CHA_CHING

That was the game that told me we were going to have problems in the playoffs. That was the moment I hit the panic button.

Offense was dominating them in the first half, then did nothing in the second half. Whatever broke in the offense with the Dallas game, it was never fixed. They struggled against Tampa Bay and needed the defense to block a punt just to get life in them to start doing something. The Panthers game was also a nightmare how bad the offense performed, and yet this game against Pittsburgh was at home and it didn't erase our fears.

Defense had to get not one, but two 4th down stops, a turnover AND bailed us out in the end with the last turnover to seal it. The offense needed ALL of that and a tick-tacky pass interference penalty on Haden to get that last TD and just barely escape that game.

Talk about the blown call in the NFCCG all you want, but that game went eerily similar to the Steelers game, being that we blew a two possession lead and were depending on our defense to bail us out (something they had been doing every week prior to that, including against the Eagles where we just barely mustered 20 points despite dominating them statistically). We had a 13-0 and 20-10 lead against the Rams and blew it. The offense really did nothing for the rest of the game after going up 20-10. Brees' miracle bomb to Ginn was the last positive offensive play and yet that was almost an interception.

Every time I think about this game, I believe it was the moment we were doomed. The blueprint to shutting our offense down had been written. Even if we get past the Rams, I seen nothing in either playoff game that told me we would beat the Patriots. They struggled against Philly, they struggled against the Rams. The Pats would've shut our offense down and we would've sat there hoping and praying for the defense to bail us out again. I believe Brees gets us more than 3 points, but my gut has always told me the Pats probably beat us by 10 if not more.