Re: 2008 New Orleans Saints Over Under 8.5 wins?
<TABLE cellSpacing=10 cellPadding=0 width=600 border=0><!-- <tr><td width=600 colspan=2 align=center>[FONT=Arial,sans-serif]
Clever line about sponsor could go right here.[/FONT]</td></tr> --><TBODY><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=84>
</TD><TD width=486>
</TD></TR><TR><TD width=600 bgColor=#000000 colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle width=600 colSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TD width=600 colSpan=2>[FONT=Arial,sans-serif]
<SCRIPT language=javascript> if (_pdata) { addpdata("ptype", "story"); addpdata("stuid", "1228803669109740"); addpdata("sttitle", "Back over .500, N.O. looks to take it to the next level"); addpdata("stcat", "SSPJD"); addpdata("stsource", "timespicayune"); addpdata("stdate", "12/09/2008"); addpdata("stpnum", "1"); addpdata("stnpgs", "1"); }</SCRIPT>Back over .500, N.O. looks to take it to the next level
Tuesday, December 09, 2008 John DeShazier
Other than Indianapolis, which has won six in a row, and Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh, who have won four straight, no teams have been more successful than the Saints over the past four games.
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Munch on that one for a minute.
The team that couldn't get it right has been almost all right the past four weeks, its 3-1 record as good as there is aside from the aforementioned teams. Now, 4-5 seems a long time ago, almost seems a different team ago with the Saints 7-6 and, still, hanging on to playoff hopes by their fingernails.
"I hate to say it's desperation and we're just playing better with our backs against the wall, but that really might be the case," linebacker Scott Fujita said. "I think we had a lot of struggles throughout the season, battled through a lot of adversity and were able to kind of hang around the .500 mark.
"Is that an accomplishment? I don't know. We're still disappointed with the record. But the last three or four weeks, I think things are starting to come together, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The secondary guys are making a lot of great plays on the ball, a lot of big plays, especially (cornerback) Jason David. And that's doing a lot for our defense and its confidence."
It's true that the Saints waited for the hole to get to 4-5 before they started digging out. Since then they've put together their only two-game winning streak of the season (they'll have a second if they win in Chicago on Thursday night) and have edged above the dreaded not-really-good, not-totally-bad .500 mark.
Rising above .500 is something that never happened last year and, for a while, appeared it never would happen this year.
Fujita says the past two seasons have fallen short of expectations. "Just to kind of hover around the .500 mark when you feel like you're a lot better than that, that's disappointing," he said.
"We always seem to step up and play well when we have to. That's a good thing, I guess, but all in all you wish you could kind of chalk it up and be consistent through the whole season, and we haven't been. There are a couple of games we'd really like to have back and unfortunately, this league isn't all that forgiving. And you don't get that second opportunity."
Not to get back those games. But to wipe off some of the mud that once completely threatened to cover the 2008 season? That opportunity remains.
Not saying the Saints will win the final three games, get to 10-6 and barrel into the playoffs. There's a lot that has to happen for that possibility to be made real, foremost that the Bears, Lions and Panthers have to be beaten. And all have something to play for: the Bears also are fighting for a playoff spot; the Lions are fighting to not become the first team to finish a regular season 0-16; and the Panthers, in the season finale, could be fighting for the NFC South Division title or for playoff seeding.
But, slim as it is, there is a chance for New Orleans. And "hope" wasn't a word that could be used in conjunction with the Saints prior to their run.
Again, "those" Saints appear to be little more than distant relatives to "these" Saints.
"We haven't really thought about that," linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. "We've just been really in tune to what we have to do right now, which is win. It's win or go home, first. I don't think that we're really worried about what we did in the past. We're looking toward the future. We're not even going to watch this film. We're going to move on to Chicago, and then after that to Detroit.
"We're at this point in the season where some teams are going to go up, some teams are going to go down. A couple of teams have already clinched their spots in the playoffs and unfortunately, we're not one of them. So we have to fight our way, work our way and get into the playoffs."
That's a lot of fighting and a lot of working to do.
For now, what the Saints can't hold on to is that few teams are playing better in the league, at the time it means the most.
"We can't get too crazy," Fujita said. "We've only won two games in a row once this season. It's not like we're riding high right now. We won one big game, it was a divisional game that we had to get and you're trying to carry that over to a tough, hostile environment that we haven't played very well in the last couple of years.
"For a team that has struggled to win consistently, we can't feel too good about ourselves just yet. We've got to start to string some things together."
. . . . . . .
John DeShazier can be reached at
jdeshazier@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3410.
