Are the Saints primed for a loss?

Usually, when there is one unbeaten team in the NFL this late into the season, all of the experts wait around to see if the team is for real, or if they are doing it with mirrors and a weak schedule. This season, there are two unbeaten teams, and the looming question is which team will lose first, and then can either or both teams remain undefeated, going into the seemingly inevitable Super Bowl Battle of the Unbeatens. However, as the Saints were the darlings of the league with the way that they were dismantling their competition, the Colts were winning ugly. Now, as the season winds to a close, the Colts look to be in late season form while the Saints needed a miracle comeback and overtime to defeat a hapless Redskins team before needing a defensive stand to hold off a hardly viable Falcons club. Now, the question becomes whether or not the Saints are running out of gas.

Last season, after the Colts lost their fourth game of the season against only three victories, the team reeled off nine-straight wins to finish the season 12-4, one game behind the surprising Tennessee Titans. Though the Colts would lose in the first round of the playoffs to the San Diego Chargers, the loss did not diminish the team´s hopes for this season. Today, the Colts stand at 13-0, having just set a record with 22 straight regular-season victories, and 114 wins this decade, giving them the record for most wins in any decade. After defeating the Broncos 28-16, despite a record-breaking 21 receptions by Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall, the Colts look to be firing on all cylinders heading toward the season´s end. Too bad the same cannot be said for the Saints.

Don´t get me wrong, this year´s New Orleans Saints ball club is far removed from the years when the fans wore paper bags on their heads to the games to protect their identities. This club, under the coaching of Sean Payton, and behind the arm and mind of Drew Brees, is one of the elite teams in the National Football League. They will be favored in this year´s playoffs, especially considering that all of the games leading up to the Super Bowl will be played in their friendly confines, the Superdome in New Orleans. This Saints team is for real, but tragically, they didn´t look that way the past two Sundays.

The Saints played a Redskins team playing only for pride and jobs for next season, and the ´Skins put on a show that either exposed the Saints´ deficiencies on defense, or the Saints´ lack of a killer instinct. The Saints, in a better to be lucky than good moment, found several ways to win that game, emerge unscathed, and keep their hopes of an unbeaten season intact. Yesterday, the Saints traveled to Atlanta to play a Falcons team missing their two primary offensive weapons, quarterback Matt Ryan and leading rusher and the team leader in touchdowns scored, Michael Turner. This time, the Saints needed two huge defensive plays from Jonathan Vilma to help them to walk away from Atlanta with a 26-23 victory and a 13-0 record. Now, the question remains; are there truly chinks in the Saints´ armor, or are they just getting the battle-testing that they need heading into the playoffs?

I submit to you that the Saints might actually have defensive or killer instinct issues heading into the playoffs. It is also possible that the Saints, in the pursuit of perfection, might be running out of gas, having to play all of their key players every minute of every game. Fortunately for the Saints, these last two games have given them exactly what they need heading into the playoffs; the chance to prove that they can win tough games without actually coming up short in the process.

These past two games have pushed the Saints to their limits, and forced them to show exactly whet they are made of, both offensively and defensively, all the way from the coaching staff down to the 53rd man on the roster. The Saints have had to work like they haven´t had to work all season, and they are showing that they have what it takes to win when the games get tougher in January. This is a ball club that is showing that they are as tough as the task will be, and that cannot be all bad.

Everyone knows that the Colts know what to do when the cameras are on them. When called upon, they produce, as evidenced by their 9-0 finish last season, and their march to the franchise´s second Super Bowl championship, with their victory over the Chicago Bears in 2007. The New Orleans Saints franchise has been in existence since 1967, and is one of only five teams to have never appeared in the Super Bowl, the closest that they have come being losing by 25 points in the 2006 NFC Championship to the eventual Super Bowl runner-up Seattle Seahawks. This club is hungry for ultimate success, and this could be their year. Unfortunately, there is a chance that their season could end the way the Colts´ season did last year, or the way that the 2008 Patriots´ season did when, as a team trying for a complete undefeated season, they were defeated by a wild-card qualifying New York Giants club and a miracle catch by David Tyree.

The New Orleans Saints have won in dominating fashion, and now they are showing that they can win ugly. As long as they keep winning, they will achieve their goal, which for the sake of the franchise´s history, is to appear in a Super Bowl and for the sake of the players´ legacies, to win one.