Talking about the end of the 2010 season New Orleans Saints' head coach Sean Payton said he had one major regret last season, relying on Carolina beating the Atlanta Falcons in week 17 to determine whether or not they would get a get a bye in the playoffs. As a result Payton played his starters against Tampa Bay, ultimately losing several to injury before limping into Seattle the next week and being eliminated by the Seahawks.
Not being one to let sleeping dogs lie the Saints' coach decided it wasn't enough to leave it at that, but that a shot at Carolina's then rookie QB Jimmy Clausen would be appropriate too.
"I don't know that we felt like Carolina had a chance to win that game. It's hard to say that. But it would have been a game three years ago if Jake Delhomme is the quarterback. Then maybe they might have had a chance."
So, according to Payton the only thing different between the 2010 Panthers and those in 2007 was bad QB play. Interesting to say the least. I'll apply the same logic here that I did to John Fox's harsh words about Armanti Edwards, namely 'mind your own business'. I'm sorry that Payton mismanaged his team to such a degree that he was able to get embarrassed by Seattle, but it's not really his place to justify his decision by saying 'If they had Jake Delhomme at QB it would have been the right decision'.