The Saints started out their season clearly experiencing Super Bowl hangover after winning Super Bowl XLIV in February. They started the year 3-2, but those 3 wins were a 5 point win over Minnesota (finished 6-10), a 3 point win over San Francisco (finished 6-10), and a 2 point win over Carolina (finished 2-14). They lost in embarassing fashion to Max Hall and the Cardinals (finished 5-11) by a whole 10 points, and lost to Matt Ryan and the Falcons, their division rivals, in New Orleans.

Even when it seemed like their week 5 loss to Arizona was a wake up call, as they went out and had a 25 point win over division rival Tampa Bay the next week, it wasn’t enough to shake their hangover. A week 7 30-17 loss to the Browns (finished 5-11) in New Orleans was bottoming out for this team. Drew Brees threw 2 pick sixes and the Saints were humilated by a lesser team at home. That seemed to be their wake up call.

They went out and beat Pittsburgh (finished 12-4) the next week by 10 and then stomped Carolina in a rematch 34-3 before their bye. They were expected to be better coming out of the bye, thanks to players such as Tracy Porter (he of the pick six in the Super Bowl in February) returning from injury. They came out and ripped off 4 straight wins, scoring 30+ in all of them, before falling to Baltimore in Baltimore week 15.

With the Baltimore loss, a lot of concern was brought up about their ability to win outdoors. This is a great home team, but because they play in a dome, they tend to struggle on the road outdoors. Between the Baltimore loss, a mere 4 point win in Cincinnatin (finished 4-12) and that mere 3 point win in San Francisco, playing outdoors had to be a concern, so they needed homefield. Unfortunately, by that point, in order to get homefield they would have to go into Atlanta, where at that point Matt Ryan had only lost once, and win a rematch with the Falcons, who stood at 12-2 at that point.

And win in Atlanta they did, by a score of 17-14, certainly not pretty, but it would get the job done. If Atlanta bombed the next week against Carolina, and New Orleans took care of business at home against Tampa Bay, New Orleans would get homefield. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. Atlanta crushed a lesser opponent in Carolina and New Orleans, possibly no longer motivated after Atlanta’s win, got beat pretty bad by the Buccaneers, 23-13. Trying or not, Josh Freeman still outplayed Drew Brees. Not a good sign.

Drew Brees was the hero in 2009. He was Super Bowl MVP. He was almost the regular season MVP. He was the talk of the town. However, something wasn’t right about him in 2010. He did have some injuries, but he threw a career high 22 interceptions, 2^nd in the league behind Eli Manning. That interception total was double his 2009 total. His QB rating was 18.7 points lower than in 2009. He didn’t seem right all season and neither did the Saints. I guess you could said “who dat, who dem saints” only in a bad way.

In the playoffs, they went on the road to Seattle. Seattle was the worst team, record wise, to ever make the playoffs at 7-9, but the concerns about New Orleans’ ability to win in a hostile environment became a reality as the Saints lost a 41-36 shootout in Seattle, in the rain and the unbelievable loud noise of Qwest Field. Drew Brees did all he could (39-60 404 yards, 2 touchdowns, no picks), but it wasn’t enough. Plagued by injury at the running back position (no Pierre Thomas or Chris Ivory), the Saints could not become the first team since the 2004 Patriots to win a playoff game the year after winning a Super Bowl.