The 1980's song from the rock band Journey, 'Any You Want It' might as well be the 2018 New Orleans Saints theme song. A week after winning 12-9 at division rival Carolina, the Saints defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-28 in about as fun and well played a football game as you'll in 2018.
Whatever style an opponent wants to play, the 2018 Saints are more than capable of delivering a victory against them. This year's Saints have managed to combine the 2009 Saints defensive ability to create turnovers at JUST the right moment with dominant run defense and elite pass rush.
The Saints wrapped the final regular season game with any importance needing Drew Brees to deliver a game-winning drive and #9 did just that, ensuring the most complete team in franchise history won't play another road game unless they go to the Super Bowl in February.
Brees knows exactly what that means, "Listen, it's hard to secure the 1-seed. But knowing we've done it, knowing that the road comes through New Orleans, that gives us a lot of confidence. Obviously we love playing in the dome, we love playing in front of the Who Dat Nation, obviously, they make this a very tough place for someone to come in and play."
Let me translate that from boring Brees talk to English, “My guy, look at the loss column for Saints in Superdome playoff games when I'm the quarterback. That's a zero. I plan on mounting 2 NFC teams helmets on my wall come January.”
Just how good are the 2018 Saints? The Pittsburgh Steelers out-coached them, played with more desperation, and the Saints won anyway. What more could you ask for from a football team in the regular season than the 13-2 record the Saints delivered? Short of having money fall from the Mercedes Benz Superdome rafters or Drew Brees levitate like a magician, there isn't anything more the 2018 Saints could gift us during this regular season.
There is something oddly comforting about this team heading into the playoffs, knowing for the first time ever, the Saints don't absolutely need perfect Drew Brees is win games. Oh, it'd be fantastic if Brees plays 2 more playoff games like he has the previous 5 postseason contests in the Dome, but if he doesn't, the Saints can win anyway. It'd be nerve-wracking and might turn every hair on my head gray, but if the Dallas Cowboys want to wrestle in the mud again to see who goes to NFC Championship with the first team to 17 points punching their ticket, the Saints will take off their shirt and dive head first into the mud-pit. If the Los Angeles Rams would prefer a track meet where 45 points is what it'll take to win, Drew Brees is more than capable of throwing 5 touchdowns.
No other team in the NFL has shown this mastery on both sides of the football to pull of such dissimilar performances. The worse news for the rest of the NFC is if the Saints play to their realized potential on offense and defense, no one is stopping a second trip to the Super Bowl and the 2018 playoffs will make Mardi Gras look like your office's Christmas party.
Here's a fun thought I'd never type in a million years, much less at the end of 2018; Thank goodness Ted Ginn Jr. is back in time for the playoffs. Ginn had 5 catches for 74 yards, including a huge 25-yard reception on 3rd and 20 on the game-winning drive. I'm not saying Ted Ginn is the secret sauce for the 2018 Saints offense, I'm just asking you to open your mind to the possibility he might be.
It finally hit me why Saints fans have been having a minor freak out over the offense the past month; we judge it against the unreachable star of the 2011 version. That offense is a top 10, maybe top 5 of ALL TIME. This Saints offense in quality and style mirrors the 2009 Saints, who I'm not sure you are aware, but did, in fact, win a Super Bowl. By the way, for all their so-called struggles on offense, the Saints scored 31, just a hair less than 32.8 they average. There are lots of playoff teams who would love 31 points of offense to be just another day at the office. Give this offense 2 weeks to rest and Sean Payton 2 weeks to game plan for a playoff opponent and they'll be fine to open the postseason.
The defense finally was less than amazing after 6 straight weeks of brilliance, but for the second week in a row created the most timely of turnovers.
The Saint pass rush did sack Ben Roethlisberger 3 times but the pressure felt inconsistent and not what the defense has dished out the past 6 weeks. There are so many great and fun things about the Saints defense this year, but Demario Davis playing linebacker at a level we haven't seen since the Dome Patrol terrorized offenses in the early 1990s might be my favorite. The guy is just at another level right now.
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The Saints defense hadn't been punched in the face like yesterday since Week 3 in Atlanta but they responded by creating 2 fourth-quarter turnovers and shoveling dirt on the Steelers playoff hopes.
So what now? We get to enjoy a preseason game in December but with the curiosity of watching Teddy Bridgewater prove to rest of NFL he's a quality starting quarterback. I'm irrationally excited about watching Teddy play quarterback and see if he's capable of looking good enough to secure a gigantic contract from someone next March.
The Saints now have everything set for the playoffs exactly how they'd hoped; two weeks of rest and never have to step on a plane before a flight to Atlanta. The playoffs are a cruel mistress and nothing is guaranteed. Just ask the 2017 Saints or the undefeated 2007 New England Patriots, who lost because a guy caught a pass with his helmet, but playoff success or failure doesn't change the certainty in my mind the Saints just wrapped up the greatest season, with the most complete team, in franchise history.
Ralph Malbrough is a Saints fan living in Houston. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SaintsForecast or download his podcast at Itunes. Oh and watch him every Monday on the WWL morning news at 6:45 a.m.