Now in his ninth season, Drew Brees has only faced the Patriots twice. Both games came before 2006 when he played for the Chargers. He beat Belichick and the Patriots in both games

Belichick has no first-hand knowledge of the Saints and it will be interesting to see how he approaches the Saints offense,  The Colts are the closest thing the Patriots have seen to the Saints. Against the Colts, the Patriots played predominantly nickel and never used their base defense except for goal-line situations.

For a team that is unbeaten after 10 games, the Saints are relatively untested. They have played only two clubs that currently have winning records, the Eagles in Week 2 and the Giants in Week 6. At 7-3 the Patriots will be the best team, record-wise, the Saints have played this season.

Their November has not exactly been a strong tune-  up for the Patriots. The last three teams the Saints have beaten -- Carolina, St. Louis and Tampa Bay -- are a combined 6-24, The Saints torched the Bucs on Sunday, but their victories over the Panthers and Rams came down to the wire.

The Patriots haven't beaten any team with a winning record either. They are 0-2 against the Colts and Broncos.

Are you ready for some Hank Williams Jr. wailing yet? 

Patriots coach Bill Belichick said there's no better team than the Saints, who are three-point favorites over his team on Monday night.

The Patriots played the only other undefeated team in the NFL, losing last week to the Colts.  Belichick said he is expecting his team's toughest game of the season.

"I'd say the Saints are little more balanced than the Colts," said the coach. "They're both pretty good, but the Saints are real good on defense and they're real good in the kicking game. They have no weaknesses that I can see. They're averaging, whatever it is 40-points per game. They look pretty good to me."

Actually, the Saints are averaging 36.9 point per game, and it would be hard to argue that their defense and special teams are better than the Colts', but whatever Belichick thinks he could be right.

If the Patriots meet the Colts again in the playoffs, you can bet Belichick will be saying there's no better team than the Colts.

The Saints, still suffering from injuries at cornerback, are signing former Saint Mike McKenzie.. McKenzie was a Saint from 2004 to 2008. He played seven games with the Saints last season, starting six, before suffering a season-ending knee injury (ACL).
Last week the Saints signed cornerback Chris McAlister, who was inactive against the Bucs.  The Saints have had major injury problems in their secondary. They're going to need a good secondary to be ready to play the Patriots on Monday night. 

Miles answers critics

LSU coach Les Miles is on the hot seat and he should be after the worse mismanaging of the clock I have ever seen--against Ole Miss. There are a lot of upset Tigers fans this week and deservedly so.


Trailing by two points, LSU had the ball at the Ole Miss 32-yard line with a couple of  timeouts and about a minutes left. Instead of running the ball and giving your field goal kicker -- who had already made one from 50 yards out --a chance to win the game, Tigers offensive coordinator Gary Crowton decided to get cute, throwing the ball the next three plays. The net result was lost yardage, taking LSU out of field goal range and the burning of both timeouts.


The last timeout was inexplicably called with one second left to run out the clock. LSU made the mistake when it started throwing the ball once the Tigers got into field goal range.


Monday Miles met the media and answered questions about the fading moments of the 25-23 loss to Ole Miss. He accepted full blame for the meltdown at Oxford.

"It's my fault and it will be fixed," said Miles. "It's my responsibility. I mismanaged the back end of the game. I'm the head coach. I let the clock get away from me"

The coach insisted the problem will be fixed. He said there was not enough time to get the kicking team in place, saying that it takes 12 seconds to get set up for a field goal.

He also the coaching staff told him they thought Ole Miss had 12 players on the field and if that was called they could have gotten off a snap because they would have had an untimed down on a defensive penalty. As it turned out, there not 12 players on the field and the clock expired before the snap amid the confusion.

Miles also said the video of him apparently showing him signaling for a spike to stop the clock was actually him trying to indicate that the ball was down on the previous play before wide receiver Terance Toliver let it get away from him.

After answering questions, the coach said he must turn his attention to the Saturday night game agaisnt Arkansas.

"This is a difficult time," said Mile.I 've gone through he pain of this, but I'm done with Ole Miss."

MAIL BAG: From Patrick P.: "I have been an LSU fan since I could crawl, but I'm seriously considering boycotting the LSU football team until Les Miles is gone. I could manage those last couple of minutes better than that when I was 10 years old. This guy is the bigest idiot I have ever seen, and let me tell you, I have some mighty big idiots in my day."

Reply: Passion is something LSU fans don't take a backseat to anyone. In the good times, that passion is a wonderful for coaches. In rough times, that passion is as difficult to navigate as anything else a  coach deals with.

From: Jan B.: "I think every-one is stunned. If my job was this awful, I am sure I would be unemployed.

From Kot K.: "After calming down somewhat and having a night to sleep on it and listening to all accounts of the LSU game, I have just 1 question: Can we demand the entire coaching staff be tested for drugs?''

MORNING LINE: Saints are favored by 3 over Patriots, LSU is  3 1/2 point favorite over Arkansas and SMU is a 17-point favorite over Tulane.