MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / August 9, 2000

Patience.

It’s a word that Saints fans better learn and soon.

Only two games into the preseason and already Saints fans are nickpicking about every aspect of the team. Jeff Blake looks lost. Ricky Williams is abust. The offensive line is not playing up to its ability. The defense can’t getits act together. Darren Howard needs to be benched. Pick your favorite. Allthese questions have been asked after the Minnesota game Saturday night.

And to think the Saints are 1-1 in completely meaningless games. Just thinkwhat fans would be saying if the team had not been in position to win both in the fourth quarter.

Never mind this is a completely new regime running the team. That is has hadless than seven months to retool a team that went 3-13 last season and 15- 33 over the last three seasons. That over half the team is brand new andneeds time to come together as a group. And never mind that by the end ofthis month, these past two games will be completely forgotten and the Saints’ record, like everybody else’s, will be 0-0.

Blake went 5-for-15 in the game for 74 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He looked like the answer in a 62-yard drive that resulted in atouchdown pass to Jake Reed. He looked like the rest of the Saintsquarterbacks in recent years on the other drives although he was hampered by dropped passes. A potential long completion off play action on the openingdrive was dropped by Joe Horn. Another potential long gainer to Horn washurried by Blake and thrown high.

Williams showed some flashes and finished with 20 yards on eight carries. Healso showed he can catch the ball coming out of the backfield. Chad Mortonwas again impressive, accounting for 121 total yards.

For the second week in a row, the first team defense was burned, giving up 200 yards in the first half after giving up 300 the week before against the Jets in the first 30 minutes. The defense has forced seven turnovers in thefirst two games but the offense has seldom capitalized on them. The specialteams looked much better, capped by Doug Brien’s game-winning 49-yard field goal.

It’s not only the Saints that have not impressed in the preseason. Just lookaround the league. Indianapolis is 0-2 as is Dallas. Carolina has struggled andSan Francisco has looked just downright pitiful.

The reality is that the Saints are probably at least a year away from being considered a playoff contender. This season will be a learning process fromalmost start to finish. Players like Blake and Williams on offense and JoeJohnson and Mark Fields on defense will have to step up once the season begins for the team to gain any kind of respectability this year. The teamneeds to get linebacker Charlie Clemons back and find a way to shake the injury bug.

But that’s once the regular season begins Sept. 3. For the next two weeks, fans need to concentrate on finding improvements the team is making instead of nickpicking about its mistakes. There will probably be more timefor that later.

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