As we are wont to do, yesterday we were exchanging quite a few football-related e-mails with Drew Magary. Both of us were getting a little high and mighty about the Vikings. And both of us were certainly getting a little too optimistic about what might happen in the Monday night game between the Saints and Patriots -- perhaps wanting too badly to see the Saints lose and have them share the same record with the Vikings (and have the Vikings hold a slim edge in the fourth tiebreaker, strength of victory).
"I think New Orleans may get crushed tonight," Drew wrote.
"Agreed," we replied.
A few hours later, after the Saints went up 17-7:
"Uh-oh," we wrote.
"No [redacted]. WOW!" Drew wrote.
If we had to divide up the sentiments from last night, we'd say we were 70 percent impressed by the Saints and 30 percent unimpressed by the Patriots. It felt like a game where everything was going right for the Saints and a lot of things were going wrong for New England. That said, seeing those teams play, we would guess the Saints win on a neutral field 7 or 8 times out of 10. Having not seen enough of them before last night to make a good judgment of the Saints, we came away with plenty to think about. The passing game, led by an absurdly locked-in Drew Brees, is great. The most telling stat -- which we had forgotten -- was that Brees passed for 5,000 yards last year without having a 1,000-yard receiver. Needless to say, that's a guy who sees the whole field and spreads the ball around. We were almost more impressed by the defense, including an injury-riddled secondary that made plenty of big plays (Mike McKenzie looked fantastic, by the way).
Bottom line: we went into the game thinking the Vikings might be the most complete team in the NFC. Now, we're not nearly as sure. Because both teams play so well on turf, we don't think home field will be as critical as some make it out to be. There's noise. There's comfort. But there's little change in style. If the teams manage to meet in the NFC title game, it will be a fantastic and fascinating matchup. Probably a true coin flip, with home field giving whichever team gets it (edge: Saints right now) an extra 5-10 percent chance.
