Saints mania reached a whole new level this week. In most respects, this season feels like 1987 all over again.

Alex Brandon / Associated Press

The Saints have a great chance in this year's NFC. That's something to smile about, Sean.

The team had its first winning season that year, and the city was so crazy it could barely contain itself during the Saints’ nine game win streak to close the season.

Fans wore bags with holes punched out in the front, ‘I Believe’ was played on the radio, and there was a certain ‘Is this really happening?’ vibe running throughout the city.

Heck, both the ’87 and ’06 seasons began with wins over the Cleveland Browns. Jim Henderson even had the same giddiness in his voice during big victories back in ’87.

I was watching the 1987 NFL Films yearbook highlight show on my computer and—sure enough—during the Saints’ signature win that year in San Francisco, Jim dropped his “Oh baby!” line after Morten Andersen’s game winning kick barely went over the crossbar.

(Just for fun this week, I listened to the Dallas radio team’s call of Reggie Bush’s 61-yard score and they made it sound as exciting as picking out socks. Meanwhile, Jim Henderson was going bonkers before Bush was even in the end zone. NFL radio play-by-play guys are the best. I think the truly great radio guys don’t even try to be objective. Why bother? Like anyone but Saints fans were listening to Jim and Hokie? Don’t you ever change, Jim Henderson.)

Of course, not everything about this year is like 1987.

The 1987 team was built on defense, a great kicker, and ball control offense. The 2006 squad is an offensive machine that can score at will, has a record setting quarterback and a brilliant young coach calling plays.

One more major difference between 1987 and ’06: In ‘87 the NFC was a Goliath with great teams and coaches like Bill Walsh in San Francisco, Joe Gibbs in Washington, Mike Ditka in Chicago, and Bill Parcells in New York.

Back then we all knew the Saints weren’t getting to the Bowl. They weren’t beating Joe Montana, Joe Gibbs, or Lawrence Taylor’s Giants.

These days, the NFC is mediocre at best.

Chicago’s win Monday night is the best thing that happened for the rest of the NFC. Why?

It means Rex Grossman will be the Bears quarterback the rest of the season and the playoffs. If you’re an NFC playoff team you want ‘Sexy Rexy’ under center because he’ll probably struggle under playoff pressure. Plus, Bear fans will likely turn on him after his first bad series.

That’s good news for the road team that plays in Chicago in January.

Of course, even after their domination of Dallas, the Saints still aren’t the darlings of the national media to win the NFC.

I listened to ESPN’s Colin Cowherd say the most impressive win last week was the Giants win in Carolina. Beating Chris Weinke on the road is impressive because?

Cowherd thinks the Giants are loaded at running back, have great receivers, a great defensive line and have the best chance to beat Chicago in the playoffs. Sounds like the Saints, only Drew Brees is worlds better than Eli Manning.

So as Saints fans barrage message boards wondering why the national media still don’t believe in the team, I’ll save you the trouble of waiting for somebody named “Mort” to tell you why: The national media never believes something that hasn’t happened yet can happen for the first time.

It’s easy to imagine the Giants in the Super Bowl because they’ve been there before. The Saints in the Super Bowl is a whole different story.

We all know the Saints have been awful for 40 years. Do you realize the Saints are one of only three teams never to play in a conference championship game? The other two are the Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals. Yep, even the Lions made the NFC title game in 1991.

So the national media just isn’t going to believe it until it happens.

I see a parallel between the Saints and the Seattle Seahawks of last year.

No one believed the Seahawks would get to the Super Bowl because they hadn’t won a playoff game in 20 years. The Seahawks in the Super Bowl? Come on get serious.

ESPN’s Skip Bayless had a mini-meltdown when they made it because he said it ‘bored’ him. So don’t expect everyone in the national media to jump on the Saints bandwagon, although they all love to watch the Saints play.

The Saints are cool with Reggie Bush and Drew Brees, because everybody loves offense.

Just remember, if the Red Sox can win a World Series anything is possible.

Okay, on to this week’s picks. By the way, did anyone notice my perfect week?

New Orleans (-10) vs. Washington

All week long I was leaning towards taking the Redskins because I felt the Saints were due to have a game in which they didn’t score 30 points, and I wasn’t ready to believe the Saints should be a ten point favorite over anybody. They hadn’t turned the ball over in three games and Washington has a nice running attack that could cause the Saints some problems.

Then I thought, “They are on too good a roll to be stopped by the Redskins.” So, I see the Redskins jumping out to a quick 10-0 lead after a Brees interception, Saints fans get a little nervous, and then Drew Brees proceeds to guide the offense to 35 unanswered points.

I’ll have my NFC South Championship hat and t-shirt ordered by the end of the third quarter, thank you very much. Saints 35-13

Atlanta (+3.5) vs. Dallas

I know the Birds are banged up and the ‘Boys will be salty after the beat down the Saints gave them. The thing is…Michael Vick is way overdue for one of his, “Oh my God! Vick is unbelievable” games. Falcon receivers catch the ball and Tony Romo looks mortal for the second week in a row. This would also throw the NFC playoff race into complete and utter chaos and who doesn’t want that? Falcons 27-24

Philadelphia (+5.5) at New York Giants

The Giants are one more good Eli Manning performance away from becoming everyone’s favorite Super Bowl pick. He’ll have it against a crappy Eagles defense but Jeff Garcia and Philly keep it close. I wanted to pick Philly to win but they were out gained 415-263 last week in Washington. Not good. Giants 31-27

Houston (+11.5) at New England

The Patriots look exhausted. Tom Brady looks like a ten-year-old kid whose best friend moved across the country. Oh yeah, Deion Branch did move to Seattle via trade. I have no reason to pick the Texans except I don’t think the Patriots can beat anyone by 10 points. Texans 23-16

Cincinnati (+3.5) at Indianapolis

The Colts remind me of the 2002 Saints. Remember how the Saints were 9-4 and even though the defense was terrible everyone figured they could overcome it to make the playoffs? Then Minnesota lit up the Saints and they collapsed. The Colts finish with games against Cincy, Houston, and Miami and with their defense, I’m not totally sure they’ll win any of them. This could get ugly. Bengals 38-31

Last week: 5-0

Season: 37-31-2

Ralph Malbrough is a Saints fan living in California. He can be reached at ralphmalbrough@hotmail.com.