OUCH! That one hurt. Even without Reggie Bush’s broken leg, the 49ers’ game was a real kick in the hoo-has. The talking heads said that the defending Super Bowl champs were going to get everyone’s best shot, but that was effin’ ridiculous! You have to hand it to SF; they gave it their all, and in doing so, we get a good, hard, look at what faces the Saints for 14 more regular season games. A steady dose of the run, take away the deep ball, punishment for all the Saints skill players, and pressure up the middle on every down. And now they have to face this with Bush, the X Factor best suited to counter this strategy, out for six to eight weeks. Yeesh, It’s going to be a tough, tough schedule for the Black and Gold this year. They’re going to have to be extremely mentally tough to face such determined opponents every week.

But there’s hope. Lots of it. The Bush-less Saints over the years are actually a better offense without him. I think when Bush is available, Peyton calls his offensive plays differently, like a head coach who can do whatever he wants, rather than an offensive coordinator, whose going to catch hell if his calls don’t work.

Say you’re building a cabin out in the woods. You’ve got to haul in all the materials with a workhorse of a truck (the run game), and you’ve got some cool power tools (the passing game) to put it together. But you’ve also got a rad dirtbike (Bush), just sitting there staring at you. So even though you know you’ve got to get this cabin built before the snow flies, and your baby gets pneumonia, you’re gonna ride that rad dirtbike. You just are. Every fourth or fifth play, he’s like “Oh, yeah I got that really great toy, gotta use it!”. Without Bush, Payton seems to buckle down and call a different type of game.

And what would the coordinator in Payton do after losing Bush? I’m guessing Payton’s been challenging the O-line all week to live up to their Pro Bowl status. The rest of the league wants to play smash mouth/keep away? Watch for the Saints themselves to return to being a very good power rush team. Clock-killing, four-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust, mouth-punching, and physical – very physical – run team. Once that run gets established, it’s going to be back to the Brees show we’re used to.

The D and special teams won the 49ers game, and Hartley was the bright spot, scoring the last 10 points to win the game. Atlanta, with a big win over the hapless Cardinals, come into this week’s game after an offensive explosion from third string running back Jason Snelling (who?). Michael Turner was hurt but is expected back. They’ll want to play keep away, but watch for the Saints to match them with Pierre, the return of Chris Ivory, and maybe a little Betts. Shockey and D. Thomas also seem to ready for breakout games on play action.

Brees takes a shot but completes it to Shockey for 29 yards.

Glad it’s over: Mike Singletary’s intense, thousand yard stare.  Also his simultaneous one foot stare.

Looking forward to: Falcons rookie LB Weatherspoon meeting Saints FB Heath Evans forearm. About a hundred times.

Media Prediction: The Packers bandwagon gets a big boost after they torch the Bears on Monday night. Michael Vick’s media makeover continues, I’m guessing we’ll see an interview where he cries soon.

Discussion Topic: How many times in the past did the Saints lose games like last week’s (“Woudla, coulda, shoulda” comes to mind)? Does this mean they’ve banked an equal amount of ‘kinda didn’t deserve it’ wins?

And finally, will the Saints’ running game respond? Here’s what Madden had to say:

Pierre up the derriere for a 24 yd TD

Lots of kicking ass and taking names, but not a lot of scoring in this game early as the Saints march into halftime up 7-0 on a Pierre Thomas 2 yd TD. Colston and Shockey keep the Atlanta D honest, but it’s a test of wills as both teams trade many three and outs. The second half is a different story as the O-line and P. Thomas begin wearing down Atlanta’s way-better-than-last-year’s front seven. Pierre ends up with 86 yards on the ground, two catches for another 16 yards, and three touchdowns to go with the Player of the Game award. Brees has a Matt Ryan-like performance of 15/25, 227 yds, no TDs, but also no INTs. Colston was his favorite target with seven catches for 124 yards and Shockey winds up with 5 for 77 yards as the Saints grind down the Falcons in a 21-0 slugfest.

NOTE: This prediction is different from the played in mid-August monthly column’s as I replayed the game sans J. Norwood, R. Bush, and with M. Jenkins in place of D. Sharper.