At one point during the second half of the Saints' shutout loss to the Packers on Monday night, the Lambeau Field PA announcer had a request for the home fans.
It was to stop doing things like chanting "the Bears still suck" and doing the wave while the Packers were on offense. Those things were happening because the capacity crowd had to keep themselves entertained on a cold December night, because the Saints certainly weren't getting that job done. It's emblematic of what the Saints have become, they're not just bad, they're boring -- and it's the type of thing that will ensure the Saints get as few primetime opportunities as possible for the foreseeable future, a fact Bobby Hebert laid out in his postgame rant.
“Why would they put the Saints on primetime next year? If I’m an executive -- now, maybe they might be forced to put you on Thursday Night Football, but why would they put the Saints on Sunday or Monday Night Football?" the Cajun Cannon said on WWL. "Drew Brees ain’t playing no more and Sean Payton, we ain’t scoring. It ain’t entertaining. You know, we used to be on five games, prime time all the time. We might not be on any. We might be hanging out with like the Jaguars. ... They’re gonna put the Giants, just because it’s New York, but Jacksonville’s a small market, we’re a small market, why are they gonna put us on primetime when they look at at this.”
Listen to Bobby Hebert's full postgame rant in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
It's more than a fair point, and this iteration of Monday Night Football was the worst yet and the Saints' first ever shutout on that stage. In three primetime games this season the Saints have been outscored 93-23 in lopsided losses to the Chiefs, Broncos and Packers. They've lost five consecutive games in front of national audiences dating back to last season.
This time was uglier than ever with ugly and even bizarre mistakes preventing even the mildest of positive things from happening. There were drops and fumbles, but the most embarrassing moment came after Khalen Saunders tipped up a pass for what looked to be a sure interception, only for Alontae Taylor to arrive, trying to pick off the ball himself, and knocking it to the ground. Saunders threw his helmet to the ground in frustration on the sideline in an understandable display of frustration. For a second consecutive game the Saints lost time of possession nearly 2-to-1, they were more than doubled up in yards (404-196), while the Packers rolled up 10 more first downs.
The Saints haven't scored a point in the first half of back-to-back games, something that hasn't occurred since 1997 and the Mike Ditka era. Those are the depths the Saints are plumbing these days.
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“You can say, man, it was a hard-fought game and all, there was hard fought nothing about this game," Hebert said. "No, it was simply embarrassing.”
The Saints, who were eliminated from postseason contention when the Falcons won on Sunday, now face two games (vs Raiders and at Bucs) with nothing but pride on the line. Whether decisions have already been made or there's more that needs to be seen, there will be some difficult questions to answer when all is said and done.
"I’m just telling you where we’re at right now as an organization, whether Mickey Loomis or whatever, Ms. Gayle wants to be optimistic, you know, Dennis Lauscha is gonna look at the bottom line, money, and obviously we’ve got to keep that dome full, but you’ve got to give them something to cheer for, so Mickey, Greg Bensel, part of public relations, how you’re gonna spin this," Hebert continued. "You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken you know what. The bottom line is you’ve got to win. You’re in a production business and you might say oh, we’re dealing with all these injuries. Yes, I understand all that, but how you handle adversity ... I’m not saying that doesn’t come into play but you can never, ever use that as an excuse.”