See you in the playoffs...

..hopefully in the Dome.

I was in that number yesterday and it was a heckuva game - an absolute heavyweight fight. I sit with my dad, who at age 75 has seen enough Saints football to know that no lead is safe - ever. So as frustrating as it was to see the Rams comeback, I wasn't surprised. Too many weapons on your team for them to stay down for an entire game.

Anyway, here are my post-game thoughts compared to my pre-game take:

1) Offense - when I said this is the most balanced team of the Payton Era, this is what I was talking about. 200+ yards for Michael Thomas but also 3 TDs for Kamara. Plus Taysom Hill pulling it down when he didnt have -- checks notes--- Drew Brees open, and running for a big 3rd down. I was surprised the Saints went after Marcus Peters like that - I'm sure that will be a topic of discussion around here.

I said our O-line was top 2 or 3 and they showed up huge. Donald got penetration on a few run stops but the O-line held up and Drew still has the best pocket awareness/short area agility of any QB I've ever seen.

2) Defense - we made just enough stops. We're not a good defense, and the Rams offense is incredibly tough to defend, but they held up against the run (still not sure how we are so good against the run, but we are) and our lousy secondary was slightly less lousy than the Rams. A common refrain among Saints fans is that if Drew had played with Just OK defenses instead of Historically Awful defenses for so many years, he'd have multiple rings. This defense looks Just OK, which might be all we need, but they still give me hives.

3) Special Teams - arguably the difference in the game, between the missed fake (yeah, I thought he got it too), the Rams missed FG and Lutz doing his thing in the 4th quarter.

I think I said 37-34 and at one point in the 4th it was 38-35, and then... you know.

These are unarguably the 2 best teams in the NFC. I do not want to play the Rams again any time soon, but I suspect there is a playoff rematch in the offing.

Good luck until then... Cheers.