Are You Ready for Some Offense?

David Stern is the master of professional sports scheduling, but even he couldn't have lined up the stars for Monday night's New Orleans-New England matchup on the Bayou, which features two teams with a touch of offensive acumen.

Drew Brees has the undefeated Saints topping the league in passing yards per, with 420.5, and is probably wondering how in Hades he's not the front-runner in the MVP debate. Meanwhile, Tom Brady has the Pats' passing offense *only* averaging 416.1 yards per game as he looks to tie the NFL record for consecutive 300-yard passing games at six.

So, um, yeah, there's a decent chance you might get to see some points scored during ESPN's primetime broadcast tonight.

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Vegas has the over/under set at 56.5, but come on, man -- even with New England and New Orleans both rocking relatively impressive pass defenses (the Patriots rank sixth and the Saints 16th), there's really no reason to think that this won't be an epic offensive shootout.

Of greater interest, in fact, might be the odds on whether or not this game can top the Monday Night FavreFest that garnered ESPN some pretty insane ratings; the common logic would say "no" (and quickly) because of the Saints' relative obscurity compared to Green Bay and even the No. 4-led Vikings.

But this is the type of game that somehow manages to take on some sort of life of its own; if Brady and Brees both strike twice in the first quarter -- and please don't think that's totally out of the question whatsoever -- suddenly ESPN could see a spike in viewers jumping on board to watch the shootout. If the game gets close at the end, well, you see where I'm going here -- it just has all the makings of a classic ratings buster.


And that's even before you consider that the Saints and Pats are a little more subtly intertwined than most would immediately recognize; New Orleans' Sedrick Ellis and New England's Jerod Mayo, two young defensive stars, were picked after the teams swapped 2008 picks -- and both guys are critical to the success of their respective up-and-coming defensive units.

Mayo has only 45 tackles and one forced fumble, but he's the Breesus of the Patriots' defense (all due respect to the Saints quarterback) and gets yet another nearly impossible matchup just two weeks after having to match audible-calling wits with Peyton Manning and the Colts.

Ellis' presence might be more important -- take a look at the Saints' undefeated season thus far and you'll see a distinct difference between their first five games and their last five: early in the season, New Orleans shut teams down and won in blowout fashion. Until the Miami game anyway, which, "coincidentally" is when Ellis went down. Since then, the Saints' average point differential plummeted (the team was averaging 20.6 points per game better than opponents with Ellis, and 13.2 per without him -- and that number is inflated because of a 31-point blowout of the Bucs).

Without Ellis, teams like Carolina, Miami and even freaking St. Louis discovered that New Orleans was vulnerable to the run and each could have ended the Saints' current run at perfection. With Ellis back, you can expect to see Brady and Co. turning towards the short pass much more often.

Which should mean plenty of Wes Welker, as if you haven't seen enough of him already this season. Welker's insane numbers (first in catches, first in YPG, sixth in overall yards, first in YAC) figure to get another boost from Brady, who will, obviously, be New England's catalyst.

The Saints, on the other hand, may skew towards the unexpected to begin the game -- Mike Bell may see some early carries as New Orleans attempts to establish the run and set up the play-action by moving through Vince Wilfork and the New England defensive line. Whether that actually works, of course, remains to be seen, but it would be an interesting wrinkle in Sean Payton's offensive attack.

Of course, not everything the Pats do will be guarded in the typical Belichickian shroud of secrecy this time. If you run through the Saints' current roster, you'll see a few folks -- Randall Gay, David Thomas, Heath Evans, Kyle Eckel -- who achieved perfection with the 2007 incarnation of the Patriots. However, Evans is hurt (though he's been, as Saints fan Mantz points out, 'coaching' to a degree on the Pats' tendencies) and obviously things have changed somewhat in the way -- and with who -- New England approaches the game.

The Saints' knowledge won't be all-encompassing obviously, but it's not worth dismissing. Neither is the fact that Tom Brady once beat Drew Brees, way back when they played in college. Brees at the time was en route to becoming the nation's most prolific passer at Purdue, but Brady's Michigan team held him in check.

That probably doesn't mean that Brees holds a grudge -- although given his "exile" to New Orleans and subsequent revival, not to mention Brady's sixth-rounder "underdog" status, it's not difficult to imagine both these quarterbacks playing with a chip on their shoulder. And maybe it's even a stringy, at best, connection, especially considering Brees went 2-0 with the Chargers when Brady was under center for the Pats.


There's nothing unsubstantial, though, regarding the (second) shot this game gives the Patriots at establishing their 2009 dominance and keeping anyone from challenging their 2007 16-0 regular season record. Of course, on the other hand, the game also gives the Saints an absolute springboard to make a run at not only the 2007 Pats, but, dare I say, the '72 Dolphins?

But, in the end, it won't really matter how we see these two teams interwoven into the past, present or future, because once kickoff comes around, we'll be treated to an offensive explosion that should resemble Mike Leach's playbook being strapped onto a 50-foot long bottle rocket. Or something. It'll be fun. Trust me.