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Tampa Bay at New Orleans - Start 'Em & Sit 'Em (SI.com)

Start 'em

• RB LeGarrette Blount, TE Kellen Winslow, QB Josh Freeman

The Saints are not a bad defense, but they are in the bottom half of fantasy against QBs, RBs, WRs and TEs. That about covers it. The Saints are giving up a league-worst 5.5 yards per rush and the return of Blount from injury and bye should boost an offense that will be asked to score points in the Superdome to keep up with the Saints. The usefulness of Freeman should encourage you to start the likes of the struggling Winslow and WR Mike Williams. You might even consider Arrelious Benn if you need a WR option in deeper leagues.

• QB Drew Brees, RB Darren Sproles, WR Marques Colston, TE Jimmy Graham, K John Kasay

The Saints had a week to forget, but they are going to come out like gangbusters here in trying to avenge an earlier-season loss. They tend to score early and often at home and should give us great passing numbers as Brees rebounds and torches a Bucs defense that is in the bottom half against QBs and WRs. Colston and Graham (Bucs are fifth-worst in fantasy against TEs) will rebound from off weeks, and Lance Moore is a nice fill-in in deeper formats. Sproles should be productive either on the ground or out of the backfield against a Bucs team that is 10th-worst in fantasy against RBs.

Sit 'em

• D/ST Buccaneers

The Saints are a much better offense at home. You have to find a different defense to use this week. There are going to be points and yards everywhere.

• RB Pierre Thomas, RB Mark Ingram, D/ST Saints

We might like Thomas if we knew for certain Ingram would be out. We won't like Ingram even if he plays. The Saints use a three-headed monster for their RB and Sproles is by far the best playmaker. Thomas had a bad week in a great matchup last week if you throw out the late score. As for the Saints defense, the Bucs have an offense that plays consistent and close to the vest, hence their ranking of seventh-best against opposing D/STs. The Saints are going to turn this one into a shootout and the Bucs are going to get garbage-time yards and scores.


Read the entire article  Drew Brees, Tony Romo among best Week 9 NFL fantasy options - Eric Mack - SI.com

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Saints Prove they are an Elite Team against Texans (SI.com)

The Saints have developed into one of the NFL’s elite teams by showing the knack for winning games they shouldn’t. Houston is still trying to figure out how to win games it should. That difference played itself out again Sunday in New Orleans, with the Saints somehow erasing a 26-17 deficit — and, later, a 33-32 disadvantage — en route to a thrilling 40-33 win over the Texans. Houston had this game right where it wanted it. The Texans were moving the ball at will and doing a nice job limiting Drew Brees and the potent Saints’ attack. It all fell to pieces in the final 15 minutes, though.   Make that the final 10 minutes, actually. Houston scored early in the fourth quarter to go up nine and still held that 26-17 edge when Brees hit Jimmy Graham for a TD with 9:30 left. On the next possession, Matt Schaub, who’d been nearly flawless all day, threw an interception. The Saints turned that into another touchdown and a two-point conversion to take a 32-26 lead. Even when Schaub answered his mistake with a TD drive of his own, which put Houston back up, he never really recovered the game’s momentum. New Orleans followed by marching 93 yards for another TD, then stopped Schaub one more time to win the game. Is it the end of the world for the Texans? Of course not. And yet, they’ll spend the next few days — and, if they fall short of the playoffs again this season, possibly the next few months — looking back on four red-zone trips that ended with Neil Rackers field goals. Think about that: Houston scored 33 points on the road against New Orleans … and left another 16 out there. But that’s the difference between wanting to win and knowing how to do it. The Saints have shown that they have what it takes to finish games, a lesson that Houston apparently has not yet learned. What must make Sunday even more frustrating for the Texans is that it looked like they had turned the corner this season. They buried a Peyton Manning-less Colts team in Week 1, then refused to let Miami back into the game in Week 2. In the past, you could have counted on Houston to cough one of those games up. Now, the Texans find themselves facing a familiar challenge: making sure a brutal loss doesn’t turn into something worse. Over the next four weeks, Houston faces Pittsburgh, Oakland, Baltimore and Tennessee. Letting Sunday’s meltdown linger could turn a promising 2-1 start into a 3-4 record — and another disappointing season — pretty rapidly. Last year, the Texans also started out 2-0 before finishing at 6-10, so it wouldn’t be new for the Texans to stall after a quick start to the season. To prevent that from happening, Houston needs to do, well, what the Saints did after dropping a heartbreaker in Week 1 to the Packers — turn the page. New Orleans rebounded from their opening loss by hammering Chicago, then rallying past the Texans Sunday. Suddenly, falling to Green Bay feels like it’s miles away. Getting bad losses behind you is the mark of a good team. Closing out games on the road, against elite competition, is the mark of a great team. Houston proved again Sunday that’s it not quite there yet.

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Saints will outclass Seahawks in NFC Wildcard Game (SI.com Video)

SI.com's Damon Hack predicts that the Seahawks will not be able to match the experience of the New Orleans Saints in Saturday's NFC Wild Card game at Qwest Field.

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Chris Collinsworth on the Saints and Packers as Wild Cards (SI Video)

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Where's Peter King when you need him?

This morning I read an article on SI.com by former Steelers great Jerome Bettis, on his "current" pick as the NFC's best team.  His choice, the Eagles.

Here is his take on the Eagles:

I respect his opinion to have an opinion, however, here are my counter points.  We, The Saints, already have "championship-caliber character" and the recent Super Bowl win to prove it.  Okay, we just beat the "supposed" best NFC team on Monday night with a decisive defensive effort that limited the Falcons, in the Georgia Dome, to only one offensive touchdown.  That is a tough venue to win with their home record under Matty Ice at 19-2.  Last point, how can you say that Philly is "more playoff-ready than any other team", DIDN'T WE WIN THE SUPERBOWL?!!!

Where's Peter King when you need him to set the record straight for Mr. Bettis.

He goes on to say the Eagles puts pressure on defenses to stop Vick throwing, Vick running and McCoy running abilities.  Well we have, Brees throwing, Colston, Moore, Henderson, Meachem, Shockey and Graham catching, and healthy Thomas, Bush and Ivory running.  We don't need just three ways to beat you on offense.

Drew Brees, not Michael Vick, has won a Super Bowl.  Drew Brees, not Michael Vick, has consistently won on the large stage.  The Eagles are a talented team, but Jerome, get the facts straight before dismissing THE SAINTS as the BEST TEAM in the NFC.  Chicago might take offense to that comment as well.

So, Mr. Peter King, please correct your SI.com comrade.  Articles like this should be stashed or trashed before hitting the Internet.

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Saints are now in Atlanta's and NFC Heads with Psychological Advantage (SI)

Here is a great article by Don Banks of SI.com on the Saints:

1. No one can afford to overlook the defending champs now. In reality, this game won't change the outcome of either the NFC South race or the fight for the conference's top seed. Atlanta (12-3) will still claim both by beating a woeful 2-13 Carolina team next week in the dome, and New Orleans will have to content itself with a wild-card berth and taking to the road in the postseason.

But that doesn't mean Monday night was meaningless. Far from it. Besides putting the Saints (11-4) back into the playoffs for the third time in coach Sean Payton's five seasons, New Orleans ' gritty win announced to the rest of the NFL that it intends to make more than a token defense of its hard-earned Super Bowl title. Oh, and in the process, the Saints just punctured a little of Atlanta 's air of invincibility at home.

It's pretty obvious why getting that task accomplished was important to the Saints: Because they could easily be right back in the Georgia Dome in three weeks, facing the top-seeded Falcons in the NFC divisional round as a road underdog. Beating the Falcons and snapping its eight-game winning streak served notice that the tough-minded and battle-tested Saints can once again win anywhere, against any opponent.

Though it wasn't an artistic type of victory for New Orleans, it was still beautiful all the same. Atlanta entered the night 19-1 at home when quarterback Matt Ryan started a game, and the Falcons were 6-0 this season in their dome, with only three home losses since 2008. With the win, the Saints planted a seed of doubt in the minds of the Falcons, who had come to believe that the game would always last just long enough for Ryan to find a way to win it.

After all, Atlanta had won 24 consecutive games once it had a fourth-quarter lead, dating to 2008. But not this time. The Saints played with resilience and a whatever-it-takes mentality, never giving in to Atlanta 's home-field mojo. New Orleans led 10-0 in the second quarter, gave the lead back at 14-10 in the fourth quarter, then got a clutch 90-yard touchdown drive from quarterback Drew Brees to win it in late-game, comeback fashion.

After trading three-point wins in each other's domes, there's really only a whisker's worth of difference between these two quality programs. But the Saints' playoff success of last season gives them a potential psychological edge against Atlanta, and New Orleans only reinforced its growing reputation for being able to handle the biggest of pressure situations by going into one of the NFL's toughest venues and living to tell. If there is a Round 3 in three weeks, the Saints just reminded us that being the league's defending champ could wind up mattering more than being the division's reigning champ.

2. With one week to go in the regular season, the NFC playoff bracket is now almost in place. The Saints' win made them the fourth NFC team to clinch a playoff berth, joining the Falcons, Bears and Eagles. That leaves Week 17 to settle whether the Rams or Seahawks will win the NFC West's stumble to the finish, and who will emerge with the conference's second wild-card berth.

In the three-team wild-card race between the Packers, Giants and Bucs, Green Bay (9-6) is in the most commanding position. Currently seeded sixth in the NFC, the Packers are in the playoffs with a win over the NFC North champion Bears Sunday at Lambeau Field. They don't need help from anyone to make it two consecutive playoff trips and three in four years.

The reeling Giants (9-6), the team Green Bay just humiliated at Lambeau, need a win at Washington, plus a Bears victory over Green Bay. Sure, the Bears will be playing hard, given they still have a shot at a first-round bye and homefield advantage in the NFC. But the Packers are hitting on all cylinders right now and are favored to win in another must-win playoff-like atmosphere at Lambeau.

As for Tampa Bay, the Saints' victory hurt its playoff hopes the most. The Bucs (9-6) will need to win at New Orleans -- no easy feat -- and then get losses by the Giants and Packers in order to advance. Tampa Bay 's season isn't officially over, but it's on life support and fading fast.

3. Drew Brees should prepare for teams to blitz the daylights out of him from here on out. Baltimore had pretty good success with that approach in its 30-24 defeat of the visiting Saints last week, and Atlanta, even in defeat, successfully followed the Ravens' blueprint. The Falcons blitzed Brees approximately 40 times, with pretty good results.

Brees finished 35 of 49, for 302 yards passing and one touchdown, but the constant pressure from the Falcons' defensive front forced Brees into two fourth-quarter interceptions, one of which was returned 26 yards for a touchdown by Chauncey Davis. That gave Brees 21 interceptions in 15 games this season, his career-high in that department.

Atlanta sacked Brees just once, but they hurried him constantly, and were pretty effective at limiting the damage the Saints did with their downfield passing game. The longest completion went for 25 yards to Robert Meachem, mostly because Brees simply didn't have a lot of time to let his receivers' routes fully develop.

The Saints' short passing game was effective, but Atlanta forced New Orleans to be more patient and methodical than it would have liked, taking smaller bites of the apple instead of the larger chunks that Brees and Co. have been known for. In the first half, Brees completed 20 of 26 passes, but for just 135 yards, 5.2 yards per pass attempt.

Before their game-winning, 90-yard touchdown drive, the Saints had six consecutive possessions ending in four punts and two fourth-quarter interceptions. Prior to Brees saving his best for last, the Saints had only scored on a short-field touchdown drive set up by a Falcons second-quarter fumble, and a 52-yard Garrett Hartley field goal.

The Saints won and Brees delivered when it mattered most, so you can't say Atlanta's blitz-happy defensive strategy was a total success. But I'm sure opposing defenses would rather take their chances with New Orleans having to throw 49 times to generate just 17 points, believing they'll eventually force Brees into some game-changing mistakes.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/don_banks/12/28/saints.falcons.insider/index.html#ixzz19P8Rwul5

The Saints definitely got into the heads of the Durty Burds!!!  Remember, they are the reigning Champions!!!!!

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Saints to follow Texans Blueprint over Ravens (SI.com)

The Ravens may have beaten the Texans in a thrilling Monday night affair last week, but Gary Kubiak's offense certainly set the template on how to slay the mighty Ravens defense. Can the red-hot Saints follow suit and mount a late-season charge to the top of the NFC? With back-to-back 99- and 95-yard drives, the Texans showed that the Ravens defense is slower and more flawed than anyone could have imagined. This one has huge implications in the collective mindset and confidence factor for both squads. Read more of John Lopez: SI.com The problem the Ravens will have is the second half. They have allowed good offensive teams to dominate in the second half this season. Look for Payton and Brees to pressure the secondary and linebackers early. Bush and Thomas will get an opportunity to expose the Ravens' pass rushing with draws and screens. If the Saints get an early lead, the Ravens will have a difficult time getting back in the game on the Saints defensive unit that is ranked #5 against the pass. Flacco cannot make any mistakes. The same for Brees.

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Saints News: Andy Perloff on the Saints (Video)

Andrew Perloff, of SI.com, is not sold on the Saints due to a soft schedule and lack of consistency this season. Do you agree?

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Drew Brees: Humble Leader and Great Sportsman

Drew Brees is the New Orleans Saints Leader on the field and off. He came into New Orleans as an unlikely hero for a city attempting to piece lives and its infrastructure back together after Hurricane Katrina's wrath flooded over 80% of the area. It should be noted that not all of the Saints fans were jubilant when Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton pursued Brees to become the Saints' quarterback. Some labeled him as "Hot Garbage", a reference to his surgically repaired shoulder which was injured in a San Diego playoff loss. Miami was the most likely place for Brees, however, Nick Saban's doubts and the Miami doctor's "mis-diagnosis" of Brees' shoulder, had him to visit and sign with the Saints. Thanks Nick. The irony of the story for us and Drew was the fact he won two dramatic and special games for the Saints in Miami, the comeback against the Dolphins and Super Bowl 44.

His commitment to the city and to his profession is very well recognized in the Gulf Coast region. However, with the national spotlight on the Saints' fairytale season of 2009, Drew's connection with the fans and city was undoubtedly too powerful to ignore. Even the loss of his mother last season did not stop Brees for maintaining focus and assisting his team to become Super Bowl Champions. In many ways, those who are doubted and not given a "second-chance" can identify with Drew. Especially a city and region that needed a second-chance at rebuilding. Brees is humble, committed and passionate. Most of the characteristics of New Orleanians and Gulf Coast residents. Congratulations Mr. Brees. New Orleans could not have asked for a better leader of our New Orleans Saints.