Commentary: Payton has matured, learned from mistakes

NEW ORLEANS – With about 10 minutes left in the game Sunday, the Saints had long since taken control. At that time about 100 Saints fans surrounded the pirate ship in the north end zone of Raymond James Stadium and declared it the property of the New Orleans Saints.

The Who Dats couldn't have been clearer in their message: "Your gang has been planked and your swash has been buckled!"

Two previous losses to the Bucs in the Sean Payton era had been avenged with a performance that seemed to have benefitted from both.

In 2007 the Saints had lost to Tampa Bay at the Superdome, 27-23.  With the Saints in control and on their way to victory, an inexplicable reverse provided the Bucs with a game-changing fumble when Reggie Bush and Devery Henderson botched the exchange.

The head coach took it from the media and furious fans the week afterward and responded by running the play on the first play from scrimmage, as I recall, the next week in Atlanta.

Last year, on Nov. 30 in Tampa in a driving rain storm for much of the game, the Saints threw the football 47 times and suffered three interceptions.  They ran it just 18 times in the sloppy conditions for 44 yards. The Bucs threw it just 23, completing only nine for 119 yards, but without an interception.  They ran it 34 times for 149 yards.

The Bucs won the game, 23 - 20.

Payton was flayed for his reliance on the pass and lack of commitment to the running game.  A year later Payton's old friend Jon Gruden is gone.  The pair had split their six confrontations.  Gruden's "pound the rock" philosophy stood in contrast to Payton's "pass the pill."

Now the Saints can do both.  A coach grows and matures by being self-critical, while no longer seeing an alteration of his philosophy as weakness, but as a strength.

No longer does it seem like the Saints feel a need to dazzle you offensively, merely to beat you by determining the best way to do so.  And because of the off-season commitment to the running game, they now can with balance.

Yesterday the Saints' first 10 first downs were accomplished by passing.  Nine of their 11 first downs in the second half were accomplished by rushing.  Their tailbacks combined for 167 yards rushing, averaging nearly seven yards per carry.  The winners rushed the football for 184 yards, passed it for 187.

It's that sort of balance that every team strives for and one unbeaten one has achieved.

And now, to remain so, the Saints must make the New England Patriots their 11th straight victim.  Since the Saints beat the Giants to go 5-0, Who Dats have been looking forward to the Patriot game on Monday Night Football while being 10 and 0.

The Saints have been harping on the theme of "one game at a time."  That the next game is the most important.

Now the next game is the one game Saints' fans have been salivating over for five weeks.

What a delicious coincidence.