Saints will throw caution to wind, make run at perfection

ATLANTA -- New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper raised his hand a little late Sunday afternoon, letting his tailored shirt cuff drop below his wrist, revealing a pair of rubber bracelets.

One was personal, but the black one, the one with the inscription "Finish Strong," was the one he singled out, one he said was given to all Saints players by quarterback Drew Brees last spring.

"We believe in it," Sharper said.

With that philosophy, is there any doubt that this is a team that will try to complete an undefeated season if given the chance? The Saints raised their record to 13-0 on Sunday with a hard-fought 26-23 victory over the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome, clinching a first-round bye, but also putting them one game closer to perfection in the regular season.

The Saints hold a two-game lead over the Minnesota Vikings in the race for home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs with three games to go. The magic number is two. Any combination of Saints victories and Vikings losses or two Saints victories would lock up the No. 1 seed. That could set up the great debate whether the Saints should rest or use key players in meaningless games.

Saints coach Sean Payton has already said he would like to go for it, although he has tempered those thoughts some after initially making them. Most of his players seemed to agree they want to go for it.

"It means a lot to us," Brees said. "It doesn't happen all that often."

"We don't want to stop," defensive end Bobby McCray said. "We have to finish it off. Nobody has gone undefeated and won the Super Bowl [in a 16-game season]. Why wouldn't we try and finish?"

Here's why: What if Brees or receiver Marques Colston or middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma or another valuable player went down in a game that didn't matter?

After another close call, Drew Brees calls the Saints 'battle-tested.' (AP)

Would Payton want to be known as the coach who played on and blew it because he lost his starting quarterback in the third quarter of a game he didn't even need?

His style and history say he will go for it. Look at what he did in this game. He faked a field goal late instead of putting his team up six with the idea that a touchdown would be the kill shot. Payton calls a game with his foot on the throttle all the time, never afraid to take chances.

You think he's taking it off with a chance for perfection?

"We are just focused on our next opponent and giving ourselves the best opportunity in the postseason," Payton said when asked about driving toward perfection.

The New England Patriots went undefeated two years ago and then lost the Super Bowl. Regular seasons without a loss have been done. It's not the same as it was before the Patriots did it and we had to spend Sundays waiting for the Miami Dolphins' old farts to pop their champagne.

It's old hat now. Oh, by the way, the Indianapolis Colts are also undefeated in the AFC. It just isn't a big deal. Not anymore.

"We want to play for history," Sharper said.

Their undefeated season was almost history against Atlanta. That's two consecutive weeks that the Saints have been pushed to the limit. Sunday's game wasn't decided until Vilma made a stop on a fourth-down pass play at the Saints' 45. The Falcons needed two yards and Vilma blasted Jason Snelling 1-yard short of the mark.

A week ago, the Saints beat the Redskins 33-30 in overtime in a wild come-from-behind victory.

"We call that battle-tested," Brees said.

We call it cause for concern. The Saints can move the ball on anybody at any time. They had 391 yards of offense, below their league-leading average of 429 yards, against the Falcons, but they also let Chris Redman throw for 303 yards.

The Redman carving comes one week after Washington's Jason Campbell did the same in that overtime loss. Those two aren't exactly Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning. New Orleans is playing without both starting corners, who are out with injuries, but isn't the tradeoff that Atlanta's starting quarterback Matt Ryan didn't play Sunday with a toe injury?

I asked Saints defensive end Charles Grant if it was a red flag, especially since the Falcons punted just once.

"I don't say it's a red flag," Grant said. "It's the NFL."

The past two weeks have certainly taught us that the Saints can be beat. As they rolled to their first 11 victories, it didn't look that way. But playing successive tight games on the road now brings in more doubt.

They will be tough to beat at the Superdome, which is as loud as any venue in the league. When they play with the lead there, it allows their edge rushers to get jumps to get to the quarterback. The aggressive approach to defense used by coordinator Gregg Williams would seem to be the perfect style with an offense that can put up so many points.

But the defense seemed to struggle some against Atlanta. They got hit by some trick plays and allowed some big plays. Williams didn't blitz as much either, which seemed to play into Redman's hands.

That made for a tight game, but when Vilma picked off Redman at the Atlanta 32 with 3:53 left it looked like the Saints had it. But after moving to the Atlanta 15, they decided to set up to kick a field goal on fourth-and-7.

Instead, they faked it. But Mark Brunell's pass fell incomplete and the Falcons had life. It was an arrogant, aggressive move from Payton's playbook that would seemingly have chapters on bold, aggressive moves.

"It's certainly risky not getting those points and going up a full score, but we felt comfortable enough that we would get it," Payton said.

Risk is something Payton doesn't mind. But risk means taking a chance. Playing stars, especially Brees, into the second half of potential games that won't matter doesn't make sense to me.

They don't give out rings for undefeated seasons, unless they include the Super Bowl at the end. The debate can be fought on both sides. Some teams have rested and won. Some have played on and won.

Sharper said they want to be considered one of the greats by going undefeated -- including a Super Bowl victory. But doesn't 15-1, including a loss with an asterisk, and a Super Bowl victory make you an all-time great team?

"We have pride," Grant said. "Of course, we want to go for it."

The black bracelets and the go-for-it mentality of the head coach say they will go for it.

"We all wear them," Sharper said of the bracelets as he was readying to leave.

A scan of players in the locker room revealed few who actually do, and when asked about it later Sharper cajoled a couple of teammates to show their bracelets. None had one on.

"You don't have that bracelet on?" Sharper asked one teammate. "You're making me look bad."

Finish strong. Even if they don't all use the black bracelets as a fashion statement, you get the idea that the message on them means they are destined to try for the perfect season.