New Orleans Saints Lose Against Dallas Cowboys at Opportune Time

It seemed the Saints were poised to whip out their bottle of magic again after Nick Folk shanked an easy chip-shot field goal that would have sealed the win for Dallas on Saturday night in the Superdome.

DeMarcus Ware quickly put his finger in the stopper and ended the game with the same ferocity with which he played all evening.

A but-whooping of this magnitude on national TV should be enough to remind the Saints there's no such thing as magic.

Better it happen sooner than later.  Although, I think week 14 certainly qualifies as the latter.

To clarify, it's better for the Saints to lose a game now before their first playoff game, which is less than a month away.

Furthermore, it's better than they lose in week 15 than in weeks 16 or 17.

The Saints can now ignore the strain of going undefeated since that possibility no longer exists.

And they still have two games to re-establish themselves against no more than sparring partners in Tampa Bay and Carolina.

Giving the Saints the benefit of the doubt, they've also been pretty banged up lately.

Nonetheless, they've still been winning.  Besides, who isn't banged up this time of year?

If Sean Payton continues to rest injured starters (which he should), the Saints can still waltz through their next two games, finish the season as a one-loss team, and be healthy come the playoffs.

And should the Saints face Dallas again somewhere down the line, the Saints would have an advantage.

Losing to the Cowboys allows them to identify where they were exploited.

If Dallas comes back to New Orleans in the playoffs, the Cowboys will assume that the same game plan they used Saturday will be good enough to topple the Saints again.

I'm sure it's more complicated than that but you get the idea.

A run at a perfect season sure would have been nice.  To be honest, though, the Patriots kind of ruined that mystique a few years ago.

I've never known a wake-up call to be a bad thing for anyone, and the Saints were definitely in the running for one.

I'll leave the readers with this nugget of history:

Remember in 1998 when the Denver Broncos started 13-0?

John Elway and friends were beating teams by an average of 15.3 points per game until they dropped two in a row in weeks 15 and 16.

One of those losses came to the Miami Dolphins, whom the Broncos met again in the divisional round of the playoffs.

The Broncos loss their first matchup by ten while winning the divisional playoff by 35 en route to a Super Bowl win.

If the Saints can remember what's already been done in the past, they just might be lucky enough to repeat it.