Saints and sinners

Brees: The lynchpin for the Saints

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Excuse me while I check my calendar. I am pretty sure it is only half past October, but it feels like January. And much of that feeling is emanating from New Orleans this week, where they are working themselves into quite a frenzy.

But hold on a minute. Before I put the proverbial cart before the nag, let's just backtrack a touch and work out how we got to here.

Here, of course, is the verge of Week Six, traditionally a time for teams to knuckle down and get serious about the season; the first flush of the new campaign has worn off and we can start to make some meaningful conclusions about the ones still standing now the initial dust has settled.

The ones who have come through the first four or five skirmishes relatively unscathed can give themselves a small pat on the back; and take a large dose of reality. Because here is where it gets tough. It's the meat of the season, the long slog through to December, with the weather turning and the injuries mounting.

The only thing worse than contemplating the daunting, implacable 11-week march from now to the playoffs is NOT contemplating it, being one of the early-season also-rans, the casualties who have already fallen by the wayside of the opening charge.

That would account for almost 10 teams who have all stumbled out of the gate and pretty much fallen flat on their faces. The old adage about you can't win a championship in September but you can sure as heck lose it is true for an astonishing number this season, a not-so-fine nine of hapless offences and porous defences combining to give their fans nothing more to look forward to than next year's Draft.

This particular Hall of Shame includes Kansas City, St Louis, Tampa Bay and Tennessee, an astounding quartet of 0-fers. Then there's Buffalo, Oakland, Cleveland, Detroit and Carolina, all of whom look one and done. And you could almost add wobbly Washington, a team so anaemic they'd make a ghost look the picture of health.

Another 17 ballclubs are all hale and hearty, dusting themselves down and thinking, OK, bring it on! They may have a few dings and bruises (actually, Pittsburgh's loss of master run-stuffer Aaron Smith this week is a fair bit more than a ding or bruise, it could be the most substantial loss among any of the remaining contenders), but they are largely intact and ready to rumble.

This jostling group includes surprising Cincinnati, the feisty Jets, the schizophrenic Cowboys, the eager Falcons and the resurgent Dolphins, where their Wildcat has new-found claws once again. All 17 still harbour realistic playoff aspirations but they have to develop some sharp elbows to get ahead of the pack.

Fervour

And then there are the Fab Five, the unbeaten handful and the early-season pundits' pets. This is a quintet with the title quotient, and, until their first stumble, these are the ones who will command the most intense scrutiny.

Hence the feelings of near-playoff fervour in The Big Easy this week, where 4-0 New Orleans entertain the 5-0 Giants and the analysis has gone past merely intense and arrived at positively post-season.

The Saints have been undefeated at this stage in the season only twice previously but this week's visitors also help to explain why the local populace (and media) are treating this with the kind of reverence normally reserved for the knockout stage of the season.

Many rate the current Tom Coughlin crew as even better than the outfit that claimed Super Bowl XLII against the stunned Patriots, while the Ragin' Cajuns finally look ready to duke it out with the best of them after several years of simply counting on Drew Brees to blow hot and even hotter (and being surprised when he didn't).

Prior to their bye week, the Saints had actually won two games without - shock, horror! - Brees throwing a single touchdown pass. Not only that, neither game was a shootout but a solid defensive battle, with Sean Payton's men deservedly finishing on top and his move to bring in Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator looking solid gold-and-black.

So you can expect a LOT of attention to be focused on Williams and the defensive side of the ball this week, rather than the usual rush to anoint the strong-armed Brees as QB-Most-Likely*.

The head-to-head showdown (which is wonderfully live on SS2 from 5.30pm on Sunday) is easily the most eagerly-anticipated clash of the season so far and it could go a long way to showing us which of these two NFC powerhouses has the most ammunition on the Road to Miami in February.

The under-story also has Eli Manning returning to the city most associated with the Manning legacy, with New Orleans practically an open house for a family who have given themselves in large amount to the heritage, history and hope of the post-Katrina landscape hereabouts.

Nervous

It is a match-up of rich contrasts: the Giants and their pounding ground-game against the new-found steel of the Saints' D, and Brees and his offensive line against a defensive front that have almost literally made mincemeat of their five opponents to date (including a shell-shocked JaMarcus Russell who may still be too nervous even now to emerge from the Raiders' huddle).

So it is no wonder we will anticipate this with maximum relish. Expect, also, to hear a lot about how this is The Most. Unbeaten teams. In Week Six. Ever.

That statistic is somewhat tarnished, however, by the fact there are fully 10 teams (as outlined above) who are genuinely god-awful, hence all of the Fab Five have been able to feast on this parade of the pitiful: New Orleans have dined on Detroit and Buffalo; Indianapolis have swallowed Tennessee and also get St Louis this week; Minnesota have gorged on Cleveland, Detroit and St Louis; Denver have made a meal of Cleveland and Oakland; and New York have chewed up and spit out all of Washington, Tampa, Kansas AND Oakland!

So the Awesome Fivesome are not QUITE as dominant as some would have you believe. Nevertheless, it is a fun stat and helps to set up our Saints-Giants collision quite deliciously.

So deliciously, it is almost possible to overlook Sunday's other intriguing match-up, with Arizona travelling to Seattle (live on SS2 from 9pm). But don't.

After San Francisco blew their big playoff audition against Atlanta last week, it is the turn of the Cardinals and Seahawks to duel for pole position in the NFC West, and either one of these still has the potential to be a post-season dark horse (as opposed to a dead-end donkey). Both have been less than impressive at times in going a combined 4-5 thus far, but this is most definitely the time for one of them to stand up and declare, 'This division is ours!' Stay tuned.

* Most Likely To Throw More Touchdowns Than Tom Brady's 50 in 2007.