The moral of the story for the Carolina Panthers, and any other team that might have to face this New Orleans Saints team in the upcoming playoffs, is to keep up with the pace set by Drew Brees and his offense or else you’ll be doomed to see your hopes dashed in an awful big hurry.

The Panthers were entertaining the hopes of payback for what New Orleans did to them in their own house in week 5 and of ending their season on a positive note by potentially upsetting the NFC South Division Champion Saints in the Superdome. They claim that they were disrespected by the way the Saints‘ defense played them in their own stadium earlier in this season, as highlighted by the late hit from Roman Harper on Steve Smith after a touchdown catch in the endzone.

The second meeting between the Carolina Panthers and the New Orleans Saints this season might have seemed like a no-brainer to a lot of die-hard Saints fans and analysts alike, but Cam Newton‘s team was mighty confident coming in, as evidenced by the closeness of score during the first half of the game.

Though this matchup wound up looking like a total drumming, with the New Orleans Saints winning it by the final score of 45-17, you couldn’t exactly see it coming at halftime with only a 24-17 Saints lead.