To all Bears fans here, from a Saints fan... you DESERVE it!

[Brotherjohn]

Great game, and GREAT DEFENSE!

We Saints fans can complain all we want about turnovers and officiating. But what it comes down to is the Saints were flat-out BEAT on the line of scrimmage. Especially your defense taking it to our offense.

The fumbles, for the most part, were caused by Bears and not the elements. That's one of the reasons you have the No. 1 defense. The one or two the Saints dropped of their own account were just our own damn fault (and one of those we were DAMN lucky to fall on).

The officiating, while there may have been a couple of picky calls, they did not make the difference. If we had been able to hold our own on the line of scrimmage and hold onto the ball, we wouldn't even be talking about a call or two here or there.

The early turnovers caused the Saints to go away from the "smash-mouth" (read Deuce McAlister) game plan they wanted to establish. When you're behind by 16 near the end of the 1st half, you have to adapt. Brees did his best to get us back in (and Bush... tie for RECORD longest TD in NFL post-season history!). But in the end, couldn't withstand the pressure. It wasn't so much him as a great Bears DL, though. Few QBs could have done much better against the Bears front the way they played yesterday.

We lost because we were outplayed by a No. 1 defense that was much stronger than our No. 1 offense. Great game, Bears! You know what they say defense wins...

Good luck in Miami! Show'em what the NFC is all about!

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

1. Thanks Brotherjohn.

Your comments are much appreciated. If the Saints had been playing any other team but my beloved Bears, I would have been cheering my heart out for them.

I do have to admit one thing though, I can't wait to watch "Inside the NFL" this week on HBO. The only panelist who picked the Bears was Bob Costas. I can't wait to see the rest of them making their excuses...:evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[Brotherjohn]

2. Yeah, a lot of people are eating crow. One ESPN column is all about that.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2738549

I was most impressed w/ the defense. Brees was under pressure all day. Some Saints fans are blaming play-calling (i.e. not running enough). But as Brees said in an article elsewhere, they HAD to change several run plays to passes based on what Chicago was showing them at the line. And it still didn't work. And then we got behind...

Yes, had the Saints scored on that series after the Bush run and taken the lead, we would have been in the driver's seat. Yes, if Brees hadn't thrown the ball away and been called for a safety, the results could have been different. But as Jim Mora, Sr., famously (in Saints circles anyway) said, "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda!"

Those things didn't just "happen". The Bears defense is the direct REASON those things happened. They stopped out momentum COLD and took it back.

[TSIAS]

3. I have to eat crow

I figured McAllister and Bush would run all over the Bears defense, minus Tommie Harris and Mike Brown.