There have been many firsts for all of us this year. It was certainly my first quarantine experience. It’s the first pandemic I’ve ever lived through. It’s the first time in 15 years I didn’t spend several days a week on Tom Benson Way. Most recently, it’s the first time I, or any of us, have watched the Masters in November. While I’ve enjoyed the distraction during my preparation this week, it got me thinking. The slogan of the Master’s is “A tradition unlike any other.” I think that is a true statement.
The closest thing in sports to the Masters, in my opinion, would be the Indianapolis 500 or Daytona. A singular event, occurring every year, in the same place, with history at stake. The difference in the Master’s is the PGA has determined it to actually count for more than most other events. To have a single major take place in the same place, on the same course year after year, makes the yearly pilgrimage to Augusta unique.
The players revere it in that way. Tiger Woods has long acknowledged that a player’s clearest path to leaving a legacy is through Augusta. Afterall, it’s the only major course that a player can become an expert at over time. Player’s talk about learning the way the grass looks on a given green, the exact tree to look for to give you a clue of the true wind direction on 12, the exact spot of the slope that will feed the ball towards the Sunday hole placement on 16, and, of course, the position of a green in relation to Rae’s creek.
The knowledge of this course exceeds that of every other course on the PGA tour. It’s a special place and appropriately has become a sort of Mecca for sports fans around the world. It has earned it’s place in history. People admire it, adore it even, because it represents the one thing that is ever so hard to find in this world. Consistency. The grass is always perfect, the bunkers always white and fluffy, and the pimento cheese sandwiches are STILL $1.50. It’s a consistency that clubs around the world strive to achieve. It’s that level of consistency that the Saints seek as well.
Last week the Saints dismantled a very talented Tampa Bay Buccaneers team to sweep the series. It was the type of performance that will make every observer in the NFL look up from their phone and raise their eyebrows. The players would tell you, and I would have said the same, that they knew they had that type of performance in them. But without question, the game surprised even the Saints.
For months before a season, we as prognosticators, are forced to discuss a team’s potential. It’s magnified during training camp when we spend each day dissecting every reception, every interception and every touchdown. We talk about how good a team COULD be. In today’s world of information, there is no question that that analysis is seen, dissected and absorbed by players. Not every piece, but the general outlook without question.
As the season comes around, suddenly the prediction is unvalued because the reality is available for all to see. This season came with great expectation. Back-to-back 13 win seasons will do that for you. Yet, the Saints found themselves at 1-2, with a couple of games until the bye week, staring at a crossroads. They have responded appropriately. While battling through a slew of injuries the Saints found ways to win each of their next five games.
Finally, last week, the Saints returned to full strength and delivered the type of performance that many of us predicted the Saints were capable of. Now they find themselves at a crossroad again. Deuce and I said last week before the game that as important as the win itself was, the mental reward from sweeping a team as talented as the Bucs would be even more important. That was probably an understatement. Simply winning would have been a boost. Decimating the Bucs was something different all together.
Now the Saints must prove to themselves, they are capable of playing like champions every week from here on out. That’s not to say they should win every game by 35 points. Tampa Bay had a part in that as well. What it does say is the Saints should dominate games that they should. This is one of those games.
The San Francisco 49ers come into the Superdome an incredibly different team than they did the last year. To say they have been bitten by the injury bug is a colossal understatement. Just 7 of 22 starters return today to face the Saints. The 49ers starting quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, defensive ends, and cornerbacks ALL will sit this game out due to injury.
The Saints come into the game at or near full strength offensively and the same defensively. It is a different game than last year, and the results should reflect that.
Usually, each week I talk about game plans or strategies I think the Saints will need to employ to win. Never has the conversation been simpler or important than this one. The Saints need to play their best version of Saints football. They need to bring intensity; they need to bring focus and they need to execute whatever game plan the staff felt necessary. They need to then repeat that strategy every game the rest of the year.
Simply put, the Saints need to find the type of consistency that has made Augusta National the hallowed ground that it is. This roster has been intact largely for three and a half years now. They have experienced near unthinkably devastating defeat. If they want this year to be different; if they want this one to end with that trophy that has illuded them despite massive success the past 3 years, this Saints team needs simply to be the best version of themselves each of the next 11 games. Until last week, they weren’t sure if that would be the case. Now they know. It’s up to them to prove that they can do it again. And again. And again. And again.
