The New Orleans Saints can’t claim they’re not getting respect.
Though some skeptics might have remained before the 21-point thrashing of the Giants, any doubters have shut up in the wake of the 43-10 outburst against the Dolphins after spotting Miami a 21-point lead at home.
And now folks are heaping praise on the Saints.
Most recently, former Rams coach Mike Martz of NFL Network compared the 2009 Saints to their former NFC West rivals from St. Louis, circa 1999 through 2001.
“Well I think they’re very similar,” Martz recently told ESPN Radio St. Louis regarding whether the Saints compare to the Greatest Show on Turf, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I think the track is very quick that they play on down there. I do think that the multiple receivers that they have, I don’t know if any one of the receivers is of the quality that we had in our top two guys. But the quarterback is obviously a great player, he can get the ball out quick.
“I think they do so much that’s really hard to defend because they’ve got the quick step, the deep drop, the hard play-actions, they formation, they do all those things so well I think there’s a lot of similarities that I like to think we did as well. They don’t have Marshall Faulk -- they just don’t have him. And I think that is probably the single most difference. And obviously Kurt [Warner] -- you know how biased I am to our guys, so I just always felt like we had better players. But I love [Sean] Payton and what he’s doing. I think he’s very creative; I think he’s the top offensive mind in the league right now. He takes advantage of his talent and the offensive line is real good. They had that left tackle go down, they just filled in the ranks and kind of kept motoring.
“So they’re going to score a lot of points and I do believe they’ll be in the Super Bowl. I think they have a real chance of doing that and that would be my pick.”
OK, so the compliment was sort of backhanded, with Martz reluctant to admit that this Saints team might be as good as the Rams teams with which Martz was associated. Still, look for more analysts, journalists, and observers to continue to heap praise on the Saints -- and for the pressure on this team to get to the Super Bowl and win it under circumstances when everyone now expects them to do so to only increase.