Um… uh… Cha-Ching? Hey why not, what the hell. Cha-Ching!

It's been tough coming up with anything interesting to say about such a beige pink game Sunday in Jacksonville. I think we all agree that it was pretty bland. One of those games where you struggle to stay interested, and when it's over, you're all "Well alrighty then. That happened. Say, how long until next Sunday?" I suppose it speaks to how far the franchise has come over the last half-decade. Once upon a time, we'd have been dancing pantsless in the streets over a 2-score win on the road in which the outcome was never in much doubt. Even against a rebuilding team like Jacksonville. These days? "Sigh. Welp, bring on the next victim."

Hell, seems we don't even get all that stoked anymore about 3-game win streaks. I mean, we'll take it, of course. But it seems like it's gotten to the point where 3-game win streaks are almost old hat. "Meh, somebody wake me when it reaches 5 or 6."

At least there was pink shit all over the place to spice it up a bit. Hey, don't get me wrong. Great cause. Stupid promotion. Surely they can figure out other ways to support the cause without making everything look ridiculous for a month. They look like they all got together and raided Bret Hart's closet or something.

Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if the next asshole who takes a cheap shot late hit on Drew Brees ends up in the Sharpshooter. Seems Drew has had juuuuust about enough of that bullshit.

Speaking of old hat (also, speaking of ridiculous) it doesn't look like it's gonna be too much longer before nobody even bothers to raise an eyebrow when Jimmy Graham puts up nearly 150 receiving yards, and/or Darren Sproles puts up 200 or so all-purpose yards. But until then… uh… holy shit? In-freakin'-SANE. These guys… these are my kinda guys.

I'd be interested to hear your theories on why exactly (assuming you agree with the premise, but how could you not?) it is that these two guys in particular are just so damn fun to watch. I don't know, maybe it's as simple as the whole big play thing. I've considered that, but I don't think it quite covers it. It could be an otherwise-unremarkable 8-yard Sproles run or 12-yard Graham catch, but there's just a little extra something I can't quite put my finger on when it's one of those guys. A little extra juice.

I don't know, is it because Sproles is so little and Graham is so damn big? Is it the "How in the hell does a guy so little/big do the kinds of things he does???" factor? Is it that these guys are kicking ass in all the ways we thought Shockey and Reggie were gonna? All/none of the above? It can't be just about competence, because there's plenty of competence on this team, especially on offense.

In related news: JED COLLINS, BITCHES!

Anyway, so we're at the proverbial "quarter pole" and no complaints I guess. (Except this one: THE SEASON IS ALREADY A QUARTER OVER?!?!? SHIT!!!!) It's more or less gone the way most of us figured it would, no? And there's been a little something for everybody. A decent mix of dominance and adversity, and a glimpse or two at pretty much every aspect of this year's team.

We've had the closer-than-it-shoulda-been heartbreaking loss despite a gutsy late rally, on the road against Green Bay. That game gave us and the team the "Don't go thinking you're the best damn team in the league just yet" lesson. We got confirmation that Drew Brees is still a god, and reports of his slow decline were greatly exaggerated completely made-up. It also gave us the opportunity to get a little insight into the "How will they respond?" issue the following week against the Bears. And they passed that test with flying colors.

The Chicago game also gave us the dominant defensive effort. The Bears only gained 186 yards passing and 60 yards rushing. So we know the defense is at least capable, at least under certain circumstances. The Saints gave us the 3-score win we'd been craving (or, to be more precise, that we always crave) and even better, it was against an opponent that pretty much nobody expected the Saints to beat by three scores. A little taste of domination there.

The Houston game gave us the furious late-game comeback that actually resulted in a victory as opposed to a heartbreaking loss. We learned that the Saints could still win, despite the opponent putting up more total offense (473!!!) and despite Drew turning the ball over twice. The Saints gave us our first 40-burger of the season, those are always delicious. The whole "Down but NEVER out!" thing was reconfirmed. And we learned that the offense is capable of carrying the team to victory even when the defense is having one of Those Days.

Drew once again reconfirmed that he's the Hulk Hogan of NFL quarterbacks. At this point it's damn near as formulaic as… well… your typical Hulk Hogan match. Just when he looks about as shitty as it's possible for him to look, that's when you know it's only a matter of (a very short period of) time before he Hulks Up, and gets that look in his eye. Then he wags his finger at the opponent, punches him in the face, drops the leg and pins his chump ass. If you didn't know any better, you'd think Kevin Sullivan was booking this shit.

And then there was Sunday at Jacksonville. The Chicago (and to a lesser extent, Houston) game(s) showed us that the Saints can… wait for it, wait for it… RUN THE BALL(!!!) but the Jacksonville game showed us that the Saints can really fuckin' run the ball. When they want to, that is. And when circumstances allow for it.

On the other hand, it also showed us (or at least I think it did) that running the ball, as effective as it was, resulted in the lowest scoring output of the season despite the highest offensive yardage output of the season. I'm not so sure that's a good thing.

Oh, I know they're blaming it on red zone woes. And if Kasay had made the two (50+ yard) kicks he missed, the Saints would have put up 29 rather than 23. It would still have been their lowest scoring output of the season, but by only one point. But when you're running the ball at a 5.2ypc clip and putting up 500+ yards of total offense, why in the hell is Kasay attempting two 50+ yard kicks in the first place?

That's a minor quibble though. Far be it from me to bitch and moan about the Saints showing us that they're capable of putting up 177 rushing yards. On the road. On grass. Against a defense that had only been giving up 84 yards rushing per game before Sunday. That's good stuff right there. Ought to come in quite handy down the road.

The Jacksonville game also showed us that both the rushing game and the defense are whole other animals when the Saints are leading. The difference couldn't be more stark. The only constant I can think of is that the defense is still chock full of No-Catching Motherfuckers regardless. That's starting to get just a little ridiculous. What do you think the percentage must be of the Saints' 24 "passes defended" actually being dropped interceptions? Sheesh.

Still, it seems pretty clear at this point that for the Saints to kick ass in the rushing game and on defense, it'd be a good idea for the Saints to go ahead and establish a lead as quickly as possible. Which means you ought to be rooting for Drew to be slinging the ball all over the damn place early in the game until such time as that goal has been achieved. Preferably to Graham. Or Sproles.

Or Pontchartrain Meach. Or Mean Joe Screen. Or Jack Hunt. Or Bob Snagit. Or… aw hell, go ahead and throw it to Jed Collins for crying out loud. Fuck it, throw it to anybody wearing gold pants and pink shoes. Hell, throw it to Katie Couric. Honey Badger doesn't give a shit.

And, perhaps just as significant as anything else, the Jacksonville game also showed us the Saints avoiding all that "Trap Game!!!" bullshit that screwed us right in the ass about this time last year. And it had to have been difficult, I think 2010 pretty much established that. Being the vastly superior team isn't always enough. Hell, it can occasionally be a bona fide pitfall. Especially once you've gone up by 14 and you're tempted to just dial it back and go through the motions because clearly #wegotthis.

So through 4 games, it seems we've seen a little bit of just about everything. And so far, it's looking pretty good. This is a damn strong football team. The only thing we haven't really seen yet is that "complete game." Clearly they're not yet in "midseason form." But then again, it's not yet midseason. (Although, dammit, I'm afraid to blink my eyes for fear that when I do, it will be midseason. Already!!! FUCK!!!)

Clearly they're still feeling some things out, and I think feeling the rushing game out was definitely one of the goals Sunday at Jacksonville. And you've gotta figure they liked what they saw there for the most part, and we'll be getting more of it down the road. That's good stuff. Besides the win of course, that's what these kinds of games are for. And in my opinion, the Saints made the most of it.

Meanwhile, quietly, the Saints have gotten themselves into a pretty good position. 3-1 is pretty damn nice all on its own, but it's better than that. The Saints have dispatched with Green Bay, Chicago and Houston. In fact, they've played the third most difficult schedule in the NFC so far. (And the only reason Chicago's is harder so far is because they had to play the Saints.)

The Saints also have the third largest point differential in the NFC so far, behind only Green Bay and Detroit. And that's mainly because Green Bay has played Carolina and Denver, and Detroit ran it up on Kansas City.

The Falcons are already a game back at 2-2, and two of their next three games are against Green Bay and Detroit. Boing!

Plus, the Falcons kinda blow anyway. 12th in total offense, 16th in scoring offense, 21st in total defense and 27th in scoring defense. Despite having played the 4th easiest schedule in the NFC so far. Hell, they escaped with a 2-point win against freakin' Seattle last week, for crying out loud. (Thanks, Pete. Asshole. Seriously? A 61-yard FG try with 13 seconds left? Really??? And don't even start with the whole "How'd the Saints do last time they went to Seattle?" thing. Get over it already.)

The Great Matty Ice is regressing to the mean, with one exception: he's on pace to set a new career high for interceptions.

Assuming Michael Turner lasts all 16 games, he's on pace for 272 carries and 1216 rushing yards. Which isn't bad by any means, but it's a regression from last year, especially in terms of the workload. And there's probably a damn good reason for that: he can't handle it anymore. He's 29, in his 8th year, and the Falcons have worn a shitload of tread off his tires the last 3 years.

And despite the presence of The Great Matty Ice and The Great Julio Jones, the Falcons are averaging a paltry 5.9 yards per passing play. That's good for 23rd in the league. Meanwhile, they're 28th in the league in net yards per pass play by the opponent. Against Jay Cutler, Mike Kafka and Tarvaris Jackson. Guh.

Oh, and not only do the Falcons have to play Green Bay and Detroit over the next 3 weeks, they also have to play Tampa again, Houston, and the Saints twice. Good luck with aaaaaall that, assholes.

"But Wang, Tampa. Ooooooh, Tampa!!! Watch out for the Bucs! ESPN is pretty sure they're fuckin' great. And they beat Atlanta already. Surely Tampa has you soiling your pants. And the Saints have to play them TWICE!"

Yeah, Tampa is fucking awesome. 16th in total offense, 20th in scoring offense, 20th in total defense. To be fair, they're 9th in scoring defense. So they've got that going for them. How ever will the Saints offense deal with the 9th-ranked scoring defense?!? Shit, they might only manage to put up 30!

Josh Freeman is maturing into one of the better quarterbacks in the league. He's completing 67% of his passes, which is on pace for a career high. By a lot. He's also on pace for a career high in passing yards. Nice. Unfortunately, his passer rating is only 81.1 at this point, which isn't all that good. He's on pace for 16 interceptions, 10 more than last year. And he's on pace for a whopping 12 passing touchdowns, less than half of last year's total. His yards per completion is also currently on pace for a career low.

LeGarrette Blount is doing a fine job so far. He's on pace for 1176 rushing yards, assuming he lasts all 16 games. Which is 169 yards more than last year, but he only played in 13 games last year, and only started 7 of 'em. His yards per carry are down from 5.0 last year to 4.4 this year.

Overall, Tampa is gaining slightly more yards on offense, but are giving up slightly more yards on defense. Basically, so far they're looking an awful lot like the same 10-6 team they were last year. Except that, like Atlanta, their schedule so far has been the 4th weakest in the NFC. They're 3-1, but they only beat Minnesota by 4 and they needed a late-game comeback at home to beat the Fightin' Curtis Painters for crying out loud. (Then again, Painter's passer rating is currently higher than Freeman's. Ouch. For that matter, it's higher than The Great Matty Ice's too.)

And Tampa still has to play Green Bay, Houston, Atlanta (again, but way to win that first one, Bucs. High five!) and oh by the way, the Saints twice. Have fun with that, Tampa.

Cam's "great" and all, or at least ESPN keeps telling me that anyway, but the Pants are still 1-3. Cam's completing less than 60% of his passes, and has 5 interceptions to 5 touchdowns. His passer rating is only 84.5. Despite the supposedly pants-shittingly frightening 3-headed rushing attack with DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Cam, the Pants are still only 17th in the league in rushing. And they're 31st in rushing defense. They're also only 14th in total defense and 25th in scoring defense. So, yeah, somebody wake me when Carolina's actually a factor.

Bottom line? #wegotthis

Easily.

We'll worry more about the overall NFC situation, what with the playoff seeding and whatnot, later on down the line. Meantime, Detroit hasn't played anybody yet (Tampa, Kansas City, Minnesota and Dallas.) They can't run the ball (not even KEILAND WILLIAMS!!!) nor can they defend against the run. Matt Stafford is still made of glass. And I'm sorry, but they're still Detroit. Until they're not, they are.

And Green Bay? Well, Aaron Rodgers kicks lots of ass. No sense in denying that. They've already beaten the Saints, no sense in denying that either. But they've also feasted on Carolina and Denver. Their rushing game is only fair to middlin' and they absolutely suck on defense. 28th in total defense, 18th in scoring defense and 31st in rushing defense. So if you wanna crown 'em, go ahead and crown their asses. Me? I'm gonna wait and see how things look in December and January, thank you very much.

The Dream Team is 1-3. Dallas is 2-2, and they blow. The NFC West is the NFC West. The only other 3-1 teams right now are the Giants and Washington. And nobody really believes in either of those teams.

So at the risk of repeating myself, it's pretty much what we figured it would be. A knockdown dragout for the next 13 weeks between the Packers and the Saints. Hey, I'll take it. It's a hell of a lot better than being in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.