Don’t write the Packers into the Super Bowl just yet. Just as Green Bay has finally shown some chinks in its armor in December, its primary challengers for NFC supremacy are looking more and more formidable.

New Orleans has been the best team in the league of late, with a seven-game win streak that includes victories over playoff teams in the Falcons (twice) and the Lions as well as a 25-point blowout of the Giants. Drew Brees, who broke Dan Marino’s single-season passing yardage record with one game to spare, has his offense operating with head-turning efficiency. The streaking Saints have averaged 498 yards in their last five games.

The Packers’ other main NFC roadblock excels on the other side of the ball.

The 49ers, who showed their playoff chops with a 20-3 pounding of Pittsburgh two weeks ago, the Steelers’ lowest scoring output in more than four years, boast a punishing defense the likes of which Aaron Rodgers & Co. haven’t seen this year. San Francisco allows 13.5 points per game, the best mark of any team in the last five years, and leads the league in turnover margin at +26, four better than Green Bay.

Meanwhile, the Packers have shown in the last month that they may not be the slam-dunk Super Bowl team that their white-hot start indicated.

First, the Giants gave the defending champs all they could handle, succumbing only after Rodgers’ final-minute heroics lifted the Packers to a 38-35 triumph. Then two weeks later, Green Bay suffered a surprising stumble at then-5-8 Kansas City, losing 19-14 to suffer its first blemish.

Even the seemingly invincible Rodgers came back to earth a bit, registering his season low in passer rating and completion percentage in three straight games before responding with a five-touchdown gem against Chicago.

The Packers’ invincible aura is certainly gone.

The New York game showed Green Bay could be vulnerable in a shootout — just the type of affair it would likely have if it meets New Orleans in the NFC Championship game. Yes, the Packers prevailed 42-34 at Lambeau in the teams’ season-opening matchup. But the Saints’ versatile rushing attack and Brees’ pyrotechnics in the passing game mean New Orleans (12-3) is uniquely positioned to grapple with Green Bay in a high-scoring affair.

Then the Kansas City defense did what appeared impossible, dictating pace and style to the NFL’s top-scoring offense, albeit a shorthanded Packer unit. The Chiefs’ harassment of Rodgers in a four-sack showing now stands as the blueprint for teams that would favor forcing Green Bay into a grind-it-out, ball-control game — otherwise known as the San Francisco special.

The 12-3 49ers have mastered the art of dismantling opponents’ offensive flow. Teams have all but given up trying to run on San Francisco’s stone wall of a front seven — the runaway league leader in run defense became the first team in NFL history not to allow a rushing touchdown through 14 games before Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch finally broke through for a score last week. Forcing opponents into a one-dimensional game plan allows an opportunistic secondary and disciplined pass rush to wreak havoc.

A potential Green Bay-San Francisco showdown in the NFC Championship would be the most anticipated playoff matchup of the year. The best offense (the Packers average 34.3 points) against a historically stout defense. Rodgers, who is threatening to break Peyton Manning’s single-season passer rating mark, facing a 49er defense that has amassed 36 takeaways, including at least three in eight games.

While it’s easy to foresee a Packers-Saints matchup as another pinball-like game in which points pile up at a dizzying rate, it’s a mystery how Green Bay would fair against San Francisco. The Packers haven’t faced a single team ranked in the top 14 in scoring defense.

At this juncture, it appears that Green Bay would have its hands full against either the Saints or the 49ers. But the saving grace for the defending champs is that they would only have to face one of those challengers — in an NFC Championship matchup at Lambeau.

That the 14-1 Packers have positioned themselves to have an easier divisional round game is why they still have to be considered the favorite to reach the Super Bowl. But make no mistake, what earlier seemed a Green Bay stranglehold on NFC preeminence has loosened considerably.

What are your opinions.

Just one month ago, we wondered whether Aaron Rodgers would shatter every significant single season quarterback record in NFL. Back then, the Green Bay Packers gunslinger was on pace to surpass Marino’s passing yards mark, Brees’ completion rate, Manning’s passer rating clip and Brady’s TD record.

Now, just four increasingly human performances later, and not only are those records out of reach, but Rodgers has also opened the door for what once seemed like an inconceivable MVP debate.

Rodgers’ numbers in that last four Packers’ games:

11/24 @ DET—CMP%: 68% QB RAT: 117

12/4 @ NYG—CMP%: 61% QB RAT: 106

12/11 vs. OAK—CMP%: 57% QB RAT: 97

12/18 @ KC—CMP%: 47% QB RAT: 80

Meanwhile, Drew Brees has elevated his play, eclipsing Rodgers in a few statistical categories and even gaining supporters for his own MVP bid in the process.

Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith, for instance, made the case for Brees when he said: “Drew’s having in my mind an MVP season, there’s no doubt about that. … He’s distributing the ball extremely well. They’re a top 10 team in running the football, the No. 1 team in total yards, No. 2 in points. Just to watch him operate, he looks very comfortable back there running the offense. It’s just amazing to watch him go out and run that offense. I hope he’s at his highest level because if he plays any better I don’t know if there’s any way to stop him.”

Similarly, ESPN columnist and MVP voter, Ashley Fox, echoed Smith: “If New Orleans wins its last two regular-season games, against Atlanta and Carolina, and—as expected—Brees obliterates Dan Marino’s 27-year-old record for passing yards in a season, I will be hard-pressed to vote for Rodgers over Brees.”

Personally, I agree with Smith and Fox that Brees’ gaudy stats are nearly impossible overlook, but Rodgers’ are equally as freakish. Particularly, I think that the fact that Rodgers scores more, while turning the ball over less, gives him the edge.

But, what do you think?

Here are the numbers:

Aaron Rodgers

Green Bay Packers (13-1)

2011-12 – Passing Yards: 4360 Yds/Gm: 311 TD: 40 INT: 6 QB RAT: 120 COMP%: 68%

Drew Brees

New Orleans Saints (11-3)

2011-12—Passing Yards: 4780 Yds/Gm: 341 TD: 37 INT: 11 QB RAT: 109 COMP%: 72%

More from Yahoo! Contributor Network:

Top Four Reasons the Green Bay Packers will not repeat as Super Bowl champions

Aaron Rodgers on pace for the greatest season in NFL history

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Green Bay Packers passing defense may cost them the Super Bowl

Top Five Green Bay Packers of All Time

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Kansas City, Mo. • Mike McCarthy never put a whole lot of stock in a perfect season, except as a means of gaining home-field advantage and setting the Green Bay Packers up for another Super Bowl run.

Well, they still have a chance to earn home-field advantage.

The perfect season? That’s history.

Kyle Orton threw for 299 yards to outduel Aaron Rodgers, and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied behind interim coach Romeo Crennel for a shocking 19-14 victory on Sunday that ended the Packers’ 19-game winning streak. It was their first loss since Dec. 19, 2010, at New England.

“I personally always viewed the undefeated season as, really, just gravy,” McCarthy said. “The goal was to get home-field advantage and win the Super Bowl. That’s what we discussed.

“We were fortunate enough to be in the position to possibly achieve the undefeated season,” he added, “but we still have the primary goal in front of us, and that’s to get home-field advantage.”

Green Bay, playing without leading receiver Greg Jennings and top rusher James Starks because of injuries, can wrap up the No. 1 seed in their final two games against Chicago and Detroit. But the Packers no longer have the pressure of becoming the second team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with a perfect record, or extending the second-longest winning streak in league history.

“I think our goal ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl. The next step is getting that number one seed in the playoffs,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got a home playoff game — we’ve got a bye secured.”

Story continues below

Rodgers was 17 of 35 for 235 yards and a touchdown, and he also scampered 8 yards for another touchdown with 2:12 left in the game. But the Packers (13-1) were unable to recover the onside kick, and Kansas City picked up a couple of first downs to secure the victory.

“They had a good game plan,” Rodgers said. “You have to give them credit.”

Ryan Succop kicked four field goals for Kansas City (6-8), which had lost five of its last six games and fired coach Todd Haley last Monday. Jackie Battle added a short touchdown plunge with 4:53 left in the game, points that came in handy when Rodgers led one last scoring drive.

“Everybody had marked it off as a win for the Packers, but those guys in the locker room, they’re football players,” Crennel said. “They decided they were not going to lay down, they were not going to give up, so they went out and played a tremendous game.”

Neither team looked all that tremendous in the first half.

Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson was hit twice with offensive pass interference, Rodgers was harassed by the Chiefs’ weak pass rush, and Green Bay wound up making five first downs.

One of them came when Kansas City’s Jeremy Horne ran into Packers punter Tim Masthay, giving them 15 free yards. The Chiefs tried to give Green Bay another gift later on the drive when Mason Crosby missed a 59-yard field goal attempt but Kansas City had 12 men on the field.

With another chance from 54 yards, the normally reliable Crosby still pushed the kick right.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mike McCarthy never put a whole lot of stock in a perfect season, except as a means of gaining
home-field advantage and setting the
Green Bay Packers
up for another Super Bowl run.

Well, they still have a chance to earn home-field advantage.

The perfect season? That’s history.

Kyle Orton
threw for 299 yards to outduel
Aaron Rodgers
, and the
Kansas City Chiefs
rallied behind interim coach Romeo Crennel for a shocking 19-14 victory on Sunday that ended the Packers’ 19-game winning
streak. It was their first loss since Dec. 19, 2010, at New England.

“I personally always viewed the undefeated season as, really, just gravy,” McCarthy said. “The goal was to get home-field
advantage and win the Super Bowl. That’s what we discussed.

“We were fortunate enough to be in the position to possibly achieve the undefeated season,” he added, “but we still have the
primary goal in front of us, and that’s to get home-field advantage.”

Green Bay, playing without leading receiver
Greg Jennings
and top rusher
James Starks
because of injuries, can wrap up the No. 1 seed in their final two games against Chicago and Detroit. But the Packers no longer
have the pressure of becoming the second team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with a perfect record, or extending the second-longest
winning streak in league history.

“I think our goal ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl. The next step is getting that number one seed in the playoffs,” Rodgers
said. “We’ve got a home playoff game – we’ve got a bye secured.”

Rodgers was 17 of 35 for 235 yards and a touchdown, and he also scampered 8 yards for another touchdown with 2:12 left in
the game. But the Packers (13-1) were unable to recover the onside kick, and Kansas City picked up a couple of first downs
to secure the victory.

“They had a good game plan,” Rodgers said. “You have to give them credit.”

Ryan Succop
kicked four field goals for Kansas City (6-8), which had lost five of its last six games and fired coach Todd Haley last Monday.

Jackie Battle
added a short touchdown plunge with 4:53 left in the game, points that came in handy when Rodgers led one last scoring drive.

“Everybody had marked it off as a win for the Packers, but those guys in the locker room, they’re football players,” Crennel
said. “They decided they were not going to lay down, they were not going to give up, so they went out and played a tremendous
game.”

Neither team looked all that tremendous in the first half.

Packers wide receiver
Jordy Nelson
was hit twice with offensive pass interference, Rodgers was harassed by the Chiefs’ weak pass rush, and Green Bay wound up
making five first downs.

One of them came when Kansas City’s
Jeremy Horne
ran into Packers punter
Tim Masthay
, giving them 15 free yards. The Chiefs tried to give Green Bay another gift later on the drive when
Mason Crosby
missed a 59-yard field goal attempt but Kansas City had 12 men on the field.

With another chance from 54 yards, the normally reliable Crosby still pushed the kick right.

Rodgers finished the half 6 of 17 for 59 yards, with a handful of drops between wide receiver
Donald Driver
and tight end
Jermichael Finley
. In fact, things were going so badly for Green Bay that at one point it ran out of the wildcat despite having one of the
best quarterbacks in the game.

The Chiefs were still clinging to a 6-0 lead when Rodgers finally hit down field, finding Finley over top the coverage for
a 41-yard gain. Three plays later, the Packers’ star quarterback hit Driver in the corner of the end zone for a 7-6 lead with
8:04 left in the third quarter.

Kansas City answered when Orton hit his own tight end,
Leonard Pope
, for a career-long 38-yard catch. Jon Baldwin added a 17-yard grab to set up Succop’s 46-yard, go-ahead field goal.

The Packers moved into field-goal range on their ensuing drive, but rather than have Crosby attempt a 56-yard kick in the
same direction he had already missed, McCarthy elected to go for it on fourth-and-9. Rodgers’ pass fell incomplete and the
Chiefs took over.

They needed seven plays to cover 59 yards, but had to settle for another field goal and a 12-7 lead. It was the third time
the Chiefs drove inside the 5 and had six total points to show for it.

They got seven on their next trip, though.

With first-and-goal at the 5,
Thomas Jones
managed to gain a yard and Le’Ron McClain bulled ahead for three more, setting up third down from just outside the goal line.
Battle took the carry over the right side and powered into the end zone, giving the woeful Kansas City offense its highest-scoring
game since the Chiefs beat San Diego in overtime in late October.

The Packers marched down field in the closing minutes, and Rodgers showed his moxie by scampering around the end for a touchdown
that made it 19-14, but that was as close as they got.

Green Bay came into the game averaging nearly 36 points, but was held to its lowest total since beating the
Chicago Bears
10-3 in Week 17 last year. The Packers needed to win that game to make the playoffs, and wound up riding the momentum to a
Super Bowl victory over the
Pittsburgh Steelers
.

All that momentum finally came to an end against the most unlikely of scenarios.

“We set the tone on both sides of the ball,” Chiefs linebacker
Derrick Johnson
said. “This is the great thing about football. You can’t always look at the records, because you’ve got grown men out there
who are all getting paid. You don’t have to be better on paper.

“If you’re better on that given Sunday, you’ll get the win.”

Notes: Succop has made 21 consecutive field goals. … Palko was inactive for Kansas City. … The Chiefs wound up having
the ball for 36:11, while Green Bay had it for 23:49. … Kansas City won despite going 1 for 5 in the red zone. … Packers
OL
Derek Sherrod
broke his leg in the fourth quarter. He was playing in place of
Bryan Bulaga
, who went down with a knee strain.

© 2011 STATS LLC

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The game had been over for just a few moments, and the players were still struggling out of their shoulder pads when the murmuring finally reached full pitch. For weeks the Green Bay Packers had existed in a blissful bubble, insulated by their good nature and their distant locale from the ceaseless questions, the ballooning expectations and the mounting fatigue of a chase for football’s most elusive goal. They have been dominant this season but not domineering, oddly under the radar for a defending champion on the path to something even greater.

But after the Packers’ victory over the Giants on Dec. 4, there was no avoiding the target that has bedevilled two other teams in the last five years and that now awaits the Packers in the final month of the regular season. As coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers quickly moved to head off the looming story line – “I’m not going to talk about 16-0 or anything,” Rodgers said unbidden after the Giants game – Rodney Harrison watched from a New York television studio, letting his mind wander back to 2007, often marvelling at the differences that may favour the Packers’ chances of completing what the New England Patriots could not.

“Because of Spygate, everyone hated the Patriots,” Harrison, now an analyst for NBC’s Football Night in America, said in an interview. “We were like the villains. Everyone wanted us to lose. The Packers, on the other hand, are a fairy-tale story. They’re a bunch of good guys, we want them to win, it doesn’t bother us as much. We had even more intense pressure because everybody hated us. Any time you’re the first team to do something, you carry all that pressure. The Packers, even if they do it, they’re the second team to ever go 16-0. There’s no pressure on them because we already attained that goal.”

Maybe so. At 13-0, already the NFC North champions and with a quarterback who is having an extraordinary season, the Packers have the same lustre that burnished the Patriots in 2007 and the Indianapolis Colts in 2009 when they pursued undefeated seasons.

Those teams may have inadvertently done a favour for the Packers, who defeated the Oakland Raiders on Sunday. They were almost perfect, the Patriots losing their relentless pursuit of flawlessness with a defeat by the Giants in the Super Bowl and the Colts forsaking it by resting many of their best players with two games left in the regular season.

Because they employed wildly different strategies – and absorbed the second-guessing that accompanied each – without achieving their ultimate goal, no blueprint for success has been established that would box in the Packers. They will be free to carve their own path, perhaps informed by bits and pieces from each of the two most recent contenders, but they will do it freed of the spotlight that fell harshly on the Patriots.

Harrison said he thought the lockout created a distraction that limited the hype that usually attends a Super Bowl champion. When training camps finally began, the Eagles stole the headlines. Since then, Tim Tebow has been the biggest story, overshadowing a Packers team with few flamboyant personalities, a perfect formula for a low-key drive to something extraordinary.

The Packers’ attempt to construct the first undefeated season that ends with a Super Bowl championship since the 1972 Miami Dolphins (the NFL played two fewer regular-season games then) has carried none of the controversy, and little of the darkened narrative, of the Patriots’ run. That season opened with cheating accusations and continued with klieg-lighted stars like Tom Brady and Randy Moss and a hooded coach who was regularly accused of running up the score. Attracted by a whiff of scandal and the air of inevitability – the Patriots won by an average of 19.7 points, a touchdown more than the Packers’ margin of 13.2 – the national news media began covering every Patriots game once they reached 8-0.

In Miami, members of the 1972 Dolphins, and their coach, Don Shula, indicated that Spygate, the Patriots’ covert filming of Jets defensive signals in 2007, would diminish a perfect season by New England. In a recent Florida radio interview, former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris said that he did not like the Patriots’ style in 2007, but that if the Packers completed a perfect season, he would view them as a credit to the sport.

Even last week, Shula acknowledged that he and others viewed the Packers’ pursuit differently.

“Why do you think that is?” Shula said in a telephone interview. “Spygate was important.”

About the Packers, Shula said: “I’ve felt that if it happens, I’ll be the first guy to pick up the phone and congratulate the coach. I think our players will acknowledge and congratulate their players. Until it happens, we’re happy we’re the only ones.”

What are your opinions.

The game had been over for just a few moments, and the players were still struggling out of their shoulder pads when the murmuring finally reached full pitch. For weeks the Green Bay Packers had existed in a blissful bubble, insulated by their good nature and their distant locale from the ceaseless questions, the ballooning expectations and the mounting fatigue of a chase for football’s most elusive goal. They have been dominant this season but not domineering, oddly under the radar for a defending champion on the path to something even greater.

But after the Packers’ victory over the Giants last Sunday, there was no avoiding the target that has bedeviled two other teams in the past five years and which now awaits the Packers in the final month of the regular season. As coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers quickly moved to head off the looming story line — “I’m not going to talk about 16-0 or anything,” Rodgers said unbidden after the Giants game — Rodney Harrison watched from a New York television studio, letting his mind wander back to 2007, often marveling at the differences that may favor the Packers’ chances of completing what the New England Patriots could not.

“Because of Spygate, everyone hated the Patriots,” Harrison, now an analyst for NBC’s “Football Night in America,” said in an interview. “We were like the villains. Everyone wanted us to lose. The Packers, on the other hand, are a fairy-tale story. They’re a bunch of good guys, we want them to win, it doesn’t bother us as much. We had even more intense pressure because everybody hated us. Any time you’re the first team to do something, you carry all that pressure. The Packers, even if they do it, they’re the second team to ever go 16-0. There’s no pressure on them because we already attained that goal.”

Maybe so. At 12-0, already the NFC North champions and with a quarterback who is having an extraordinary season, the Packers have the same luster that burnished the Patriots in 2007 and the Indianapolis Colts in 2009 when they pursued undefeated seasons.

Those teams may have inadvertently done a favor for the Packers, who host Oakland on Sunday. They were almost perfect, the Patriots losing their relentless pursuit of flawlessness with a defeat by the Giants in the Super Bowl and the Colts forsaking it by resting many of their best players with two games left in the regular season.

Because they employed wildly different strategies — and absorbed the second-guessing that accompanied each — without achieving their ultimate goal, no blueprint for success has been established that would box in the Packers. They will be free to carve their own path, perhaps informed by bits and pieces from each of the two most recent contenders, but they will do it freed of the spotlight that fell harshly on the Patriots.

Harrison said he thought the lockout created a distraction that limited the hype that usually attends a Super Bowl champion. When training camps finally began, the Eagles stole the headlines. Since then, Tim Tebow has been the biggest story, overshadowing a Packers team with few flamboyant personalities, a perfect formula for a low-key drive to something extraordinary.

The Packers’ attempt to construct the first undefeated season that ends with a Super Bowl championship since the 1972 Miami Dolphins (the NFL played two fewer regular-season games then) has carried none of the controversy, and little of the darkened narrative, of the Patriots’ run. That season opened with cheating accusations and continued with klieg-lighted stars like Tom Brady and Randy Moss and a hooded coach who was regularly accused of running up the score. Attracted by a whiff of scandal and the air of inevitability — the Patriots won by an average of 19.7 points, a touchdown more than the Packers’ margin of 13.2 — the national news media began covering every Patriots game once they reached 8-0.

Story continues below

In Miami, members of the 1972 Dolphins, and their coach, Don Shula, indicated that Spygate, the Patriots’ covert filming of Jets defensive signals in 2007, would diminish a perfect season by New England. In a recent Florida radio interview, the former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris said that he did not like the Patriots’ style in 2007, but that if the Packers completed a perfect season he would view them as a credit to the sport.

Even last week, Shula acknowledged that he and others viewed the Packers’ pursuit differently.

“Why do you think that is?” Shula said in a telephone interview. “Spygate was important.”

About the Packers, Shula said: “I’ve felt that if it happens, I’ll be the first guy to pick up the phone and congratulate the coach. I think our players will acknowledge and congratulate their players. Until it happens, we’re happy we’re the only ones.”

Harrison was a captain of the Patriots in 2007, one of a small group of veteran players who told Bill Belichick not to take them out of two late-season but meaningless games. With the benefit of hindsight, Harrison cautioned the Packers.

“When you’re trying to be perfect, trying to play the perfect game, you put a lot of pressure on yourself,” he said. “It drains you, mentally and physically. A lot of players played a lot of plays that year. I was tired. I was mentally and physically exhausted.”

McCarthy has indicated he has a plan. He will be ready to discuss it after the Packers clinch the top seed in the playoffs. Harrison believes they will try for a perfect season; Tony Dungy thinks they will achieve it. With the San Francisco 49ers two games behind the Packers in the conference standings, the Packers could get another break — they might be able to forestall a decision a bit longer.

Dungy, the coach who took the 2005 Colts to 13-0 before losing, always thought the perfect situation for a team was to be chased as long as possible, so that winning was necessary for something more than just the pursuit of an undefeated record. Dungy, now an NBC analyst, said he started thinking about an undefeated season after about the 10th victory, and he embraced the Colts’ organizational decision to rest players, rather than risk injury.

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The New Orleans Saints just might be the best hope for most Miami Dolphins fans—like me—of seeing the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers denied their shot at immortality. The team from Wisconsin is now 11-0 and seem capable of doing what no team other than the 1972 Dolphins have done; run the table in the regular-season and finish with a Super Bowl victory.

However, if the Saints 49-24 rout of the New York Giants on Monday, Nov. 28 is any indication, Green Bay is going to have their hands full trying to get out of the NFC and into the Super Bowl this year even if they are able to finish the season 16-0.

While 8-3 New Orleans doesn’t even have the second-best record in the National Football Conference—that belongs to the 9-2 San Francisco 49ers—I have the distinct feeling they’re actually a better club than the Bay Area squad led by first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh. So far this season they’ve posted three victories where they’ve scored 40 or more points in a game—including their 62-7 demolition of the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Oct. 23—which is only bested by the Packers themselves; who’ve had four such games.

The last time a team seriously threatened Miami’s nearly 40-year-old unblemished record was the 2007 New England Patriots squad, who ironically were foiled in the championship game by the same team New Orleans just beat down. Nevertheless, it will probably take more than a one-in-a-million pass from Eli Manning(notes) to bring down the behemoth that is the Packers this year; and the Saints are looking like they could just provide that final hurdle for Green Bay.

Watching Drew Brees(notes) surgically take the Giants’ defense apart on Monday Night Football, I got the sense he could be what takes down one of the most vaunted and storied franchises in NFL history. There’s no guarantee Brees and New Orleans will be able to stop Green Bay, but they probably have the best shot at it. It also had me wishing to God Miami hadn’t passed on his amazing talent twice (something I railed about since he was drafted), for I can only imagine how many Super Bowls the Dolphins would have been in if the 32-year-old 5-time Pro Bowler had been under center for them rather than the San Diego Chargers and Saints.

I know New Orleans’ success isn’t solely because of their signal-caller, but the former Purdue Boilermaker has been an integral part of what the Saints have been able to accomplish under head coach Sean Payton. Without Brees, not much of the offense run by New Orleans would probably work at the same level it does with him. After all, who else are they going to find to do what Brees did Monday in becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 350 yards while also connecting on four touchdown passes while rushing for another TD?

The Saints schedule over the last five weeks isn’t going to be easy, though—as they’ll be facing the Detroit Lions, Tennessee Titans, Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons, and Carolina Panthers—but if they’re able to get through it with a winning record, or if they manage to win four of those contests, I think they’ll be the last team the Packers want to face in the postseason.

I, for one, hope they do, though. I make no bones about the fact I want someone to beat Green Bay before the 2011 season is finished, and in truth I wouldn’t mind the Saints being the ones. Of course, if the Packers do find a way to win out, that won’t make me too upset either. They are, after all one of the greatest teams in the league’s history.

Still, if it comes to a matchup of Green Bay and New Orleans with that record on the line, I’ll be shouting “Who ‘Dat?” at the top of my lungs.

Hut, hut, hike!

More from Yahoo! Contributor Network:

Critics of Tebow Might Be Wise to Just Shut Up and Watch for Now

Hoping Vick Topping “All-Turkey Team” is a Sign of Things to Come

Exploring the Miami Dolphins Bubble That’s About to Burst

There’s Simply No Explaining How Tebow and Broncos Are Winning

Playoffs? Don’t Talk About Playoffs! You Kidding Me?

All stats and information taken from personal notes and verified at Pro-Football-Reference.com, NFL.com, and Yahoo! Sports.

Read more by Daniel Barber aka Hotnuke at TFS Sports.

*Daniel Barber has been a fan of all Miami teams since he was a child or since their inception having been born right above Miami.

Sources:

Pro-Football-Reference.com

NFL.com

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by Bob McManaman – Nov. 22, 2011 10:22 PM
The Arizona Republic

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