Ladies and gentlemen, your 2013 Saints as collection of gnarly stories from the Ozarks? Why Not.

Read almost any review of Daniel Woodrell’s The Outlaw Album, and you’ll get this sentence: “Once Boshell finally killed his neighbor he couldn’t seem to quit killing him.” From there, things get ugly. Boshell kills his condescending Yankee neighbor with a stout stick—the neighbor’s been dead for “most of a week,” mind you. He kills him with a hatchet and a nice trip to the bottom of a well. Boshell is set on a revenge he can never seem to grasp, no matter how much he tortures the corpse of the poor asshole Yankee. Yeah, the Saints 2013 football season is kind of like that. Protest as they might—and trust me, they doth protest—that this season is about the here and now and certainly NOT ABOUT REVENGE, giving the middle finger to Goodell, or any of that bounty stuff that’s most certainly IN THE PAST, the Saints may be this season’s Boshell.

If the Saints’ recent Sean Payton-led history is any indication, their first opponent the Atlanta Falcons are that condescending asshole of a neighbor. Unlike Drew Brees, Matt Ryan didn’t hold out for a fancy new contract. They have the alleged best receivers in the division. Steven Jackson! To make matters worse, last year during a Drew Brees interception fest, the Falcons shot the Saints’ already dead dog of a season. Saints fans want to believe this an aberration—since Payton and Brees have come to town, the Falcons just keep getting killed over and over and over again. Payton is 10-2 against the Falcons, not counting last season because LAST SEASON DOES NOT COUNT.

AP Photo/New Orleans Saints, Alex Restrepo

At first glance, The Outlaw Album is all about a kind of hopeless violence bred by loss, but keep reading and the stories become driven by more than an idea and a voice; they begin to move more than shock. Saints fans pray their boys do more than kill the Falcons over and over this year, taking out real and perceived-wrongs on a team with all the shiny toys but little heart. But if the Saints aren’t able to overcome their terrible defense and an offense that’s been on top just a little too long, then getting ugly all over the Falcons will have to do.