Forget about the cold weather up North in late December.
It was never a factor.
The New Orleans Saints lost in the worst way imaginable.
They got smacked in the mouth by a Baltimore Ravens team that was more physical in the trenches.
They never had an answer for Ray Rice—a running back who flies under the NFL radar as adroitly as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
Rice did what Atlanta's Michael Turner did to the Saints in Week 3—gash the New Orleans defense up the middle with relative ease - only he did it better than Turner.
Do you remember the 21st night of September? Ba de ya - say do you remember
Ba de ya - dancing in September
Actually, it was the 26th night of September when Turner and Falcons torched the Saints for 202 rushing yards on 50 carries.
Rice and company topped that: 208 yards on 39 carries for a 5.3 average.
And, so, now we know what the game plan will be going forward to knock these defending Super Bowl champions off their perch once and for all: control the tempo and the pace like the Ravens did so expertly.
If you do that, run the ball at will, you keep the mighty Drew Brees off the field and your chances of winning increase exponentially.
Rice finished with 233 total yards—153 rushing and 80 passing—cutting and changing direction and running away from linebackers and defense backs in black & gold.
Saints LB Scott Shanle says as good as Rice looks on film, he is even more dynamic up close and personal.
"Individually, he's an outstanding player, but coming back to (the Saints), we need to do a better job of team tackling, team defense," Shanle told WWL Radio. "This is the first time a lot of us faced (Rice)."
"On film, you can see he's a good player but film doesn't do him justice...he's a quick, dynamic player who can do it in the running and the passing game."
Ray Rice first made a name for himself in 2005 as a freshman running back at Rutgers.
The following year, Rice kept gaining momentum as Rutgers made a serious run at an undefeated season.
The nation sat up and took notice, and Rice has been haunting opposing defenses ever since.
Shanle says it would be convenient to blame late-season fatigue for the Saints inability to bring down, Rice but that would be just a bad excuse.
"You've done it all year," Shanle told WWL. "Your (tackling) angles get better. So, I think it was just one of those things where you've got to give that individual player (Rice) a lot of credit with his change of direction and ability to make people miss."
Conversely, New Orleans did nothing on the ground.
After all that talk about balance being the key to defeat the Ravens, the Saints only rushed the ball 14 times for 27 yards—a 1.9 yard average.
Reggie Bush was having flashbacks to his USC days.
Seems Reggie forgot that the only thing running backwards does for you in the NFL is get you tackled for huge losses.
Saints offensive guard Jermon Bushrod did concede that the Ravens defensive alignment was a bit problematic.
"I think for the most part we picked up the things that we needed to. The 3-4 defense definitely gives you a lot of different looks. The kind of things you don't really see too much," Bushrod told WWL.
Although they came up short on the scoreboard, New Orleans did have the most dramatic play of the afternoon.
Third and goal from the 15...Brees...empty backfield...stands in the shotgun...Brees looks right...now throws under duress...back of the end zone and it's caught on a carom by Lance Moore but I don't know if he was in bounds...he was!!!...he was!!!
Despite the dramatic TD pass to Moore, Brees was under heavy pressure all afternoon and never looked comfortable.
As for winning the NFC South, it would take a miracle of monumental proportions.
Something akin to the USA hockey upset over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics.
Yet, there is recent precedent for wild card teams winning Super Bowls—Pittsburgh and the New York Giants quickly come to mind.
And Scott Shanle says Sunday's loss doesn't take any luster off of next week's nationally televised Monday Night Football showdown with the Dirty Birds in Atlanta.
"It's an opportunity to get an early look at Atlanta," Shanle told WWL Radio. "You get a chance to go into their building and compete against them and whose to say later in the playoffs, you go to (Atlanta) again. So, it's a good opportunity."
Don't forget to bring your A game.
Brad Davis Logan Morrison Mike Stanton Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox Chicago White Sox
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