Huge Saints victory over Giants; remain in 1st place

I hope you caught the game on TV because it was a classic.  The New Orleans Saints, trying to return to the glory of the Super Bowl year, made giant strides tonight with a 49-24 victory against the New York football Giants.  The Saints offense was unstoppable, amassing over 550 yards and for a time, scoring at will.  All this after the misfire on the opening drive when a fake field goal did not convert.

The Saints defense played well enough early on to allow the Saints offense to get up by 11, then 18 for an extended period of time.  They did give up lots of 4th quarter yardage and a couple of late touchdowns but this all occured while protecting a huge lead.  I will say this, to be very candid; the Saints defense will have to be tougher, especially in putting pressure on the QB down the stretch.  And while it was good to get an interception tonight, these DB's need to pick off a few too.

But all is well tonight as the Saints are now 8-3 and that means plenty.  This win keeps the Saints 1st in the south, ahead of Atlanta by a full game.  It also keeps them ahead of many teams sitting with 7 and 6 wins in the playoff hunt.  Looking up, this win also puts us just 1 game shy of catching the San Francisco 49'ers for second seed in the NFC.

After such a complete victory tonight, against a still good Giant team and a great QB in Eli Manning, all we hope for now is consistency in effort.  When we look at two of our losses, we have to be concerned that we lost to the Rams, who really suck, and Tampa has been very poor since they beat us in the famous break the leg of your coach game.  This plagued the Saints last year too in stupid losses to Cleveland and Arizona, not to mention the playoff debacle in Seattle.  I mention all of this tonight only to point out that talent alone is not enough.  That intangible "it factor" the Saints possessed in '09 is still possible in '11.  Offensively, this Saints team looks better than the Super Bowl version and defensively, not so much.  But there is some improvement here and if this can fully come together, along with this brilliant offense; who knows.

Saints must focus a game at a time; up next is Detroit.  I think they match up well here and that would be another huge victory!

Saints fan can rejoice in another victory and can keep that hope alive for another '09 season.  We just need our Saints to keep showing up like they did tonight.  Geaux Saints!