SmashMouth

For two quarters Friday night in the Superdome, I had the feeling I was watching a regular-season football game.

That's when it was Ones-versus-Ones.
That's when Drew Brees was taking snaps for the home team, Philip Rivers for the visitors.
That's when a team that won last season's Super Bowl with virtually the same players was facing a team good enough to go all the way this season.
To me, it was an invaluable measuring stick.
To me, it proved what we already knew.
So long as No. 9 remains in good health, the Saints have a decent shot to show up in February's championship game at the home of the Cowboys.
But it also proved something else: If Gregg Williams' defense doesn't come close to creating ''turnover chaos'' in opponents, as was the case in '09, chances of repeating, as the cliché goes, are slim and none.
The snapshot I took from Friday night's first half, when the Chargers were driving 82 yards in 12 plays for one touchdown, and 76 yards in 10 plays for another, was this: Giving up the big play will again haunt the defense this year.
The '09 Saints more than made up for the deficiency by forcing 39 turnovers, and, what was even more amazing, by turning eight of those turnovers into touchdowns.
Can the 2010 Saints come close to wiping out some huge defensive breakdowns with a pickoff here, a forced fumble there?

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