Loaded up and truckin’,
We’re gonna do what they say can’t be done.
We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I’m east bound, just watch ol’ Reggie run.

Keep your foot hard on the pedal, son, never mind them brakes.
Let it all hang out ’cause we got a run to make.

All aboard the Groovy Train, bitches! We’re takin’ this convoy all the way to Glendale! Which… um… actually is westbound. Unless the origin is Seattle. But it’s not. So it’s not really…. aw fuck it, who wants pie?!?

Oh sure, it was far from perfect. Jammal Brown is still Mr. Presnap Penalty Pants. TJ Douchemanzadeh looks like he’d still fit right in with the LSU wideouts. There were times when you wondered if it would matter if they let the Saints play 15 DBs.

But you know what? Screw all that. You’ve gotta start somewhere, and while perhaps next year the Saints ought to think about starting in week one, for now, we’ll take what we can get. Is it the start of something big? Or just a temporary respite from the crapfest? I’d answer that, but if this year has taught me nothing else (and it hasn’t) it’s at least driven home that I have absolutely no clue what the hell is going on.

The good news is that it’s not like the Saints played over their heads Sunday night. Consider that Seattle gave the Saints a touchdown on the botched long snap. And you can never count on blocking a field goal attempt. That’s a 10-point swing, and without that, Seattle is inside the Saints’ red zone with under a minute to play needing only a chip shot field goal to pull out a 23-21 win.

I know, I know. Other things would have gone differently too, the Saints would have played the second half differently. All I’m saying is that it’s not like it was the perfect storm for the Saints, and that’s good news. It means it wasn’t necessarily an unsustainable fluke performance. It’s a long-awaited indication that the Saints are still capable of beating a decent, not great, team with a decent, not great, performance.

It’s a start. They’re not going 0-16, and don’t look now, but they’re no longer in the division cellar either. Thank God for the Fighting Joey Harringtons.

The Buccaneers are doing it with smoke and mirrors right now. Their offense is dreadful. 23rd in the league in points scored, 25th in total yards, 22nd in passing yards and 19th in rushing yards. They’ve been very fortunate in catching the Saints while their head were up their asses, the 0-6 Rams, David Carr in his first start and a Tennessee team that was without Vince Young for the second half, yet dominated Tampa in every stat but the score.

Jeff Garcia is still 37 years old and hasn’t played a full season in five years. He’s playing over his head right now and their offense still sucks. He’s going to tire, he’s going to start throwing INTs (he has zero so far, and he’s never had fewer than ten in a full season) and he’s going to get sacked. Their defense, for the most part, is still old and playing over their heads. The Bucs are a mirage.

Similarly, I have a hard time believing Carolina can sustain. David Carr has actually regressed. His completion percentage and passer rating are worse than they’ve been since his rookie year. He sucks on ice. Vinnie Testaverde was a nice story last weekend, but he’s FORTY FOUR YEARS OLD. Why did the Pants beat the Cardinals? Two words: Tim Rattay. The Pants are 23rd in total yards and 26th in passing yards. And it’s not gonna get any better.

They haven’t beaten anybody, and that includes the Saints. They’ve beaten 0-6 St. Louis, the 1-5 Fightin’ Joeys and Tim Rattay. The Saints handed them their fourth win because they couldn’t see through their own colons. And next up? Yeah, they’ve got Indy.

I know it’s counterintuitive to call "lucky" a couple of teams who have lost two quarterbacks and two tailbacks, respectively. But both teams have been getting by largely based on the incompetence and/or misfortune of their opponents, and that is not going to continue. There’s just no upside for those teams moving forward.

Meanwhile, the Saints have upside coming out of their asses. There’s no guarantee that they’ll realize that upside, of course, if the first five weeks of the season are any indication. The good news though is that the first five weeks aren’t necessarily an indication.

The Saints’ next two opposing quarterbacks are Joey Harrington and Trent Dilfer. Oh my. Atlanta and San Francisco are 29th and 31st in the league in scoring offense, respectively. HELLO!

Carolina has Peyton Manning and, hopefully, Vince Young to deal with the next two games. Tampa has surprisingly-competent Detroit and Jacksonville.

God help me, but dare I even suggest that by this time next month, the Saints will be surging and the Pants and Bucs will be fading?

Guh. Somebody slap me please. Hard.

Of course it’s a gross overreaction to a win that was in large part predicated on things that can’t be counted on to happen on a week to week basis. But that’s all I’ve got to go on right at the moment. The bottom line is that the Saints showed Sunday night that they ain’t necessarily dead yet. They’ve still got it in them to be a reasonable facsimile of last year’s team from here on out. Kinda. Maybe.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s all it’ll take.