NOLAFugees.com

Saints Recap/Precap

The cherry has popped. Just don't call it a moral victory.

Recap: Week 4

New Orleans Saints 18, Carolina Panthers 21.

And just like that—cherry popped—the Saints are no longer undefeated.

Did it make you sad? Leave you disappointed? It shouldn’t have. So it was a loss—big deal. It may have been their first, but it won’t be their last. And, anyway, they played good ball and were beaten by a solid, home-standing Carolina team.

The Saints—and Saints Fans, to be sure—have nothing to cry, mope, or bouder* about. They’re still 3-1, on top of the division, and looking as good as any team in the NFC.

But, make no mistake about it; it was still a big fat “L,” a loss, a defeat, whatever. Call it anything you want; just don’t call it a goddamn “moral victory.” One who uses, or even considers using, such filthy, ground-crawling words should be forced to lick clean 1000 maggot-teaming Katrina fridges.

As it is used in sports, the term “moral victory” means “a win in the mind, not on the scoreboard; a loss that doesn’t completely deflate spirits or dash hopes.” At best, it is a positive spin on a negative event. At worst, it is the consolation-inducing illusion Losers shill in attempt to explain or defend why they lost yet again.

Never do Winners grope for “positives” after a loss (yes, Winners occasionally lose, but they hate it too much to accept it as a habit). Why not? Unlike Losers, Winners have as “positives” the many other games they’ve actually won and will soon win. They know that calling a loss anything other than a loss—much less calling it a “victory”—is some Loser-ass bullshit.

And while that kind of BS was fine for the Old Saints, who were bungling Grade-A Losers, it is inappropriate for the New Saints, who have already proven themselves to be competent, competitive Winners. Saints players and coaches haven’t made excuses for the loss, so why should commentators, analysts, sportswriters, and fans feel the need to make excuses for them?

The times ain’t a-changing for the Saints; they’ve already changed. Get wit’ it, wodie, or get out de way. This is the dawn of a new era in Saints football, one in which losing is the exception, not the rule, and one in which excuses and expressions like “moral victories” have no place.

That said, it was good to see the Saints go down swinging. And not only were they swinging, they were connecting as well—enough, anyway, to cover the spread (+7). To make it even sweeter, it was yuh boy Marques Colston’s 86-yard touchdown with less than two minutes to play, which trimmed Carolina’s lead to 3—that did the trick.

Yeah, “Saints and the points” is quickly becoming as sure a Sunday money-maker as a Baptist church in the Seventh Ward. And if you didn’t know, now you know.

Precap: Week 5

Jon Gruden may know Payton's head, but the Saints are too solid for the Buccs.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints (-7)

Covering the spread for the fourth straight week, the Saints further solidified their place as the best team to bet on in the NFL.

They’ve been one of the best bettin’ teams for years now chiefly because they’ve been given more points than they deserved: a result of the betting public always wagering heavily on the sides of their opponents. Even during the Haslett-Brooks years, if you recall, the Saints covered the spread more than not when they were underdogs, especially road dogs.

But this year, the Saints are a real professional football team. They must be beaten; they won’t bungle away games. Yet a majority of the betting public still thinks of them as the Old Saints. Thus, relatively speaking, their spreads are fatter, more perfectly ripe than they’ve been in several years (if not two decades).

Now—especially early this season— is the time to be playing the Saints and playing them big. It won’t be long before the they’re regularly giving teams double-digit points at home, teams like the 0-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Sure, the Buccs need a divisional win more than the Panthers did last week. And, yes, they’re due for a big game. (They won the NFC South last year, remember?) And you can count on Jon “Chuckie” Gruden knowing just how to prepare for a Sean Payton team; Gruden gave Payton his first job in the NFL years back in Philadelphia.

But the Saints are way too solid for the Buccs. Tampa’s turnaround will have to be rescheduled. Take the Saints and give Chuckie’s boys that touchdown, bruh. Get money. This one ain’t gonna be close.

* “bouder” (pronounced “boo-DAY”), an oft used verb in Cajun French, may be translated as “to pout” or “to sulk.”

Jack Moss handles the book for NOLAFugees.com.

Jack Moss: Saints Sunday and points is a given.