It's time to close the door on the 2008 season for the New Orleans Saints.
The way the NFC playoff race continues to take shape, I can type the previous statement without much hesitation.
Sure the Saints played gritty defense on Sunday at Tampa Bay, and really gave the team a chance to escape with what would have been a season-saving win in some rough conditions. But their hiccups throughout the previous five losses didn't give the Saints the luxury to absorb the 23-20 loss to the Buccaneers.
The Saints are now two games behind Dallas for the final NFC wild-card spot with four games to play with none of them... OK, three of the last four games are anything but gimmes, with Detroit being a fairly beatable team these days.
(We think. The Lions are winless in 12 games.)
But who honestly can say with confidence the Saints will came away victorious every Sunday in the month of December to even give the team a chance to make the postseason?
Count me out.
A defensive effort like the one the Saints displayed against the Bucs would have been better off against, say, Denver or Washington because it was the offense that let the Saints down this Sunday.
Rarely, if ever, can quarterback Drew Brees be accused of poor decision making. But you've got to put some of the onus on him. If it weren't for a cheap penalty called on the Bucs' Ronde Barber, the typically pin-point accurate Brees would have tossed four interceptions.
Brees' third pick occurred while trying to make something happen with less than two minutes left and the Saints having one timeout. They were down a field goal. His first interception appeared to be a route mix-up between Jeremy Shockey and Buck Ortega in the end zone allowing Tampa's Cato June to snag the tipped ball.
But Bucs safety Jermaine Phillips baited Brees into tossing the game-changing interception intended for Marques Colston with 2:24 left in the game tied at 20 deep in the Saints' territory. Matt Bryant drilled his fourth field goal with 1:55 to go to seal it.
Game over. Season over.
You always hear the statement "there's no one you'd want to have more to lead your team on a comeback than" and insert your favorite quarterback. Brees probably shouldn't be one of them even for as many yards and touchdowns he's thrown. The Saints are 0-17 when trailing going into the fourth quarter since Brees and Saints coach Sean Payton arrived in New Orleans.
Talk about clutch, or lack thereof.
The much anticipated return of Reggie Bush hindered the Saints considerably more than it helped as they would have been better off without Bush on Sunday.
He carried the ball three times for no yards, had five catches for 32 yards and returned two punt returns for a whopping minus-16 yards. Bush was so ineffective that his involvement in the fourth-quarter comeback attempt was eliminated... by Payton because of Bush's ineffectiveness.
"I thought he had dropped a couple of balls," Payton told reporters in Tampa. "I thought Pierre was playing the best for us, the most consistent... . I thought Pierre was by far or by and large our best option on the first- and second- down snaps."
And it's not even worth mentioning AGAIN Payton's inability to call a running play even though the Saints were never forced into playing catch up until the final offensive possession. When he did try to rely on the run, Bush lost yardage on a third-and-1 toss and an end-around (really?) to Devery Henderson on fourth-and-1 failed.
Payton preaches about wanting to play a complete game every week to the team and to the media. Until he can find the right formula more than about three times a year, I'll be writing the Saints obituary before the postseason every year at about this time.
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