Pats vs. Saints: The Live Blog

8:13. ESPN just showed their montage of crappy plays from the last week. The fumbling bumbling Chiefs and their cavalcade of botched snaps was new to us, but that highlight of two Raider defenders crashing into one another will probably never ever ever get old.

8:18. They're playing some crazy Dixieland Saints pep-rally song; Chris Berman said it sounded like Louis Armstrong, which caused many groans at Bostonist Sports HQ. It's basically Louis Armstrong in the same sense that Jordan's in Natick is basically the French Quarter.

8:21. On Channel 5's pregame, Tedy Bruschi is defending what he said about Belichick (basically, that 4thAnd2Gate would have been a personal slap to his face if he were still on the defense), and showing pictures of himself still being friendly with current Patriots to show that everything's OK. So nobody needs to "take Tedy fishing" tomorrow.

8:27. All the ESPN prognosticators in the Superdome are picking the Saints, except for Bruschi (OK, we get it). Stuart Scott says the home crowd will win it for New Orleans. Back in the studio, Ditka picks NO, Keyshawn and Berman picks the Pats, and the rest pick New Orleans. So we've got Keyshawn Johnson, the cuckoo Chris Berman, and Tedy Bruschi on our side.

8:29. Nothing like Kid Rock to get America psyched for football. That's pretty groundbreaking stuff, here in 1996.

8:31. Ron Jaworski is telling us that this is a matchup of two pretty good NFL quarterbacks. Jon Gruden says Belichick is a great coach. This is the kind of expert analysis you can't get from a hastily-written sports blog.

8:34. Somebody (let's get the UniWatch guys on this) should track Randy Moss' per-game stats and correlate it with his facial hair. Does he play better with the full beard? Is wearing only a mustache hurting him? America wants to know. Bostonist Sports HQ does, at any rate...

8:39. Reluctant credit to Hank Williams, Jr., or his songwriters, for the "church vs. state" line in his more-bombastic-than-ever pregame show. And these graphics are just confusing. Let's start the game, huh?

8:41. But let's not let them run the opening kick back to almost midfield.

8:41 and 3 seconds. Brees completes to Deverey Henderson for a 30 yard pass. Well, this isn't quite the start we had imagined.

8:45. Leigh Bodden almost picks off Brees after New Orleans picks up a bunch of yards, then the Pats stop a run on 3rd down. Here comes the Saints' FG unit. We literally feel like we dodged a bullet here.

8:46. And the kick is.....good. But on a ricochet. Rats. The score: 3-0, Them.

8:50. Not that we want to jinx anything, but we've noticed a sort of postive trend developing in the last few games, where Laurence Maroney seems to have added a new wrinkle to his running game, which we'll call "running towards the other team's end zone." It's a nice addition to his repertoire.

8:55. We hope everyone appreciates Kevin Faulk as much as they should. He's the little engine that could. And gets an enthusiastic "Welcome back to Louisiana!" from the MNF announcers. But this time, without the misdemeanor pot possesion charge!

8:59. They're going on 4th and inches....and Maroney's in!!! Second-guess THAT, America! 7-3, Us.

9:06. Nice catch by Shockey (we said begrudgingly), but GREAT hit by Brandon Meriweather, who levels him. If we gave out Tommy Points for football games, that would be one.

9:08. Brees wildly overthrows on 3rd, and the Saints punt to Welker, who motors halfway down the field before a Saint finally hauls him down. Great second series by the defense, and great everything, always, by Wes Welker. We're going to see how we can legally take the nickname "Worldwide Wes" away from that mysterious character that hangs around the NBA and bestow it on #83.

9:11. Brady gets intercepted. Nuts.

9:16. The second quarter opens, and the Pats' defense seems to have gotten their legs back after a couple of long N.O. gains. And the commercials, by the way, are getting worse and worse. Especially the snake-oil ones. We're glad America's epidemic of restless-legs syndrome came and went quickly, though.

9:20. Two moe big defensive stops. ESPN announcers: "Vince Wilfork impacted that play." Vince Wilfork impacts the orbit of Venus, guys. But then the Saints punch it through for a first down. Dang.

9:22. And then Pierre Thomas spins, swivels and sprints for a TD. The kick is barely good. 10-7, New Orleans, but now we kind of hope it comes down to a late kick.

9:28. Wes Welker is the MacGyver of the NFL. Give him some chewing gum and a couple of pipe cleaners, and he could probably solve the concussion problem.

9:31. The Pats had to take a timeout because of the crowd noise (which we heard sounds even louder on the radio, and even louder still when it was recorded and played at the old Hoosier Dome). It might have been responsible for Morris dropping the pass, it may certainly have played a part in not hearing the defender about to level the Pats receivers.

9:35. That was just pretty much the worst deep coverage ever. 17-7, Saints.

9:39. Part of me wants to know what the defense is hearing in their group huddle with Bill Belichick. And part of me thinks it probably would make Al Swearengen blush.

9:41. Brady finds Aiken for a counter-long-bomb; unfortunately, the Saints secondary was at least in the same parish* as Aiken, so they were able to keep him from strolling into the end zone (*Louisiana uses parishes for regional governmental divisions, not counties. They say you learn something every day. Hopefully, we're educating as well as entertaining.)

9:43. Welker gets interfered with; no flag. Even Jon Gruden's upset.

9:46. 17-10, New Orleans. Nice kick by Gostkowski. Nice chin on Sir Saint.

9:50. The Patriots' tackling has become a little bit of a concern here at Bostonist Sports HQ. Of course, as soon as we said that, somebody threw Pierre Thomas back about four yards. Our concern remains, however.

9:51. Another clean Brees pass up the middle. Man, they weren't kidding about this N.O. offense, were they? Meanwhile, is Belichick using a little minigolf pencil stub to make his notes?

9:54. 24-10, New Orleans. We're ready to believe almost anything about Drew Brees and this offense at this point. When's the last time the Pats were just trying to hang around in a game?

9:58. And the New Orleans defense is also living up to the hype, having rushed Brady over and over again on this drive (the Pats just got bailed out by a penalty, though). Tim just found Moss for the first time, and the Superdome crowd turned it down from 11 for the first time in about an hour.

10:00. Kevin Faulk is lucky to have his head still attached after that hit. He's getting looked at, but the Pats have put a nice drive together. Maybe we ain't dead yet.

10:05. After a missed FG, Brees takes a knee to end the first half. Why? The way he's going, 13 seconds and a couple of time outs...they could score 24 points before halftime. We'll take it, though, and be back in a few minutes.

10:25. We're back, and the Pats almost fumbled away their first drive. And Moss almost fumbled away a first down. It's getting hectic.

10:29. That wasn't even a vintage Maroney play; he was fully ready to go forward and Jonathan Vilma just pancaked him. Even our fillings hurt after that hit.

10:30. And New Orleans has to hurt after Brady turns a bad drop into a long bomb to Moss inside the five. We especially love Randy raising his hand as if to summon the ball.

10:31 and 5 seconds. Maroney! 24-17, New Orleans. Maybe, once again, we ain't dead yet...

10:34. New Orleans answers with yet another bomb, and Meriweather is lucky as can be to haul the receiver down before he runs all the way to Shreveport. And now it's 31-17. This team is borderline ridiculously good. Did we look this dominating two years ago?

10:48. A long drive ends on a 4th-down incompletion. Even when the Pats were driving, every completion on that series looked lucky. Now let's see if the D can stall Brees and company for a couple of minutes.

10:52. They just sacked Brees....they can do that? Can they do it again?

10:58. Well, they slowed them down enough for a punt. Now time for another long drive. Which starts with Brady throwing it two feet too far. Now time for ESPN to kill us with a stat about the Pats falling apart in fourth quarters. Things don't look great right now.

11:09. Another New Orleans touchdown. Time to shut this thing down, tip our hats to the Saints - probably the most complete team we've seen in like forever - and wish them the best. Not that they need it. We just hope the '72 Dolphins have some sleepless nights over the next couple months. They deserve it. Good night, everyone.