WhoDat!656

Compare the moment. It's 2009, the end of the regular season. After starting 13-0, the New Orleans Saints finished 0-3.

Now here we are, at the end of the 2011 regular season, and the Saints are 13-3 again, but this time they're a team that went from 5-3 to 8-0.

What does this tell you?

Not a lot really.

If you look at the 8-0 windup, and how dominating the Saints were in handling business, you say the Saints have a better chance to win their second Super Bowl than they had to win their first.

Two seasons ago, some pundits were digging ditches for Coach Sean Payton's surprising football team, comparing the 0-3 close to the clock striking 12 for Cinderella.

Whereupon, Cinderella arose and became the first team to land the Lombardi Trophy after closing 0-3.

These Saints are no Cinderella.

Here's what Las Vegas is telling us.

The Saints will be favored to defeat the Detroit Lions at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, then defeat the 49ers in San Francisco, then be a slight underdog against the Packers in Green Bay for the right to play New England in the Super Bowl in Indianapolis on Feb. 5.

What is Payton telling us?

"We're a different team," he said, stating the obvious. "We're excited for the opportunity that's ahead."

New Orleans Saints drawing comparisons to Super Bowl XLIV team - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."