REGGIE BUSH LEADS SAINTS TO ROUT OF CARDINALS

Heading into Sunday’s game with the Arizona Cardinals, many NFL observers expressed concern that the Saints’ high powered offense would be ‘rusty’ following a bye week.  Those doubts were quickly dispelled as New Orleans spotted the Cardinals a touchdown and then scored 21 unanswered first quarter points.  They would eventually coast to a 45-14 victory and advance to next Sunday’s NFL championship game against the Minnesota Vikings.

New Orleans also rewarded NFL football betting enthusiasts as they easily covered as -7’ point home favorites.  The Saints had dropped five straight decisions to the NFL pointspread heading down the stretch in the regular season.  The 59 combined points scored managed to go OVER the posted total of 56’.  New Orleans had gone UNDER in five of their last six regular season games to finish 8-8 against NFL totals.

Drew Brees threw three touchdown passes in the victory, and running back Reggie Bush ran for two touchdowns including an 83 yard punt return.  After the game, Brees left no doubt as to his team’s ultimate goal:

"There's been a lot of firsts since Sean Payton has been here in the organization and we want to keep that going. We want to bring this franchise a championship.  There's no fan base that deserves a championship more than New Orleans and the Who-dat nation. Just the bond that we have with them is special. They give us strength. They give us motivation and we want to do it for them.”

Head coach Payton responded to suggestions that his team would come out flat after the bye week:

"So much for being rusty. That bye week was critical, getting guys healthy. ... I knew we were ready, the way we worked all week and we were confident in what we were going to do.”

In the losing locker room, Cards’ QB Kurt Warner put the loss into perspective:

"It didn't end the way we wanted it to. It wasn't nearly as competitive as we wanted it to be, but sometimes you have those days. Today was one of those days for us."

The Saints will now host Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings, with the winner advancing to Superbowl 44 in Miami, Florida.  New Orleans is a -3’ point home favorite with the total set at 52’.