Urge to kill… falling.

So the Saints are now 2-3 with Marteen and 1-0 with Sideshow Mehl. I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.

Pop quiz, hot shot: Who currently leads the team in receiving yards? Here’s a hint… he’s on pace for a 1000 yard season, he’s currently 15th (!!!) in the league and he has a 50+ yard reception in each of the last three games. Just sayin’. Too bad he can’t catch. Right, Message Board Guy?

Even Everybody’s Favorite Defensive Back had himself a nice little moment in the sun, and somehow managed to avoid having it overshadowed by a shoot-yourself-in-the-face moment (or ten.) You know it’s your day when…

Aside from that, I’m having a tough time coming up with a whole lot to say about this game, which is most of the reason I’m a little late to the party this week.

Oh sure, it was entertaining. Just when I thought I had been desensitized to the greatness of Drew Brees, he goes and drops my jaw yet again.

As if an 87% completion percentage weren’t enough, check out this magic… Drew actually managed to find two (count ‘em two) guys he’s never connected with on a touchdown pass before, and went ahead and scratched them off the list. Almost as if he had just forgotten about them until now.

"Oh wait, you haven’t gotten one yet? Shit, my fault. Okay, next one’s yours. Seriously dude, it just slipped my mind. You want anything specific, like a certain route, or against a certain defender or something?"

Next week he’ll come out with his helmet on backwards, his left hand tied behind his back, do a backflip in the pocket and then throw one between his legs to Sean Ryan.

Somewhere Ronnie Ghent is saying to himself "Damn, all I had to do was ask?"

And don’t look now, but a certain pair of knees moved the ball down the field 13 times at a rate of 5 yards per carry. Just sayin’.

Sure, it was "just Oakland." But the Saints avoided the short-week hangover, the trap game against a weak opponent the week before a big divisional game, and the opponent in turmoil who jumps up and bites you in the ass.

And they didn’t just win, they won pretty. They dominated. They "did what they’re supposed to do." That’s uncommon for Saints teams, even recent ones.

So what do we take from this dominating performance? Not much. After all, it was still "just Oakland."

Beat Carolina and San Diego, then we’ll talk.

Meantime, for meatier Saints/Raiders content than I’m able to produce at the moment, check out Ralph and Kevin’s postgame and the Chicks’ weekly installment. They’re all over it.

Unfortunately, neither Ralph nor the Chicks are yet ready to acknowledge the budding greatness of Sideshow Mehl. I’m shocked and appalled.

Ralph wants to see SSM come through in a game-changing situation, but what Ralph doesn’t realize is that Mehl’s mere presence is a game-changing situation in and of itself. (Okay, fine, maybe it’s more about the absence of Marteen. But same difference, right?)

Dude scored 10 points. Second-leading scorer on the team Sunday, trailing Reggie by only two points. Sure, it was in a blowout, but Mehl was the difference between "blowout" and "kinda-blowout." Eh? Eh??? Game-changer.

And much like Reggie, Mehl’s impact goes far beyond the stat sheet. See, that missed field goal and the shanked kick were all part of some guy’s evil plan. It put the Raiders at ease. Gave them a false sense of security. Allowed them to believe that they were still in the game while Drew flew up behind them and charged up his lasers for the kill shot.

These are things that Marteen just isn’t capable of doing. It’s all about being the consummate team player. Sacrificing personal accolades for the sake of victory. Mehl will take the kill shot his own self just as soon as it becomes necessary.

Until then….. he waits. Or something.

PS: I just want to paste this here excerpt from Ralph’s WWL column, because I couldn’t agree more. I hope he doesn’t mind.

As a Saints fan, watching elite quarterbacking is surreal. It’s like suddenly getting one of those things the super rich have, and before you experienced it you hadn’t realized how awesome it is.

When I was living in Orange County I went to an Angel’s baseball game in their Diamond Club suites.

Before I actually got to see a game in one of these ‘super luxury boxes,’ I was like, “Those things aren’t that good. Us real fans sit in the stands. I’ve been in the boxes at the Dome. They aren’t that great.”

Then I was watching baseball eating, like, four kinds of gourmet food, drinking micro-brewed beer and watching five other games on a huge TV. Oh, and getting a back rub.

It was a level of fantastic you really don’t understand until you experience it.

Drew Brees is like that.

Word.