Wild card playoff: New Orleans 45, Detroit 28

FIRST QUARTER
Detroit gets the ball first, and starts with Kevin Smith gaining 8 on what may be the only handoff of the game. Quick slant to Megatron, and they're to midfield in not even a minute. End-around to Titus Young for 8 more. They're definitely doing everything they can to keep the blitz off Matthew Stafford. Young drops a high fastball on a quick slant. The Lions shoot themselves in the foot with today's second 12-men-in-the-huddle penalty, but Stafford hits Young again for the first down against Jabari Greer. Young vs. Greer AGAIN, for 11 more, and Detroit's basically in the red zone with little resistance from the home defense. Smoke route to Megatron down to the 10. I hope everybody has the over tonight. Easy TD to Will Freaking Heller open in the zone between LBs, and it's Matthew Stafford and the Lions opening up the clinic early in New Orleans.


7-0 Lions

That looked like Aaron Rodgers picking the Saints apart way back on opening night.

And how come Scott Linehan couldn't call plays in St. Louis with 1/1,000th of the skill he just showed here?

Fuck, really, less than five minutes into what's already a great game and we've got to put up with camera shots of Brett Favre? Screw you, NBC.

Drew's turn. 22 to Devery Henderson on a rounded-off dig route. Screen to the fullback for 5. A HANDOFF to Darren Sproles for 14, blasting off RT. Chris Ivory, who looks like Steven Jackson after a few trips through the dryer, up the middle for 9.

Then, uh-oh, it's a fumble by Marques Colston, who's never had the greatest of hands, despite Al Michaels quoting that the Saints only had 6 fumbles all season. Detroit recovers.

A lot of gamblers have already started swallowing hard.

Megatron gets what's going to be a guaranteed 9 yards all night on a quick screen. SCOTT SHANLE stuffs a middle screen to Brandon Pettigrew, the first play by the Saint defense tonight. Another end-around, this one to Nate Burleson, barely gets there on 3rd-and-1, though.  Kevin Smith follows that with a 1-yard run, and Linehan has gotten too conservative here. Good 4-man rush by the Saints forces a bad throw on 2nd down, then the Lions take a timeout.

Pettigrew's wide open at midfield, though, on 3rd-and-9. Are the Saints going to cover ANYONE tonight? With ALL NIGHT to throw, Stafford throws a long jump ball for Megatron, but it goes through his arms. He actually jumped too high for it. Roman Harper blows up a draw to Kevin Smith to force another 3rd-and-long. Gregg Williams gets away with a stupid big blitz. Stafford hangs in tough and goes long down the sideline for Megatron but it's broken up.

Gotta dig at Linehan here - the Saints stopped that drive by stopping the run. The OCs can hardly let that be the key tonight.

Brees at his 10. Draw to Sproles for nothing. Really? A long pass off Jimmy Graham creates 3rd-and-long, but the Lions then let Pierre Thomas run through them with a dumpoff for 10. They're going to live to regret that blown play. Now suddenly the Saints are chewing the Lions up on the ground. Thomas through a big hole off LT and a poor tackle in the secondary for 31. Sproles right up the middle for 9. Brees dumps off to Collins the fullback again for 15, and suddenly the Saints are right outside the 10.

And suddenly the first quarter's over. I think that quarter may have taken 15 actual minutes.

SECOND QUARTER
Draw to Sproles down to the 5 as Detroit's season-long inability to stop the run continues. Henderson down to the 3 with tonight's third end-around. From there, Sproles briefly gets clogged up before bouncing outside for the first Saint TD.


7-7

Nice kick return by Stefan Logan gets pulled back to the 13 instead by a penalty. Oof, those hurt. No hint of the Saints even slowing Megatron down yet; Stafford hits him over the middle for 18. Lions convert a 3rd-and-5 with a pass Stafford squeaks to Scheffler through a tip by Jonathan Vilma. Then Smith back up the middle for 9. Linehan's re-found his mojo. Stafford and Burleson burn a blitz for 21 more.

You know what's scary? Despite all the action, this game's nowhere close to a pace of hitting the 59.5 total for the over. Screen to Smith gets Detroit down to the 13. And Megatron beats weak double coverage in the corner of the end zone for the TD from there.

14-7 Lions

Just in time to be rumored as the next defensive coordinator for the Rams (see NFL.com's front page), Gregg Williams hasn't shown me a darn thing so far tonight.

The Saints got 25 yards before I could even look back at the TV, capped by a one-handed sideline beauty of a catch by Jimmy Graham. Detroit then continued to refuse to tackle Thomas, who shredded them for 18 with a screen.

Next play, though, Willie Young whips Zach Strief for a sack/fumble. Detroit ball!

Really? The Saints have been this good all this time with Zach Strief at right tackle?

5:00 left till halftime, and the Lions look like the team in control. Not only are those Saint turnovers killing them, they're killing all of us who took the over.

The Saints manage to force a punt as Al Michaels points out how an inadvertent whistle from the officials prevented the Lions from returning the Brees fumble, which looked to me live like it was going to be a tuck rule call, for a TD. Tony Corrente is tonight's referee. Wasn't his whistle, though; he correctly called the fumble. I think the umpire blew the play dead.

Colston gets the Saints back out to the 43 with a 21-yard catch, then Nick Fairley unbelievably gets away with flinging Thomas down hard after the next play. How do the Lions, one of the most-penalized teams in the league, get away with that? After Ivory grinds out a third-and-short, Brees hits Robert Meachem at the 36 at the 2:00 warning.

Not shockingly, Ndamukong Suh is the big winner of a Suh-vs.-Strief matchup on 3rd-and-1. Brees got outside the pocket, though, and threw the ball away before getting overrun by Suh and two other Lions. That preserved a 4th-and-1, which Ivory just barely converted. Graham gets inside the 20 with :30 left. Sproles gets to the 13 with :20 left as the Saints use their last timeout.

The Saints appear to tie the game with a pass to Colston in the seam, but he didn't control the ball all the way to the ground, a classic version of the call that screwed Megatron in Chicago last year. The Lion defender hit him on the helmet on the way down, though, so the Saints should be getting the ball first-and-goal around the 6, 0:16 left in the half.

Brees gets pressure from Kyle Vanden Bosch and has to throw away the 1st-down pass, and the Lions break up the 2nd-down pass at the goal line. John Kasay hits the chippie to make it 14-10 at halftime, the Lions defense closing the half with what has to be considered a win.

And only 24 total points at the half? Looks like a lot of us will have to consider that a loss

Lions 14-10 at halftime

Colston's definitely the goat of the first half, with a fumble and a dropped TD pass. The Saints should be killing the Lions because they've run as well as they have, but they're killing themselves instead with red zone mistakes. Don't think I change much if I'm the Saints. I'm looking for a big play from Thomas or Sproles to turn the tide of this thing.

Meanwhile, in the coaching upset of the century so far, Scott Linehan is getting the better of, well, anyone, let alone Gregg Williams. Saints need to think about dropping extra men in coverage and dare the Lions to beat them with their non-existent run game.

THIRD QUARTER
Right on cue off my halftime analysis, Thomas blasts off right tackle for 18. Worthless Robert Meachem then drops a PERFECT BOMB from Brees. You know what? He was bracing for the hit from Louis Delmas. Ivory through a huge hole up the middle for 19. Who needs to pass when you're the Running Saints? Brees then puts everything back to normal in Saint Nation with a perfect 41-yard bomb to Henderson.

Saints 17-14

There's the Saint offense we've been waiting for all night. Will the Lions respond?

Megatron opens the drive wide-open for 20. He's so much better than everyone else tonight it's almost gotten boring. The Lions get a holding penalty, though, Stafford gets away with what I thought was obvious grounding on 2nd-and-long, and it's just a dumpoff to Burleson on 3rd. Won't blame Linehan for a change; that holding penalty really hurt the Lions, could even be the unlikely turning point of the game.

Is Spike Lee relevant other than being an old rich guy who goes to sporting events?

After Cliff Avril blows up an attempted naked bootleg for a loss, Brees hits Colston for 11.00000000001 on 3rd-and-11. Not-worthless Robert Meachem saves Brees' ass at midfield by breaking up what would have been a pick-six for Eric Wright. But of all the improbabilities, the Lions stop the Saints twice in a row with one yard to go after they stuff Ivory on 3rd-and-1. The Saints go for it FROM THEIR OWN 39 on 4th-and-1, and Brees' leaping attempt gets them a key first down. Thomas breaks his millionth tackle of the night to get the Saints another first down at midfield on a reception. The Lion pass rush seems to be dying off. Brees steps up into a solid pocket and hits Colston for 40 inside the 5, and hits Graham for the TD the next play when nobody in Honolulu blue and silver remembers to cover him out wide.

Saints 24-14

Lions appear to be on their last chance here with about 4:00 left in the third. Gee, guess who gets them back into the game. 15 to Megatron. 21 to Megatron. Gregg Williams blitzes big AGAIN when a blitz hasn't gotten to Stafford all night, and Megatron embarrasses the shit out of Malcolm Jenkins and Greer for 42 yards inside the 5. They weren't covering Megatron as much as they were following him around like little puppies. The Saints stop Detroit twice before Stafford rolls right, ignores I think Heller in the back of the end zone and dives at the pylon for an apparent TD run. It'll have to stand up to replay, though; his knee was closer to being down than it looked on the live play.

Corrente says it counts. The call looks right on Zapruder-vision slo-mo. HELL of a good call by the head linesman.

Saints 24-21

Brees gets forever and a day and hits Graham for 8 as the third quarter ends. The Saints will face a huge 3rd-and-2.

FOURTH QUARTER
Brees hits Meachem to keep the Lion offense off the field. Another clutch conversion, on 3rd-and-8, to Colston across midfield. The Lion pass rush seems to have completely died. At the 40, Sproles sprints outside left to convert a 4th-and-2, barely. Thomas then breaks his ten-millionth tackle of the night on a 8-yard run. The Saints appear to be on their way to the death blow. On a bad underthrow by Brees inside the 10, a Lion defensive back blows an interception for the THIRD time tonight.

Sproles beats a LB one-on-one for 11 on 3rd-and-2. Start the bus, Detroit.

Sproles wriggles through a not-very-big hole on the left side (not that he needs one) and sprints in untouched for a 17-yard TD. The Saints have decidedly taken over the line of scrimmage and the game.

Saints 31-21

A blitz pays off for the first time all night for Williams. Stafford gets his arm hooked just a little on a bomb for Young, and Greer comes away with the INT. Start packing the bus, Detroit.

On 2nd-and-17, a blown coverage leaves Meachem wide open for a 56-yard TD bomb from Brees, and this thing is over.

Saints 38-21

And hey, we got to the over/under line! If the Lions can only add on a cheap TD for the cover, I'll have had a perfect game.

Meanwhile, it's again time for the look-ahead. For Star of the Game, I have to go the obvious route with Brees. 32-41, 425 yards, 3 TDs with half the fourth quarter still to go. (Big) Easy sell for me there.

Who dat gonna beat dem Saints? I'm contractually obligated to pick them next week in San Francisco because I predicted a Saints-Ravens Super Bowl, but if I were putting money on it, I'd have to pick the 49ers. The Saints were pretty sloppy tonight and will be going up against a 49er team with a much better defense and a much better running game than what the Lions have. Not that I'm rooting for it at all, but I'm expecting a 49er win next week.

The Lions' biggest need after tonight would appear to be...

We interrupt this look ahead for yet another Megatron TD. Nice! I've hit the over and the cover. And THE EXACT SCORE I predicted yesterday. Spooooooooooky. 4:45 left.

... defensive backs with decent hands. They get Mikel Leshoure back next season, so that's kind of a free draft pick on a RB. Depthwise, for the second straight game I've been wondering where the losing team's OLBs were all day. Their run defense was poor all season, and they came up well short in pass rush tonight. They'd be a terrifying offense if they added another WR, but it'd be much more sensible for Detroit's 2012 draft to be defense-only.

Brees puts the cherry on that argument and his Star of the Game award with another bomb to Meachem inside the 5, getting him to 466 yards. Thomas scores from the 1, Greer scores his 2nd INT of Stafford on the ensuing possession, and we're on to New Jersey tomorrow.

Saints 45-28

Oh well, what I lost on the cover, I made back on the over. 

-$-