SmashMouth

As the New Orleans Saints dispatched the pesky New York Jets on Sunday afternoon at the Superdome, a dozen stadium staffers and security personnel gathered around the flat-screen TVs in the back of the press box.

With the Saints' 31-19 victory in hand, it was time to turn their attention toward the NFC competition.

Yet, try as they might, the Saints fans could not make it happen. Their mojo failed. The Saints' main NFC rivals - the Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles - all won. A few hours later, the Los Angeles Rams did the same, leaving the Saints in the very same spot where they started Sunday's competition: Tied with Carolina atop the NFC South Division at 10-4 and holding the No. 4 playoff seed in the conference playoff standings.

The Saints took care of business Sunday. They didn't gain any ground in the NFC playoff race, but they didn't lose any either, and that's important as we enter the final two weeks of the regular season.



The victory wasn't pretty. No one will submit the game tape to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for historical preservation. The Saints committed eight penalties, lost three turnovers and converted only 3 of 10 third downs, continuing a flummoxing season-long trend.



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