Yeah, I'm surprised more people besides Danno aren't keying in on this....it's all about the first quarter, folks....



As long as Drew and the Saints don 't shoot themselves in the foot and dig a RIDONKULOUS 14 or 17 POINT HOLE for themselves, in the first ten minutes of the game, with a Football Follies-esque assortment of fumbles, pick 6's, onside kicks, botched kick returns, bobbled drops, 3-and-outs, personal fouls out of bounds and other ABSURD assorted nonsense, before they even get a first down....as long the first quarter is anything resembling NORMAL sensible football, instead of a total Saints meltdown, the Saints have every chance of winning this game EASILY. Even possibly running away with it.



But if the TV cuts back from a commercial to start the second quarter and they're down 14 or 17 to nothing again, and you see Morstead lining up to punt after another 3 and out, then I think we can all pretty safely reach for the whiskey and start looking to next year ....



Look at what happens in SO MANY of the famous heartbreaker road losses under Sean Payton, over the years: Seattle this year, Rams this year, SF '11, Ravens '10, even Chicago NFCCG in '06? In all those disappointing games, things got crazy and out of control VERY early in the game, first quarter. Everything goes nuts -- Saints get punched in the mouth, the plan goes out the window, they get in a huge ridiculous deep hole, and the Saints try but can't come back from it. Key to this game IMHO, is to AVOID that. To win in Carolina they need to control the first quarter and do everything they can think of that is, uh, NOT THAT.