 16 fourth-quarter comebacks in his career in New Orleans, including five in 2004. Under the Payton/Drew Brees regime, the Saints are a mind-boggling 0-17 when trailing after three quarters. Though Brees is greatly responsible for this one particular loss, he's also orchestrated 12 late-game comebacks in San Diego, so I tend to believe the onus falls on Payton.

For one, at least those Chargers had balance on offense. The Saints have a weak power running game and no desire to keep with it even when it is working. Deuce McAllister showed strong legs in running for 4.3 yards per carry today, but only got three chances all game long despite the score never getting out of hand. In fact, the team only rushed it 18 times total (17 if you exclude a dumb fourth-down end-around to Devery Henderson that lost three yards). This, on a very rainy day in Tampa that featured over 25-mile-per-hour winds.

For another, those Chargers had a defense that struck fear in its opponents instead of its fans. While the Saints have been better recently on that side of the ball, it's still a problem. The team doesn't have the tenacity to stop opponents when they get into run mode.

Payton has done a great job with personnel -- this team is almost ridiculously talented, far too talented to routinely hover around .500. But a team feeds off of its coach, and Payton's audacious decision-making is less ballsy than it is insecure; he's had to replace the panic button on the sideline because of overuse. So when push comes to shove, the Saints don't have a steely resolve to mimic, and they're outwilled by teams as much as outplayed -- the resulting back-breakers, like today's game-ending interception, are mental.

I've been a Sean Payton supporter, but today's game was the turning point in a slow realization process for me. While the 2006 season was one of my favorites as a sports fan, while I am grateful Payton brought Brees to New Orleans and made the team relevant again, while I admit that he fields an incredibly entertaining team, what I want most is a Super Bowl. And it's starting to dawn on me that the team needs another leader to realize the incredible potential Payton has put together with this group (think Jon Gruden taking over the Bucs).

But that's not going to happen this offseason. The Saints are notoriously loyal to their coaches, and Payton just inked an extension through 2012 that was rumored to make him one of the top five highest-paid coaches in the league. Bailing out on that now would be pricey from a financial and public relations standpoint. But the team made a concerted effort to beef up their roster this year, and they did so at the expense of their future salary cap and 2009 draft. Luckily, they'll have what looks like a top-15 pick in the draft, but after the first round, selections will be sparse. This is Payton's team, its performance is on him.

This team's window to win a championship is still open for a couple of years, but it can't afford to throw away campaigns like this one (four losses by less than a touchdown so far) because they don't have the gravitas to impose their will on opponents. For better or worse, that change needs to come from Payton first.

Tags: aaronbrooks, deveryhenderson, drewbrees, jongruden, seanpayton

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