Saints victory must be discouraging to potential playoff opponents

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Saints’ offense got better, but their defense got worse.

The special teams had a rare breakdown.

The Pittsburgh Steelers gained more yards, ran more plays and possessed the ball longer. They had the lead, the momentum and seemed headed to victory on Sunday in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

But over the course of the last 10-plus minutes, the Saints recovered a fumble, stopped a fake punt, scored a touchdown and recovered another fumble. Somehow, a 28-24 Steelers lead that seemed destined to expand turned into a 31-28 Saints victory.

A play-by-play analysis would suggest that Pittsburgh outplayed New Orleans on the majority of plays in each phase over the course of the game.

But a couple of crucial pass-interference penalties against the Steelers, some clutch passes from Drew Brees and those critical turnovers enabled the Saints to come away with more points and a whole lot of bonuses.

“Championship teams find a way to win however they can,” defensive tackle Tyeler Davison said. “You win blow-outs. When the games are close you still find a way to win. I think that says a lot about our team and the grit that we have.”

The victory improved the Saints to 13-2, tying a franchise-record for wins, with an essentially meaningless regular-season finale at home against Carolina remaining next Sunday.

More importantly it gave them the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, which means a first-round bye in the playoffs and home-field advantage in throughout the conference post-season.

“It’s hard to secure the number one seed,” Brees said. “Knowing that we’ve done it and knowing that the road comes through New Orleans, that gives us a lot of confidence.”

Additionally, they can afford to rest key players against the Panthers and that’s especially important on the offensive line, where four of five starters have left one of the last two games because of injury.

So the Saints should be rested and ready for whoever comes to the Superdome for a divisional game on either Jan. 12 or 13. The opponent will be the lowest seed among the four NFC teams still playing at that time.

New Orleans will need just two wins in the Superdome in order to duplicate the feat of the 2009 team and parlay the No. 1 seed into a trip to the Super Bowl.

It’s hard to imagine a team challenging the Saints much more than the Steelers did Sunday and yet it wasn’t good enough for Pittsburgh (8-6-1), which is fighting with Baltimore for the AFC North title.

New Orleans’ offense was the most productive it has been since its last appearance in the Superdome – a 31-17 victory against Atlanta on Thanksgiving night.

It wasn’t up the Saints’ usual standards – they average an NFL-best 38 points per game at home – but the return of wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr., who came off of injured reserve Saturday and caught five passes for 74 yards while taking some of the pressure off of Michael Thomas, certainly helped.

“We’ve missed him,” Brees said. “Ted’s a big-time player and obviously a player that we count on.”

The three-week break until another game of consequence arrives undoubtedly will be a boost to the battered offensive line in addition to rejuvenating the roster as a whole.

No one has beaten New Orleans in the Superdome since Sept. 2. The Los Angeles Rams, the last team in the NFL to lose its first game this season, couldn’t do it as that first loss came on Poydras Street on Nov. 4.

The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles couldn’t do it two weeks later.

Nor could the Steelers.

“Man, did we show resolve,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “These guys have done a good job coming up with plays when we needed it. We’ve won a lot of different ways this year.”

If you’re a prospective NFC playoff opponent of the Saints you now know that you can’t get to the Super Bowl unless you or someone else knocks off New Orleans in the Dome.

Looking at the opportunity that Pittsburgh had without succeeding, you can’t be encouraged.

“We are going to run everything through the Dome,” safety Vonn Bell said. “What a feeling.”