Mark Ingram II

New Orleans Saints: Acceptance of the painful 2016 season

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:37 p.m. ET

Fansided, Dean Mullen/FanSided via Who Dat Dish

After watching the Saints for over forty years, why does this season seem to hurt a lot?

The Saints season is over. There are no more games left. Yesterday was the final chapter of the frustrating 2016 season. Once again, the Saints built up the rhetoric of this game being very important. The Atlanta game was supposed to be a hopeful start to the 2017 year. Surely, the Saints would be ready for their bitter rivals. Think again.

Ironically, these were my predictions game by game about 18 weeks ago. The prediction of 6-10 was not far off. However, digging into the article a little deeper you would find that many of my game predictions were incorrect. That being said, the summation of the outlook of this year wasn’t exactly rosy.

Who Dat Nation also had the Saints going from about 7-9 to 9-7. Even the media had the Saints winning about the same number as well. With all the low expectations, one would think that the 7-9 finish was simply expected. The year was riddled with injuries up and down the roster. The schedule was even a bit tougher. Nothing really pointed to a playoff run this year.

Coupled with that and the way the Saints started, a winning season was a long shot. Everyone knew and their grandma that this season had 7-9 written all over it. Although this may be true, the Saints got us again. This 2016 season stung. There was reason to hope and dream with a great draft and new receiver Mike Thomas who had a breakout rookie year that this could be the year. Mark Ingram went over 1,000 yards too. The Saints beat Seattle. Seriously?

If anyone would have told you that before the season the inside voice would have gotten excited. It’s human nature to want more when there’s visual evidence of a possible change in direction from the same ole 7-9 ways. Up to this last game, there was enthusiasm in the city that felt that a Falcons win would at least calm us down. The 8-8 outcome of a long up and down season would be OK. Not too bad right?

Consequently, the Falcons squashed those thoughts of reaching .500 quickly. There I was, getting ready for our final game with eyes peeled to the TV set for maybe five minutes until Matt Ryan carved us up again like turkeys. The feelings went from hope to anger to disgust in one quarter. To be honest, I’m not ready to accept this 7-9 season just yet.

By the way, the Saints have never finished three years in a row with the same EXACT record ever. The 7-9 trifecta is just a reminder of years’ past. No one has the answers except for the fact that most experts say that the Saints are looking better. If that’s true, then why is it when I go and look in the paper the same 7-9 win-loss record is still staring me in the face?