Rating: (0 votes - average)

METAIRIE – When trying to get a read on the New Orleans Saints, look no farther than No. 9.

Drew Brees has a finger on the team’s collective pulse 24/7/365, knowing when it runs fast, slow or normal. You want to know what the team is thinking, ask him. You want to know how the team is feeling, ask him. You want to look through a window into their world, open dialogue with him.

Not only does Brees represent himself when he speaks to the media, he represents the entire team.

“I think that’s accurate,’’ Saints Coach Sean Payton said Friday. “I think he understands it and takes that message and rolls with it seriously.”

In other words, Brees is a human thermometer, a Black and Gold "meter reader'' if you will. He knows the team's temperature - hot, cold, lukewarm.

Case in point:

The San Francisco 49ers are coming off a 36-6 butt-slap in Week 1 at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks, the same 49ers that many pundits picked to win the NFC West.

Obviously, 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary is one angry hombre’ and you can bet he’ll have his team playing with a chip on its shoulder on a national stage Monday night at chilly, windswept Candlestick Park.

Singletary set the tone for the week with a team meeting Sunday night, upon arriving back in San Francisco from the Pacific Northwest. Simply put, he cleared the air behind closed doors.

“As a head coach,’’ Singletary told New Orleans media during a conference call Thursday, “I think it’s important to have the pulse of your team and for me, things were addressed after the game. I just wanted to make sure that when we got back that everybody understood what I said and exactly what I meant, so we were on the same page, so we didn’t have any conversations in the parking lot or in the bathroom, outside.

“I’m the kind of guy where I always like to make sure people understand what I’m saying very well. I don’t like gray. I let you know exactly what I’m saying and what I mean.”

In other words, the Saints could be walking into an ambush Monday night in the City by the Bay.

And don’t think that Payton, Brees and the rest of the Saints' football operations haven't picked up on those "circle-the-wagon'' vibes that are resonating from the Left Coast this week.

Yes, the Black and Gold are atop most NFL power rankings after Week 1 by virtue of their 14-9 win against the Minnesota Vikings. All the more reason for the 49ers to come loaded for bear.

“You make each game the most important game of the season just because it’s the next game,’’ Brees said. “You can never look too far ahead. You can never overlook anything despite what their record might say or anything else.

“I think last week, coming off the field it didn’t feel like it was a 14-point performance. There should have been at least 24 or 28 points on the board. It is what it is. We missed some third downs we probably wished we should have had back or executed a little bit better. Obviously, there were penalties and (poor) execution that killed some drives. Obviously, (we’re) putting a big emphasis on that this week and just knowing that you have to be more polished.”

Then, there is the potential for the Saints to be looking beyond Monday night, past the 0-1 49ers, to the last Sunday of September when their NFC South nemesis from Atlanta invades the Superdome.

New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees is pulse of his team

QBREES9

Good read, Drew DAT !!!

homerj07

Damn - I hope the destroy the whiners.