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New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton laid out a challenge to his team heading into the "third quarter" of their season, saying they would find out a lot about themselves against four straight playoff hopefuls - the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons, the New York Giants and Detroit Lions. The Saints went 4-0 to raise their record to 9-3.

"I think we responded pretty well," Saints linebacker Scott Shanle said. "Now, obviously we have to continue to keep it going throughout the fourth quarter. But for the guys who were here in 2009 (the Super Bowl season), after last night's game and the way we've played these last four weeks, there's a little bit of that feeling like we've kind of flipped that switch and we've kind of hit that next gear. And now it's up to us to see if we can maintain that level."

The Saints had seemingly flipped that switch last year around this time, when they were in the midst of a six-game win streak that lifted them to 10-3. But they lost three of their final four games, including a first-round playoff exit at Seattle.

"But I think the one variable from this year to last year was the injuries," Shanle said. "We've had some guys get nicked up this year, but not a whole lot of injuries, where you saw last year we were down to or fourth, fifth running back for some time. I think we have really good depth this year, but at the same time we haven't had just a plethora of injuries take out a certain position. So you need a little luck along the way."

Full article.
New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Shanle says team has that 2009 feeling - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

homerj07

Screw the 09 feeling - its 11. Get the "11" feeling & keep winning games

QBREES9

Slow down their.

Mardigras9

LONG WAY TO GO, deal with the Titans first.