I knew our boys would be fine.  I knew it and then I knew it more when, before the Tampa game started,  they showed Brees' rankings overall in pass completion %, yds per pass, red zone stats, etc.  He was like #1 or #2 before the Tampa game and everyone was wondering "what's going on with Brees?" Well, I think there were 2 things going on with Brees.  1) He's in the NFL!!!  For goodness sakes, he was ranked #1-2 in so many stats- he can't be perfect.  and 2) his Mom died and I am sure he was getting wind of the investigation and all that stuff that I am sure could be quite distracting.   

Now about The Patriots... we will win that game.  But, it doesn't really matter.  If we lose, we learn and we're better prepared if we meet them in the Super Bowl.  But, I think we will win.  They have a lot more at stake.  If they go 6-4, AFC home field is looking a little bleaker.  And they still have to deal with the Colts somewhere along the line.  No, they have a lot more pressue on them. We have more offensive weapons and our defense forces more takeaways.

They are good, but we should be better than them if we play well. We're fine win or lose, but I have officially changed my approach.  Previously actually wanted the Saints to lose a game to take any potential "monkey" off their backs.  Now, I want them to win out, and I don't want to see them lose a game,  but I am okay if they lose a game.  And, for the record, this is the way I knew this team could play and expected them to play.  This next game will be a lot of Payton/GW vs. Belicheck and I see Belicheck getting exposed.  I also see the Dome Crowd playing a big role in The Perfect Storm playing havok with The Patriots

One last point.  Our X-factor in our first 5-6 games was Heath Evans.  He was phenomenal.  We kind of forgot that, wondering why our offense was not so explosive after he got injured.  Then along comes Dave Thomas and after a couple of games he settles in and becomes a new X-factor. But not quite at first.   Much different than Evans.  And Eckel is getting more comfortable,too.  But just as Deuce Mc Allister would have had a little bit of a transition if he didn't have  Mike Karney, I think our offense had a little transition period without Evans and now we have adjusted.  We can't do the exact same things we used to do with Evans, but we have found other things that work.  I think that was a big factor we overlooked.  Kudos to Payton in that respect.  He's coaching his best year ever.   And obviously there is a transition without Moore a lot of these games, but overall we are adjusting and I like how we have done so.