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As has already been said about one hundred times since yesterday afternoon, "it may have been ugly, but a win's a win."

While that may be true, those wins could get a lot uglier or not even be wins anymore if the Saints can't find a way to stay healthy. Sunday's narrow 16-14 victory over the Carolina Panthers didn't help the matters much either.

Reggie Bush is still on the mend with a broken fibula and we all know he'll be out at least another 2-3 weeks. No big surprise there. Running back Pierre Thomas and safety Roman Harper were late scratches from the starting line-up due to injuries, but hopefully they'll be able to heal up during this week in order to play against the Arizona Cardinals. Things got scary in a hurry though for the Saints after the game began.

These are in no particular order:

Scare # 1: Cornerback Tracy Porter went down last week and ended up being limited for much of the loss to Atlanta. At one point during the second half against Carolina, Porter went down yet again and stayed on the turf for a few minutes before getting up and walking off under his own power and returning to the game.

Scare # 2: Defensive back Pierson Prioleau took a good shot during a special teams kickoff play and appeared to originally have his bell rung, but it was later revealed to be a blow to the chest. Prioleau is the Saints' special teams captain and was even starting in place of Harper yesterday, but then had to be taken to the locker room and didn't return.

Scare # 3: Defensive back Chris Reis came in to fill the spot now void by Prioleau. Reis wasn't in there but maybe three plays before he laid on the turf clutching his shoulder. Reis was soon helped to the sideline and then back to the locker room not to return.

Once Reis went down, that left the Saints with a secondary of Jabari Greer, Porter (shaken up), rookie Patrick Robinson, Malcolm Jenkins, Randall Gay (who seems now designated to special teams but could jump in if needed), and Usama Young who really stepped up his game. That's not a good sign when you're essentially looking at two back-ups and one of them is a rookie. Kind of frightening, but you just have to hope that someone will pick up their game and fill in where absences leave the Saints vulnerable.

While injuries are decimating the defense (not to mention Darren Sharper and Clint Ingram who are still on the PUP list for another two games), the offense is also suffering from their fair shares of bumps and bruises as well. Besides Thomas and Bush, the running back corps has been hit extremely hard. Lynell Hamilton and PJ Hill both landed on IR (injured reserve) during the preseason which ended their years before they started. Then Chris Ivory ended up missing the first two games of the regular season due to injuries, but luckily he's back now.

No matter how much they downplay it, it's going to be thrown in our faces and Saints' fans won't forget about it either until it is known that everything is 100%. That would be the left knee of Drew Brees. Shaken up in the Falcons' loss, Brees practiced the past week with a brace on his leg and then played the whole game against the Panthers with it on. Asked about the brace after the game, Brees laughed and said it was "more precautionary than anything."

If anything makes the Who Dat Nation more nervous than anything else in this world, it is the thought of LWB - Life Without Brees. Faith now resides in the offensive line more than ever before in the hopes that they can keep the Saints' leader upright and avoid any cheap shots at his leg. But that doesn't happen in NFL right?

The New Orleans Saints are sitting at 3-1 and tied with Atlanta atop the NFC South, but they have virtually hover-rounded (yes, it's a verb) themselves there. This next stretch of games in October is very important as the black and gold has a road trip to Arizona and then to Tampa Bay before returning home to face Cleveland in the Superdome. After that, it's a Halloween night game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not downplaying the Cardinals, Bucs, or Browns; but that Steelers' team is very physical and extremely violent. The Saints are going to need to be at full strength for this very possible Super Bowl match-up and have everyone they can at 100% or better.

If they're not, then the boys can go out in the French Quarter on that Halloween night as a black and gold hospital ward.

Full article from The Examiner

lumm0x

If there is a silver lining to this dark cloud it is that the easiest part of our schedule is at hand. If we can get through the next few games and manage wins without adding to the injury list we should be in good shape for the second half of the season.

pherein

Lets see.. hmm.. we barely won vs the valqueens, squeaked by the whinners, and hobbled past "clausen and the *****cats".

I vote we Luckily beat the cardinals in the next game.

pherein

lol, no. Never will. Im voting for the next headline.

"Saints Luckily beat the Cardinals"

I just find it amusing that the Ravens and other teams are winning by 3-5 pts also, and no one is using these explicatives in the headline titles.

I like Luckily, but marginally should also be considered