Sports Reporter

*NEW ORLEANS over NEW ENGLAND by 8
The Patriots are off a very satisfying in-season revenge win against the division-rival Jets,
who they now lead by 3 games in the standings. They look ahead to division rival Miami, who
they lead by 2 games. Both New England and Miami are 3-1 in AFC East play. That game will
leverage the AFC East for New England. This is a non-conference road game, which will not
leverage the AFC East for New England. Bill Belichick didn’t trust his defense to stop Peyton
Manning and the Colts’ offense a couple of weeks ago and people doubted his judgement.
They’ll find out why he didn’t trust his defense when Drew Brees and the Saints’ well-chronicled,
high potency offense do business against that defense as the decibel level gets louder
and Gregg Williams, Saints’ defensive coordinator, orders more blitzes against Brady so
Williams gets his TV face time. This can merely be a fact-finding mission for the Patriots in
case they win the AFC and meet the Saints in the Super Bowl. Although they would like to,
it’s not imperative that they be the first team to beat the Saints in 2009 unless they do it in
February.

NEW ORLEANS 35-27