The Saints look like the best team in the league to me. By several measures, the Giants entered Sunday's game at the Superdome as the best defensive team in football. Midway through the second quarter, I turned to Tony Dungy in our NBC viewing room at Rockefeller Center and said, "The Giants are going to have to go for it on fourth down for the rest of the game. They just have no hope of stopping Drew Brees.'' New Orleans had six possessions in the first half. Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, a failed fourth-and-goal plunge from the Giants 1, touchdown. Brees was Tom Brady in 2007, Peyton Manning in 2003, Kurt Warner in 2000. Two more long touchdown drives in the second half, and the Saints had a 48-point, 493-yard day. In the spring, I power-rated the Saints as the 24th-best team in football. I thought there was no hope for their defense. "Twenty-fourth!'' Sean Payton said to me a few months ago in amazement. Talk about one I wish I had back. The Saints aren't the best defense in the game, but they make up for any lack of talent by playing with an edgy attitude with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams sending rushers from anywhere. "We have a lot of fun in practice,'' Williams told me. "I really piss off Drew Brees. I think he was used to getting his way with the defense around here the last couple of years. Not anymore. He's going to get a challenge from us every day in practice.'
He was really pissed at himself when Morstead finally had to line up to puint the ball for the first time against the Giants. Gotta love that.
