The Icarian Nightmare... Louisiana Remix

And thus ends the worst sports-week in Louisiana history.

Now don't get me wrong, there have been seasons when the Saints went 3-13 and Aaron Brooks was throwing passes straight backwards, and LSU was 3-8 and thanking Baby Jesus that Tulane was still on the schedule. But given the expectations that this week began with, this has been nothing short of an Icarus-inspired plummet to the Earth. It started Monday evening with Goof-Ball U and that ridiculous game-non-plan. And it ends on Saturday night, approximately 127 hours later.

And coincidentally enough, it does feel like somebody cut our collective arm off... And then used it to beat us to death.

Dude, we can totally relate.

Wow. We just got hit with a ten-thousand-pound sh*t-hammer of reality that will be eased only slightly by the upcoming Mardi Gras season. With nothing but daylight ahead of them, the Saints were tripped up and sent home by their old nemesis. Their old rival from back in the yesteryear of the NFC West. That thorn in our sides that we thought had long since been permanently removed to never bother us again. Yes, it's hard to even say the name, but here goes... the Saints were beaten by the Aints... The 49ers get the assist.

Five turnovers. Five turnovers in the game. One on the opening drive at the 49er's 2-yard-line. Several deep in our own territory. Insurmountable.

Or so one would think.

Somehow, with five turnovers (FIVE TURNOVERS), the Saints still found themselves in the game. And not only in the game, but in the lead... TWICE! And all that was needed to win was to play "not horrible" defense on San Francisco's last two possessions. All that was needed was to contain Alex Smith, a man so easily containable that you can buy Tupperware in his shape. All that was needed was to prevent Smith from becoming an unholy hybrid of Joe Montana and Steve Young in the last 5 minutes of the game and for cornerbacks and safeties to not get burned by tight ends.
That's all that was needed.

But that was too much too ask. As if out of an NFL films Jim Mora retrospective, the New Orleans Saints went into a prevent style defense that serves only to prevent you from winning the game. Tight ends got behind corners. A quarterback who for so many years has only scrambled for his life (and occasionally eggs) scurried into the endzone untouched from over twenty yards out. And two touchdown drives in the final minutes sealed the Saints fate.

It's hard to point fingers, if only for the fact that there are so many to blame and, alas, me with just the ten fingers. But it's also hard to imagine that there will not be some serious second-guessing involving the defensive side of the ball. Will it be a coaching change? Player Personnel? Who knows.

Again, the offense did their fair share to make this loss happen. In case i didn't mention it: Five turnovers. But this is far from the first time our defense has let us down in the last two seasons. In the Saints four losses this season, the offense has averaged 26.8points/game. Not shabby in the least. But this is a recurring pattern with the defense. The theme of the pattern? As long as the offense keeps scoring forty-two points/game, it's okay that we allow thirty.

Not this time.

It's been a great season. And yes, it is a great thing that our team losing in the divisional round of the play-offs is what we have to complain about. I understand that this is who we are now. We're team perpetually in the hunt. We are the predators, no longer the prey. But that transformation has led us to expect more now. We're not the "Aints". We expect to have a championship defense to go with our amazing offense. We expect to not have five turn-overs. And we expect to not make stupid decisions like flying too close to the sun and melting our wings off.