OPINION:
TAMPA, Fla. -- The time between when Sunday's game was completed and the opening of the Saints locker room was all the time players were going to get this time.
There would be very little time to enjoy a 38-7 plastering of Tampa Bay that kept New Orleans undefeated and atop the NFC.
They wouldn't get 48 hours.
Or 24 hours.
Heck, or even 10 minutes.
For all intents and purposes, focus already was on the Patriots game the Monday following Thanksgiving.
At least, that's where the questioning was trending.
And why wouldn't attention turn that way.
Sunday's game was the varsity going against the JV. The most significant thing that came out of the game against the Bucs is that Leigh Torrence and Randall Gay left with injuries, Torrence a shoulder problem and Gay a hamstring.
With the Patriots 7-3 - pending an all but assured win over the Jets - Monday's game could be considered one of the biggest ever in Saints history.
As long as New Orleans remains undefeated, you could say that about all of the games.
But Monday is special. It comes against the only team to ever go through a 16-game regular season undefeated.
The Pats did it 2007. The Saints hope to do it in 2009.
"No matter who we're playing, it's the most important game of the season," Saints quarterback Drew Brees said. "The fact that it is the Patriots, that's who a lot of us are emulating. We're trying to be what they built. That's why you can put this game even a little further up there."
So far, so good.
The Saints are 10-0 for the first time ever. Heck, it's the first time New Orleans has even won 10 straight games.
Few people in this locker room can say they've been at this point in their career - Randall Gay with New England in 2007, David Thomas with New England in 2007 and the University of Texas in 2005, Jonathan Vilma at the University of Miami in 2001 and 2002 and Jeremy Shockey at Miami in 2001. Will Smith also did it at Ohio State.
But only Thomas and Gay have done it professionally.
It's something special.
"It feels good for the moment but we know it's short lived because we have another hard fought game next week," Smith said.
Ah, back to the Monday night game.
The hype is going to come and it's going to come in droves.
"The hype is really going to be the media," Vilma said. "They're goign to put the spin on it and the whole nine yards. For us, we're going to focus. We're going to do the things we've been doing.
"For myself, not listening to the media, not reading the papers so I can focus on football. I know my teammates are the same way. We don't need to buy into the hype.
"We just need to get ready to play."
For 10 weeks this season, that's exactly what they've done.
It feels good to be 10-0 they said.
But that's now in the past.
It's Patriots week.
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