So....the Saints aren't a championship caliber team, huh? Sounds like "Shook Ones - Part 2" to me. Yep....the "shook ones" are back at it again. Another loss, another round of hysterics. But, no matter what Carly Simon's ex may think, this post ain't about them. This post is for my never die Who Dats, my rarely seen Who Dats, my triple beam Who Dats. HansDat: "Triple Beam? Am I expected to crush this one too?" Yep.....and you're not allowed to Google it. Or use any other form of the interwebbies. Aw, hell....before I get on with this, I just gotta tweak the gloom and doomers one more time. Y'all can come along for the ride or just skip on past the bunk. Tough Love Huh? A few cats have been waxing all hysterical since the Rams game and they've been making these unilateral statements and calling it "tough love". "There's no way the Saints will beat Carolina on Sunday" "There's no way the Saints will beat Seattle on the road in the playoffs" "The Saints are NOT a championship caliber team" "The Saints will be one and done in the playoffs" "The Saints will never win another game on the road" Whoa, there, buckaroos. If someone says, "The Saints are playing like [ABC] right now and if this continues they could end up [XYZ]", that's tough love. Or, if they say Drew Brees' haircut looks like one of his forebears @$#% a monkey and he seriously needs a good stylist. That's, tough love. And, um, maybe he should consider not only being a member but also the President. Or, how about Charles Brown is in need of some counseling for the trauma he suffered after being anally violated in prison by the seven foot tall gay albino from that show Banshee? That's tough love. And totally friggin' weird but I'm addicted. But, claiming that there's NO WAY the team will do this and NO WAY the team will do that is just Hysteria. And I don't care how many copies it sold, I still liked Pyromania better. Look, none of this stuff is new. No one is planting a flag here. No one is breaking any new ground and enlightening all of us poor ignorant homers to the realities of the Saints in 2013. The problems that exist now, have existed ALL SEASON long. And despite those issues, the Saints are 10-4. It's just like Bill Parcells said, "You are what your record says you are". Unfortunately, too many doom and gloomers tend to roll with Dennis Green's "They are who we thought they were". Which is fine, if you thought the Saints were a good football team. But, if your outlook was piss-poor before the season and you've been looking for any and every opportunity to hold on to that opinion, then your diaper is pretty full right now. And you're damned smug about it too. Imagine that, wearing those packed loads as proudly as Eminem was repping his trailer park roots back in 8 Mile. Okey Dokey. Now, back to my Triple Beamers. Yes, Virginia, the Saints are a good football team. A good football team with an aging QB, a once dominant offensive line which is now average and now looks like crap compared to its predecessors, a mix of older and younger receivers (some battling injuries, some battling jazz hands), and a much better than expected defense. Some folks will have you believe that these issues mean that the Saints are a bad football team or they're just decent but not capable of winning a championship. And they're offering up all these reasons why the Saints are NOT gonna do this and they're NOT gonna do that. Cause, you know, they've been exposed as frauds who couldn't win a fat butt contest if Kim K herself spotted them several quarts of cellulite for their butt injections. Forget all that gobbledy-gook. It will just confuse you and bring you down. It's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be and here's why. This isn't rocket science, cats & kitties. It's real simple. As goes the offensive line, so goes the fate of the 2013 New Orleans Saints. When the line plays well, they win. When the line kicks ass, they win convincingly. When they don't play well, the Saints maybe skate by with a close victory or end up with a disappointing loss. And when the line gets its butt kicked, well, that's when the "shook ones" take over and for an entire week this blog becomes a really bad episode of The Walking Dead. A few more points, baby boos, and then y'all can bounce. OFFENSIVE LINE As I said before, it's real simple. They're not dominant anymore. That's it. End of story. The Saints were used to having a great offensive line that could give Brees time to get on his tippy toes and look for receivers and they could also bully the hell outta opposing defensive lines with their run blocking. Now, they can make Mark Ingram look like Mike Bell one week and then the next week, he looks like, well, Mark Ingram. Nothing else to see here. DREW BREES The little guy is getting older. And the older he gets, the shorter he gets. I don't mean that osteoporosis is settling in and he's actually shrinking, but rather, as you get older, you're not as quick or agile as you used to be. These are two things that smaller athletes need to be competitive with larger players. He's also not slinging it as well as he used to (Yes, Hans, I know. That's what Brittany said). He's throwing it in the dirt/turf just a little bit more (Whoa....that IS what Brittany said). Throwing behind his receivers just a little bit more. His balls are a little more wobbly than they used to be (Seriously, Dog....stop it....now). And his hairline phoned in last week from Jimmy John's and said it wasn't leaving a tip. Take a deep breath, BCS. Brees is still a great QB. But, a small player at his age needs a top notch offensive line even more than he did when he was a younger buck. Hell, any QB as they get older needs more solid protection (just look at Peyton Manning) but even more so for a fella who has to tippy toe in the backfield and slide from side-to-side to find a throwing lane. If we're gonna keep Brees healthy and get the very best he can give us in his final seasons, the O-line has to be addressed in the offseason. Healthy and with the type of protection Peyton Manning is getting in Denver, we can a have a productive Brees for at least as long as that Flutie midget was able to play. SEAN PAYTON Listen to me (or, is that read me?) very carefully, Sean Payton is all David Byrne up in this piece. Same as he ever was. All this stuff about him being rusty after a year off is bully-bully-bullcrap. Both from his own lips and from folks who buy into it. Look here, the league did not change overnight during his one year suspension. This isn't Joe Gibbs coming back to the Redskins after more than a decade to find out that the game has passed him by. Sean Payton is suffering from the exact same ailment as Drew Brees. He no longer has the luxury of a dominant offensive line. His maddening tendency to make goofy play calls and in-game decisions (like managing the clock and time outs) is only magnified now that the offense can no longer bail his butt out for those decisions with a Drew Brees to Marques Colston touchdown at the end of the first half like four games I'm thinking of from 2009, 2010, and 2011. Payton has ALWAYS been this way. It's why he got his playcalling responsibilities yanked as the OC of the Giants. It's why the Saints were burning down the Superdome with those double-reverses in 2007 & 2008 that backfired more than my brother's 61 Pontiac Coupe. Look, you know Sean Payton is screwing up bad when Breesus Christ Superstar, the ULTIMATE Drew Brees fan on this blog who doesn't believe there is EVER a good reason for his boy not to have the ball in his hands, is in his living room screaming at the top of his lungs "JUST RUN THE f***ING BALL WILL YA!!". That's Sean Payton. A great coach. But, sometimes he will do things that'll make you pull your bottom lip over your head. Or, become a "shook one" with a full diaper. The only reason I'm saying any of this is to emphasize that the 2013 version of the New Orleans Saints (an Elite franchise for the past 8 seasons) simply are what they are. A team that is better defensively than they've ever been during the Payton/Brees era, BUT, not nearly as good offensively. And that is a direct result of the decisions made regarding the offensive live. And yes, they have just as good a chance at winning the Super Bowl this year as any other team this season. Why? Because when the Saints are bad, yes, they lose. But, when they're good, they can beat anybody. And now, I'll leave you with one of the biggest pieces of [something] that was ever pulled out of a diaper to illustrate my point. The naysayers have used the 2010 Packers and 2011 Giants as examples of how a "good team" wins on the road and the Saints are not at that level. But, here's the problem with that little reacharound. The 2011 Giants were a 9-7 football team that was 5-3 on the road during the regular season and the 2010 Packers were a 10-6 team that was the direct opposite on the road at 3-5. So, there is NO correlation in these two examples about road victories. Also, I just have to bring this up. A statement was made on this blog and I quote..... "Saints had a golden opportunity to clinch a playoff spot yesterday and failed in an embarrassing fashion. A championship caliber team would have kicked butt and taken names without hesitation." Which goes along with these quotes... "This is NOT a championship caliber team" "We're NOT a championship caliber team and I'm ok with that." I don't mean to be twisting anyone's sack with this, but, what in the Sam Malone do you cats know about a championship caliber team? All kinds of teams have won championships in this league. Particularly in this watered down, passing friendly rules, NFL that exists now. The 2010 Packers and 2011 Giants have been shoved done our throats as examples of what the Saints can NEVER achieve, but yet, they did not "close" the deal when they had their chances in the regular season. The Giants backed into the weak NFC East division title at 9-7 because none of the other losers in that division even had a winning record. And the Packers didn't even win their own division. Did these teams look like "championship caliber" teams when the playoffs started? What about 10-6 Baltimore last year? Over 13-3 Denver and 12-4 New England? How many of you Jimmy The Greeks had them as your Super Bowl champ at the end of the regular season last year? Oh, and um.....Baltimore was 4-4 on the road during the regular season last year. One of these losses was a 43-13 mauling at the hands of Houston. And let's not even talk about how they lost their last 4 outta 5 games to end the regular season. Does that sound like they closed out the season like a real championship team is supposed to? Yeah, uh huh. Well, pardon the hell outta me and the rest of the Triple Beamers if we actually wait until ALL the games are played. Including the game in Carolina next week. And yes, I'm STILL having a ball every step of the way. Wins and losses. Because MY TEAM despite its issues has the inside track on the #2 seed in the NFC as opposed to already making plans for next year's draft. Stay strong, Who Dats. There's more games to be played. 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