It’s been yet another banner week for Skepticism and his asshole brother Cynicism down at the ole Bender household. I’m doing what I can to fight them off, and the Saints have been doing what they can to help. So I guess I ought to be thankful for that. Or something. Unfortunately, so far the results have been mixed.

They got off to a fine start by finally putting a merciful end to the Marteen Experience and bringing back Sideshow Mehl. I suppose I have to give them credit for correcting the mistake rather than compounding it further. But correcting the mistake doesn’t excuse the fact that the mistake was made in the first place. The damage has already been done, and it was massive. Furthermore, the way they chose to correct the mistake is disconcerting.

They took the easy way out. The way that doesn’t require any admission of a mistake in the first place. The way that leaves you to wonder whether, were it not for the "injury", they’d have corrected the mistake at all. Or would we still be waiting for it to happen yet again? You’d like to think that they’re being "classy" here. That it’s all about allowing Marteen to save face and depart with some semblance of dignity. And maybe that’s true. But it sure smells like a way to explain away what has turned out to be a monumental mistake.

Earn It. Indeed.

And let’s not sugarcoat it here, a monumental mistake, clearly it was. Hindsight? Not here at moosedenied it ain’t. You could see it coming from a mile away. Worse yet, it was an almost exact redux of the Olindo Mare Experience. What was that Sean Payton said this week about "repeat offenders"? Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis do not deserve a pass on this.

For the second year in a row, they’ve watched games (plural) be lost on the legs of their chosen kickers, and for the second year in a row, they’ve left open the possibility that if injury hadn’t necessitated a change, they might very well have allowed it to get even worse. And for the second year in a row, it could very well end up costing them the season. The whole fuckin’ season.

Kinda takes a whole lot of juice out of the whole "Our long local nightmare is over" vibe, doesn’t it?

Time will tell whether or not it’s too little too late. Two games is a lot.

Oh sure, talk about the injuries and the bad calls and the other mistakes until you’re blue in the face if you still can’t help but melt when you look into Marteen’s puppy dog eyes. Has everyone been perfect except for him? Of course not. Does he deserve every ounce of blame for all this team’s failures thus far? Of course not.

But, and I know I’ve said this before, one of the most egregiously specious truisms in football is that in close losses, "you can’t blame any one thing." That’s bullshit. Close losses are precisely when you can blame any one thing. Take your pick. There might be ten things to choose from. Pick one. In a close loss, just one of those things going differently can be the difference between a win and a loss.

Perhaps you prefer to blame Meachem’s drop, based on an assertion that he might have scored if he hadn’t dropped it. Or Lance Moore bobbling a ball upward, resulting in a red zone INT. Or a bad no-call on Reggie Bush’s fumble. Each of those has merit, in a coulda-woulda-shoulda kind of way.

But I prefer to go with the most direct causal relationship possible. I choose Occam’s Razor. Kick ball through uprights. It’s just that simple. Your kicker pisses away 6 and you lose by 2, well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist. You lose by 3 and your kicker pisses away between 3 and 13, pending a bushel of ifs, but 3 minimum, it’s not exactly advanced calculus.

On the other hand, the fact remains that Marteen can do no more harm to this season. Regardless of the way it was done or the reasons it was done, at least it’s done. Color me slightly mollified. For now. Long live Sideshow Mehl. He’s kicking it old school!

Again doing their part to help soothe my aching genitals (after having caused the swelling and discoloration in the first place) the Saints have announced that Big Number Twelve and Poochie are "questionable" for this weekend’s game against the Raiders. Great, right?

Yeah, great. If it weren’t bullshit. Oh, Skepticism and Cynicism are all over this one. We went ahead and ran this through the bullshit translator, and here are the results:

Hey Saints fans, you remember all the injuries that are totally sabotaging our season, don’t ya? Yeah, the hand Fate has dealt us has been quite the bitch, hasn’t it? We’re right there with ya, we think it’s all Fate’s fault too. But it’s gonna be all better real soon, we promise. Do yourselves a favor and quit thinking about Monday night. And Denver. And Washington. And the whereabouts of Dulymus. And that little dude with the jhericurl who used to… you know… fail a lot. It’s all about to turn around now! Concentrate on that, why don’t ya? And here, suck on this lollipop while you’re at it.

Yeah. They’re not playing. Which is fine with me, actually. I don’t think either of those guys are needed this weekend, and there’s not much sense in rushing them back. Sure, you could argue that the reason for the "questionable" listings is gamesmanship on Sean Payton’s part. Make Tom Cable have to prepare for them. But Cynicism is pretty sure that this is all about giving the fans something to be happy about. Which I suppose we ought to be thankful for. Or something.

I suppose the good news is that I’m still convinced that this team is good enough to beat any team in the league on any given Sunday. And as long as that’s the case, they can’t be written off. There are still five division games remaining, and I’m still convinced that the Saints are theoretically the best team in the NFC South. I still think you can’t put it past them to reel off 3 or 4 straight wins if they can sack up and get their heads out of their asses. I’m not counting on it, but I’m not counting it out either.

On paper, the Raiders game Sunday seems to shape up a lot like the 49ers game two weeks ago. Here’s hoping the results are similar. The Dulymus factor should be strong this week, as it was against San Francisco. The Raiders’ defense is midding at best. They don’t have much of a passing game, and they have an inexperienced and sackable quarterback. Their offense relies heavily on their strong running game, but the Saints’ run defense continues to improve statistically and continues to at least contain the elite tailback of the week. The Saints seem to match up well vs. the Raiders, and they ought to be going into this game every bit as pissed off as you and I are. This is shaping up like a two-score win.

In theory. And therein lies the rub. Until this team starts actually finishing the damn job, you just never know, do ya?

Prediction: Saints 34, Raiders 17

Theoretically.

Just win, baby.