Who Dat? Not Miami!

Well, shut my mouth. My beloved New Orleans Saints are now 6-0...yes, that's right, campers, SIX AND ZERO!!! The Saints are off to their best start since 1991! Another milestone was accomplished by the Saints last week...they actually WON after a bye week! Every Saints fan is unhappily acquainted with the team's penchant for losing after a bye week.

It sure didn't look like it was gonna be that way earlier today. When my wife and I returned from grocery shopping, I turned on the tv to see the Saints down 24-3 and I thought, 'oh hell, here we go'. I turned the game off with that all-too-familiar sinking feeling in my chest that I and every other Saints fan has felt every season since the Saints became part of the NFL in 1967. I knew this was going to be the "same ole Saints", great start until they meet a team that beats them and then...like always...they crumble.

One must be a masochist to be a Saints fan; humiliating loss after loss, promising starts only to go down in flames. Now it seems we may actually have a good head coach and a really good team. I'm sure everybody remembers Hank Stram, Dick Nolan, Dick Stanfel, Bum Phillips and later his just as incompetent son, Jim Mora, Rick Venturi, Mike Ditka and Jim Haslett...at least those are the coaches I remember for as long as I have followed the Saints...(I was born one year after they entered the NFL). Losing season after losing season we fans watched in pain and suffering...and I thought today was the day they were going to turn into the Saints of old when I saw that score.

Then something in my head told me to turn the game back on, so I did. What a shocker!!! It's the second half of the game and the really good team that is the 2009-2010 New Orleans Saints was back! They didn't crumble after being down so far. Nope, Sean Payton didn't panic and neither did the team...they just hunkered down and beat the only team that beat them in the pre-season this year. They overcame that 21 point gap and fought back and WON!! Now the Saints are 6-0 and the much touted Miami that was predicted to have an 11 win season is 2-4.

The Saints are really good this year...better than they have ever been, more balanced than they have ever been and better coached than they have ever been. Maybe, just maybe, this may be the year of the Saints...I almost don't want to say that out loud...I don't want to jinx them...but I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed. Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Not the Lions, Eagles, Bills, Jets, Giants or Dolphins, at least. Geaux Saints Geaux!!!!