The Student of the GameGoing Beyond the Stats

As trap games go, this is one that came right out of the textbook of trap games. A team in the Dallas Cowboys who had thrown in towel until former Head Coach Wade Phillips was fired 3 weeks ago and replaced by current head Coach Jason Garrett. The Cowboys on the strength of 2 straight wins since have amassed confidence that would prove most useful against the Defending Champion New Orleans Saints who have struggled with flat performances and been plagued by injuries.

Gold helmets and gold pants were about the only hype behind the New Orleans Saints visiting the 49ers in San Francisco -- but it wasn’t always this way. When originally scheduled, this pairing was supposed to be the defending Super Bowl Champions vs. the scrappy up and coming team out of the west under rising star head coach Mike Singletary -- Fierce vs. Finesse at its finest. Then the Niners got pummeled by the Seattle Seahawks 31-6 in Week 1, and it looked more like a David vs. Goliath story if David also had no sling and both hands tied behind his back while wearing a blindfold.

As off-season stories we’ve heard too much about go (at least ones not involving hold-outs or holding cells connected to an arrest), welcome to the best possible NFL Thursday Night Season Opening Match-Up possible as the Minnesota Vikings faced off against the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome. ‘Favre Flummox 2010’ was finally over as QB Brett Favre, on essentially the same day as he did in 2009, finally decided end his yearly retirement charade to weasel out of training camp and commit to a 20th NFL season playing a second year with Minnesota.

The SAINTS WON! The SoTG and Weasel tell you how.

The SoTG and Weasel continue their in-depth analysis but get help from friend of the show Chris Rankin.

Despite all the disappointments during Turkey Day football and ups and downs of Sunday match-ups, all I heard about over Thanksgiving was this Monday’s game featuring the New Orleans Saints vs. the New England Patriots (in fairness I was in New Orleans with my fiancée’s family). Bias aside, as the talk of the NFL, it was the billed as the battle of 2 NFL offensive juggernaughts where the score was predicted to be around 49-48 by analysts everywhere . . . until it all went horribly wrong.