It goes without saying that this week has gone down as the worst week of football in Louisiana history.  The Alabama rout of LSU in the BCS Title game coupled with the 49ers last second win against the Saints gave us a week’s worth of depression, anger and emptiness.  Of course, the nature of the defeats deserve much of the blame, but I would argue that no matter how we lost those games, we’d still be feeling the same way, and it’s all our fault for feeling that way.

The fan base has one thing to blame for it’s new-found depression:  expectations.  Expectations are a natural part of society.  If you read all positive reviews of a movie, you go see the movie expecting it to be good.  If your friend tells you to go to a restaurant because the food it amazing, then it better be amazing when you get there.  The same thing applies to football.  If you’ve got a football team that has the media hyping that a championship is almost a given, then your team better win a championship.  If you’ve got an offense that people are calling ‘the best ever’ or ‘unstoppable’ then you better go out and play like you were unstoppable.  For LSU and Saints fans, the expectations were a championship.  These are two teams that have been building up to this point for quite some time.  Both have reached the level of being expected to win week in and week out.  For all their flaws, and believe me both teams have several, this was a championship-or-bust season.

So let’s step back and take a look at these two seasons.  LSU survived what was arguably the toughest regular season schedule of all time unscathed, including wins against the Rose Bowl champion, Orange Bowl champion, BCS champion, and I’ll even throw in the Cotton Bowl champion.  We produced a Heisman finalist, a Thrope award winner and a Coach of the Year.  Shouldn’t that be enough to satisfy a fan base?  Teams like Mississippi State and Kentucky would kill for that kind of season.  Then again, those two teams have no expectations.  The Saints cruised their way through the end of the regular season with Drew Brees breaking endless passing records and the offense as a whole looking unstoppable.  They opened the playoffs with a blowout win at home, but got unlucky having to travel out West to play the one type of team that would give them trouble.  Despite turning over the ball five times, the Saints were still winning the game with 1:30 remaining.  Shouldn’t a record-breaking season and a playoff win be enough to satisfy Saints fans?  I know the Browns or Bills would love to have a season like that.  Once again, no expectations.

To those who think that they’ve learned from their mistake and will be more open-minded about their teams, you might want to take a step back and see what’s in store for next season.  LSU returns the core of their team, including their stable of running backs and several playmakers on defense.  The schedule looks to be a breeze up until Alabama.  On top of that, Zach Mettenberger will bring a competant passing attack to the mix.  This is a preseason #1 team in my opinion.  The Saints will be in a very intriguing situation.  Their main goal will without a doubt be to become the first team to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium.  The offense will be strong and there should be a new defensive coordinator to shape up that side of the ball.  Do you think Saints fans will accept a playoff loss with all of that on the line?

This is what football in Louisiana has become.  Remember the mid 90′s where we’d be happy as fans to finish at .500 and watching guys like Kevin Faulk and Ricky Williams play were enough to get us excited?  Those days are long gone.  Who cares if Mathieu was a Heisman finalist?  So what if Drew Brees is breaking passing records?  It’s championship-or-bust for Louisiana football, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.