A sour celebration for Saints
Football Betting Lines
12/20/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Saints clinched their first division title in six years on Sunday, but the newly-crowned NFC South champions were hardly in a jubilant mood.
The Saints sewed up a playoff home game despite a 16-10 loss to the seemingly non-threatening Washington Redskins at the Superdome, because fellow NFC South members Atlanta and Carolina were also beaten over the weekend. And while New Orleans can take great pride in its unforeseen and dramatic turnaround from last year's miserable three-win campaign, the club's inability to reward their long-suffering fans by claiming the division on the field was indeed disappointing.
"We wanted to play well today at home," said head coach Sean Payton. "You also have to credit Washington, but we looked sluggish. I thought we had a good week of practice. I thought we would play well today."
Perhaps the Saints were due for a letdown one week after they throttled the Dallas Cowboys in front of a national audience. And considering all that New Orleans has accomplished this season, the team has probably earned a mulligan.
However, Sunday's game does bring about a few questions. Was the loss simply a product of overconfidence produced by last week's lopsided win over Dallas? Or could this defeat be a foreshadowing of things to come during the postseason?
Payton hopes it's the former, but there's at least the possibility of the latter. Washington may just have discovered the blueprint for success against the Saints. The winning formula involved relentlessly pounding away at the New Orleans defense with a power back (Ladell Betts) to control the clock and keep the Saints' high-octane offense on the sidelines. On the other side, the Redskins neutralized New Orleans' finesse attack with speed and by getting in the face of star quarterback Drew Brees.
The Saints, who came into the game with the NFL's top-ranked offense, finished with season-lows in total yards (270) and points against a Washington stop unit that played up to its talent level for one of the few times this year.
"It is not anything that we didn't expect," said running back Deuce McAllister of the Redskins' scheme. "They put more pressure on Drew than most teams. I know we had a couple of penalties early in the game that slowed us down, but we just didn't make enough plays."
If there's a silver lining in Sunday's disappointment, it should serve as a wakeup call to a team that had reason to beat its chest after last week's eye- opening performance. The Redskins proved that the Saints are vulnerable, just like the Dallas game showed how dangerous New Orleans can be when firing on all cylinders.
"I am proud of our guys and we played well, but their defense played better than our defense and that's the bottom line," remarked linebacker Scott Fujita. "We have to get our standards up and move on as fast as possible."
UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY
The Saints won a division title for only the third time in their mostly- inglorious history, and will be making their sixth-ever postseason appearance. New Orleans also captured NFC West crowns in 1991 and 2000, the last time the club reached the playoffs. The Saints were Wild Card participants in 1987, 1990 and 1992.
New Orleans joined the newly-created NFC South when the NFL realigned its divisions in 2002.
NO BYE-BYE TO BYE
Chicago's overtime victory over Tampa Bay assured the Bears home field advantage throughout the upcoming NFC playoffs, but New Orleans remains in good position to claim the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. The Saints and Dallas currently share the second-best record in the conference at 9-5, with New Orleans holding the upper hand over the Cowboys in a tiebreaker scenario. Sunday's loss was also only the second for the Saints against an NFC team, which will certainly help them out if seeding ends up being determined by conference records.
BUSH IN THE RECORD BOOKS
Although he only mustered 19 yards on his five catches on Sunday, Reggie Bush established a new NFL rookie record for receptions in a single season. The 2005 Heisman winner now has 84 grabs this year, one more than the previous mark set by San Francisco's Earl Cooper in 1980.
Bush set the record by hauling in an otherwise insignificant swing pass from Brees that resulted in a one-yard loss with under a minute to play.
The playmaking running back needs 11 catches over the final two regular-season contests to eclipse Joe Horn's franchise record of 94 receptions. Horn first set the mark in 2000 and matched it in 2004.
INJURY REPORT
Horn was inactive for the second consecutive week because of a groin strain, a nagging injury that has forced the veteran wide receiver to miss four of New Orleans' last seven games.
The Saints did have a familiar face in the starting lineup at strong safety, as 34-year-old Jay Bellamy replaced the injured Omar Stoutmire. Bellamy had started 67 consecutive games in New Orleans' defensive backfield before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury three games into the 2005 campaign. The 13-year pro was released just prior to this year's season opener, then re- signed in mid-October when rookie Roman Harper was placed on injured reserve.
Stoutmire and regular tight end Mark Campbell each sprained knees during the Dallas game and did not dress. Campbell was replaced by ex-Texan Billy Miller, who caught three passes for 26 yards on Sunday.
BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
The Saints hit the road this Sunday to take on a desperate New York Giants team that has jeopardized its playoff chances by losing five of its last six games, the most recent being a 36-22 setback at home to rival Philadelphia.
The teams will be facing one another for the first time since the infamous "home game" for New Orleans that took place at the Meadowlands during Week 2 of last season. Because the Saints had been displaced just weeks before by Hurricane Katrina, the contest, originally scheduled to be played at the Superdome, was forced to be moved.
New Orleans certainly didn't feel at home that night, as the Saints committed six turnovers in a 27-10 loss to New York.
The Saints have lost four straight to the Giants at the Meadowlands, although they did earn a 21-19 victory over the Jets in Giants Stadium during Week 12 of last season.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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