Defending Super Bowl Champions. The Aints no more. On their championship run, Drew Brees and the Saints out-dueled three Hall of Fame quality quarterbacks – Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning – to forever secure their place in NFL history.
New Orleans will try and become the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since New England took home the prize for both Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX. The task could prove to be a monumental challenge for the plucky Saints. Teams have only repeated as Super Bowl champions seven times in the 44-year history of the game: Green Bay - I & II, Miami – VII & VIII, Pittsburgh – IX & X, Pittsburgh – XIII & XIV, San Francisco – XXIII & XXIV, Dallas – XXVII & XXVIII, Denver – XXXII & XXXIII and New England – XXXVIII & XXXIX.
Given the above list of repeat champions – Green Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver and New England – all are storied franchises and none have experienced the futility New Orleans has experienced in its history. Even teams that have yet to win a Super Bowl have richer winning traditions than New Orleans.
It will not be easy for the Saints to join the elite list of repeat champions. New Orleans faces stiff competition from within the division. Atlanta will challenge them for the title and Carolina could steal a game or two from them as a motivated division rival. Outside their division, they face tough games against Dallas and Minnesota, but should find easier sledding against the AFC North and NFC West teams they match up with in 2010. New Orleans has no reason to lose any of those 8 games, with their most difficult test coming at Baltimore in week 15.
The offense will continue its high-flying, aerial attack in 2010 and the defense will do its part to keep opposing offenses from matching them score for score. Last season the Saints benefited from turnovers and fortunate bounces that went their way, but the defense's ability to swarm the ball should give them more of the same this year.
Only Atlanta stands in the way of a division title for them and only Dallas, Minnesota and Green Bay are strong enough to challenge them for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The schedule sets up nicely for New Orleans to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Now they have to go out and prove 2009 was no fluke and bury the taint of the Aints once and for all.
2009 couldn’t have gone much worse for the Bucs. Had it been 1989, nobody would have thought twice about their continued ineptness, but just a handful of years removed from the dominate defenses of Tony Dungy and the Super Bowl championship under the lead of Jon Gruden, Tampa Bay’s fall from grace is surprising. A team chock full of youth and talent, with little veteran support in key roles, Tampa Bay doesn’t look to end their tailspin of futility anytime soon.
Inexperience and youth lead the team at the quarterback position. No quarterback on the roster has more than three years of experience and all of them combined have only started 13 games in the NFL. Growing pains will be the expected norm for the offense. Not only is experience lacking at quarterback, but the receiving corps is also a hotbed of raw, inexperienced talent. The running game, keyed by Cadillac Williams, shows some signs of life, but will not be much of a factor as Tampa Bay will spend most of the season trying to come back from large deficits.
Realistically, nobody expects any kind of breakout year for Tampa Bay. They might improve on their three wins from a year ago, but six wins seems to be the upper limit of what this team can accomplish unless their opponents completely fall apart and make the mental mistakes the Buccaneers of yesteryear were famous for making. Tampa Bay is playing this year to determine what additional steps will need to be made during the offseason to end their tailspin in 2011.
Check back later today for the first of the Creative Misfortune Preseason Week 3 Halftime Score Predictions featuring St. Louis, New England, Indianapolis and Green Bay...
No comments:
Post a Comment