Winning his first 12 games isn't enough to satisfy Saints coach Sean Payton and he said this weekend he intends to try and accomplish a perfect 16-0 campaign. "We're going for it," Payton told SI.com before the Saints' wild comeback in a 33-30 win against the Redskins. His confidence pursuing the perfect season differs from the Colts, who joined the Saints on Sunday becoming the first pair of teams ever to reach 12-0 in the same season as Colts president Bill Polian said last week his team will rest its starters and not prioritize winning regular-season games over playoff games, whatever their record. Source: USA Today
you can win the SuperBowl without having a perfect record, its more import to win the playoff games and not expose your starters to injuries espicially after you have clinched everything.
^^^truth. i'm also going to toss in the mental aspect of setting 16-0 as a goal is an enormous mistake. it's human nature to have a 'letdown' after accomplishing a goal. will the saints 'letdown' in january after accomplishing their goal? this is really dumb for Payton to be doing this ................... i completely disagree with it.
I think it is a way of keeping the Saints motivated. The Saints have already clinched the division title and a playoff berth. What's to keep them motivated now? 16-0. They may not make it, but it is a goal to shoot for at a time when there aren't many goals left (in the regular season).
Home field throughout. After you clinch that, when there are like one or two games left you can mention 16-0. That's my opinion.
Playing for home field advantage. They are 2 games ahead of Minnesota now so they don't need a 16 - 0 record to take it.
I think leeman may have a good point. Yea, they still need to work for home field but throwing in a point about 16-0 may just be a little extra push psychologically. Time will tell if Payton's actually nuts enough to chance risking injury/fatigue for an undefeated season attempt. lol
Good. Go for it. And if one of your key starters goes down and your team loses early in the playoffs, you'll be the most hated man in NO. Not that I really give a crap. I personally hope he does start his stars every week. If Brees goes down, that gives my team a much better shot in the postseason.
Maybe but there are also some exemples in recent past when teams rested their starters for the last two or three reg. season games and were out of rythm coming to the playoffs.
That's pure speculation. Those teams could've played like crap even if they had played the starters the rest of the season. I refuse to believe that giving your star players more time off to rest, recover, and watch more and more tape of the competition could possibly be a bad thing.
That likely won't happen until we are very close to the end of the season. Unless the Vikings go into a tailspin. I don't think that's going to happen. Right now the Saints can afford to lose only one game without losing home field advantage. If the Saints get into a tie with the Vikings, the Vikings will likely own the tie breaker. There is no point in tempting fate by resting their starters. Save that one loss as a "get out of jail free card" in case they do lose (which almost happened last Sunday). In the meantime, the Saints need to try and win every game.
Exactly, you just made my argument. They have plenty of motivation without announcing going for 16-0 with a quarter of the season left.
Good, go for the 16-0 record. Just remember though Payton, that record means jackcrap UNLESS you are hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Miami at the end of the season.
You're talking about events that have already passed. They are written in stone. I'm talking about what could potentially happen in the future. There is still a possibility of Payton ruining his season by risking his stars, so it's relevant to discuss/speculate.
i disagree. i don't think an nfl team in their position needs any other long-term 'goals' at this point in their season other than winning a championship. The way to get there is to win each individual game but having full, intense focus on the ultimate prize will eliminate a collapse should they lose prior to the playoffs or a mental letdown if they were to reach 16-0. It simply comes down to 'what is the ultimate goal?'. having multiple goals lessens the importance of the ultimate goal. payton's sole job at this point is to keep his players focused on the one big prize and things like this are a good way to make them lose focus.
I think we're pretty much in agreement for the most part. If Payton actually does something i.e. keeping star players in for whole games, etc. in meaningless games to jeopardize the ultimate goal, then he should be hung in effigy. I just think this whole story line is more about answering a media driven point about the 16-0 scenario. He's Damned if he does, Damned if he doesn't. Saying they're shooting for it is routine. Every team wants to win every game, should attempt to win every game no matter what the importance is. A HC saying we'll shoot for no losses is pretty much a non story till he actually does something stupid. Like I said before, time will tell... As a side note, I personally would think less of my players if answering something like this media scrounging for a sound bite, would be a case of "multiple goals" detracting from their focus. If they're that easily overburdened, I'd imagine I was doing a piss poor job of doing just that.
