• Photo by Michael C. Hebert
• Saints defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo did not have a good first season with the Saints.

"Trust me all the guys were being politically correct this season when answering questions (this season)," the player was quoted as saying in the article written by Larry Holder for the paper. "It's bad."

This season was trying on many fronts and when the defense gives up an NFL record breaking 7,042 yards of total offense there is bound to be finger pointing as to the cause. What’s different is that the Saints locker room has historically been one to keep differences in-house.

So when a player comes out and says that the scheme was too complex, that Spagnuolo wasn’t as receptive to player input as previous defensive coordinator Gregg Williams it is news.

The turbulent 2012 New Orleans Saints season finally came to an end on Sunday. The team’s 44-38 loss to Carolina secured the team’s worst season since 2007 at (7-9) and came about much the way the season played out.

• Photo by Carolina Panthers

“It was totally unacceptable what happened today. We talk about keys to victory and what we have to do to win,” Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt said. “We are outrushed by almost 200 yards and they converted almost twice as much as we did on third down, and as catastrophic as that is, you still have a chance, potentially, to get back in the game with two onside kicks, even though they recovered them. But you have two penalties at the end that put them in field goal range, it’s not acceptable and we are going to get it fixed. It’s not what this team is about. Very disappointing, very disappointing. There is no way to sugarcoat this. Very disappointing.”

• Photo by Michael C. Hebert

Friday evening’s news that the team and Sean Payton agreed in principle on a new five-year contract extension added to a Saints win on Sunday over the Carolina Panthers (6-9), would certainly help shoo away the dark cloud that has seem to hang over the team all season long.

New Orleans (7-8) is trying to finish the season on a three-game winning streak and players along with coaches have stressed the importance of finishing with an even mark and what it would mean. “Just the fact that we never quit,” says Saints safety Roman Harper. “We continue to fight through a little bit adversity which we’ve had all year long, all off-season. As a way to go out on top and just understand that half the teams in the league are going to end their season on a loss and we don’t want to be one of those teams.”

Who Dats will take it as a late Christmas present as at least the first step towards erasing the memory of a troublesome 2012 New Orleans Saints season took place Sunday evening. Multiple outlets are reporting from multiple league sources that Sean Payton and the Saints have agreed in principle to a new five-year contract extension.

• Photo by Gus Kattengell
• Sean Payton will be back next season and for a few more thanks to a new extension.

CBS Sports dot com’s Mike Freeman tweeted that a source tells him “the extension puts him in the neighborhood of Bill Belichick’s annual $7.5 million salary.”

“BOOM HE’S BACK!!!,” tweeted punter Thomas Morestead.

Saints fans frankly don’t care about the price as they’ve seen a team many around the NFL considered a preseason title contending team battling to finish 8-8.

• Photo by Michael C. Hebert

Carolina (6-9) entered the season with plenty of promise but quarterback Cam Newton has had a sophomore slump of sorts and at times has had meltdowns on the sidelines during games. A three-game winning streak has taken some heat off of head coach Ron Rivera but at (3-9) talk of Rivera losing his job surfaced. Talk he told New Orleans reporters this week surprised him a bit.

“This week we’re playing the Saints and then after that we’ll just go forward and see what happens. That’s kind of been my approach,” Rivera said. “It’s crazy because you kind of wonder where it all came from and it never came from him and that’s the thing. I’m on the hot seat. At no point was I ever told that. I’m going to go through it and see what happens and as I’ve always said, it’s about getting our players ready to play on Sunday. We have the Saints and have to go to New Orleans and play them there. It’s going to be a tough football game.”

• Photo by Michael C. Hebert
• The New Orleans Saints have won two in a row and feel that making it three in a row to end the season is important.

“You have a choice where you can be 7-9 which is a losing record or you can be 8-8 which is .500 so, there’s choices and consequences,” said assistant head coach Joe Vitt following practice on Wednesday. “There’s not anyone in our building happy with 8-8. I’ll never be happy with 8-8, but the other choice we have is to be 7-9. That’s a losing record.

That speaks volumes for ourselves too. That speaks volumes of who we are and what we are. I said before we are what we are. We had good practice today, the intent was there, and we were focused. It’s real encouraging.”
Losses to the 49ers, Falcons and Giants all but eliminated the Saints from playoff contention weeks ago, Minnesota’s win back on Sunday was the mathematical nail in the 2012 season’s coffin. Still, the Saints have played the last two weeks in a manner that makes Who Dats everywhere prideful considering the playoffs were really out of reach.

Fans may not be getting a post-season spot this Christmas (Minnesota’s win over Houston made sure of that, mathematically speaking), but the 34-31 New Orleans win over Dallas is a sweet stocking stuffer.

Kicker Garrett Harley was good from 20 yards out in overtime to give the Saints their second straight win and improve their overall record to (7-8). The Cowboys fell to (8-7) on the season and must now hope that other teams lose for their own postseason chances to remain alive.

The offenses for both teams had been playing well heading into the game and both Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Dallas quarterback Tony Romo had solid days.
Brees went 37 of 53 for 446 yards to go with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Romo was 26 of 43 for 416 yards to go with four touchdowns and no interceptions.