Incredibly, Saints Fall Asleep, AGAIN!

You would think by now, after embarrassing losses in the recent past , the Saints under Sean Payton would have learned their lesson. Yet there they were again, unprepared to play against a team, on paper, not in their league.
Saints fans will here the" We said all week we won't underestimate this team" crap ad nauseum.  Payton said in the post game presser.  So did Brees.  You can bet any other Saints player facing a mic and camera will say it as well.
Well in the words of the great Johnny Unitas, "talk is cheap". 
And so was the performance the 5-2 Saints displayed against the Rams.  The 0-6 Rams. A team whose six losses came by scores of 31-13, 28-16, 37-7, 17-10(Redskins), 24-3 and 34-7. A team whose head coach recently downloaded the Monster.com app to his IPhone.  Calling this performance cheap is an insult to thrift stores everywhere!
I could site numerous examples of this amazing knack Payton's St. Jude Saints have for generosity to the NFL's hopeless causes but why be redundant.
However there is another explanation as to why this keeps happening, but I'm not so sure Saints fans are prepared to hear.  Maybe they just aren't that good.
A closer look at the 5-3 2011 Saints reveal a team that resembles more 2008 than 2009.   That 2008 team finished 8-8, had the number one offense in the league but couldn't "finish" games in the fourth quarter.  They started 1-0 then blew a 10 point 4th quarter led to the Redskins in D.C( I wrote them off right then) then missed a game winnning FG in Denver.  Yet when they won, it was by scores like 31-3 to the Raiders, 51-29 to the Packers, 42-7 to the Lions.  Give up 3 points one week, give up 30 the next.  Made us all crazy.  Missed the playoffs for the second straight year. Back then everyone said, "if we only had a defense to go with that offense...".  Sound familier?
The 2011 Saints results are similar, but they resemble a team sleepwalking with an ocassional jolt of energy then back to sleep.  They got away with it against two rookie QBs, but then it bit them against Tampa and now this. 
Maybe they aren't sleepwalking.  Maybe they are just a so-so team.  The offensive line has been outplayed in 6 out of 8 games thus far.  Thus the Saints have been unable to muster any kind running attack to speak of.  Not that Payton has ever committed to the run anyway, but this Saints team doesn't seem tough enough.
The defense has ZERO playmakers, something sorely lacking since the departure of Darren Sharper.  Malcom Jenkins is okay but doesn't wow anybody.  The DBs and LBs have gotten their hands on many passes only to come up empty.  The pass rush has to be manufactured now as it's becoming clearer by the week the free agents brought in at DT are busts.  Don't even get me started on the run defense.
So who are these 2011 Saints.  The team that conducted offseason workouts on their own.  The team that had every pundit drooling in traing camp. 
Win a game look great, win a game look average, lose three games, look awful.  Seems like 2008 all over again.
In training camp I sensed something missing with these guys.  I mentioned it on the air with Eric Asher. I thought it showed in the preseason.  Lackluster performances were written off as "camp legs", etc. I feel it again, can't shake it.
Now that the upcoming schedule seems more daunting than it did Saturday, they better shake it.  With games against Tampa, Atlanta, the Giants, then the Lions, 5-3 could easily turn into 5-7, by then this team may look like 2005.