4th Quarter

10:44 p.m.  2:29  Packers' 3rd Drive/Saints 3rd Drive/Packers' 4th Drive
A three-and-out, a 26-yard duck of a punt, and Drew Brees gets out of the game.  Brunell comes in...and later on, so does Matt Flynn

A nice little three-and-out - the first since the first quarter.

10:35 p.m.  5:56  Packers' 2nd Drive
Grab your mops, mop-up boys. 

Well, the offense is moving like butter in the Saints' prevent-nothing defens, until a botched snap sets up a Randall Gay sack.

The Kaesviharn interception puts the bourbon cherry on top in this Bourbon Street massacre.

10:25 p.m.  9:39  Saints' 1st Drive
New Orleans 52, Green Bay 29
Pierre Thomas 31 yd TD run (2-pt run failed)
The Packers failed on the onside kick, and the fact they're going for an onside kick with 11:45 left, two scores down, means they have no faith in their defense whatsoever.

Neither would I.

Hmmm....Pierre Thomas stuffed on 3rd down.  10 minutes left.  Does Green Bay have more than just a pulse?  Stop them on fourth down in GB territory?  Nope.  Pierre Thomas again.

Run more clock down, increase the misery.

Thomas ends it with a 31-yard scamper.  Wayne: "game, set, match."

10:19 p.m.  11:45  Packers' 1st Drive
New Orleans 45, Green Bay 29
Rodgers-Ruvell Martin 4 yd TD pass (Rodgers-Martin 2 pt pass successful)
Another three-and-out after the first down earlier...so does Green Bay go for it?  Might as well die with your boots on, but Brandon Jackson gets some life.

Three TD's, three 2-point conversions and it's a tie.  Uh, lot to ask.

Cedric Ellis does a really ugly dance after sacking Aaron Rodgers.  Like a mutant dancing the twist.

Rodgers hits Jennings who gets hit in the chin with a VICIOUS hit, but the refs rule legal.  I'm not so sure.  Neither is the bell-rung Jennings.  Birdies flying around your head, Greg?

A t last, a score, too little, too late?

3rd Quarter

10:07 p.m.  0:00  Packers' 4th Drive
Mop up time with 17 minutes left in a key regular season game feels pathetic.

 3rd and 2 at the GB 22....Rodgers gets a first down to Driver.  It just feels anticlimatic, though a 31-yard play to Humphrey gives some sense of a pulse.

10:00 p.m.  3:20  Saints' 4th Drive
New Orleans 45, Green Bay 21
Brees-Marques Colston 70 yd TD pass
Uh oh.  End it right here on Brees' 2nd 70-yard score of the night.  Just end the misery now.

9:57 p.m.  4:54  Packers' 3rd Drive
A score here is imperative...a touchdown, specifically.

3rd down and Roman Harper makes a great break-up, despite Jennings being open.  Rodgers is just slightly off.

9:53 p.m.  6:16  Saints' 3rd Drive
The Packers just got life back with a weird interception with a backward pass-turned Lance Moore delivery right into Aaron Rouse's hands.

9:51 p.m.  6:51  Packers' 2nd Drive
Now Green Bay is on life support.  And it's officially near death with Jason David's second interception.  I'm feeling sick.

9:45 p.m.   7:32  Saints' 2nd Drive
New Orleans 38, Green Bay 21
Deuce McCallister 3 yd TD run
It must be a short one with a field goal to keep it two scores.  Well, it's now three scores with McCalister going up the gut.

9:44 p.m.  7:40  Packers' 1st Drive
OK, end zone or this game could be over quick.

Uh oh....Rodgers just killed our chances with a Fred Brown-like pass to the wrong man, Jason David.  Greg Jennings simply slipped.

9:37 p.m.  8:34  Saints' 1st Drive
New Orleans 31, Green Bay 21
Brees-Billy Miller 16 yd TD pass
Something's gotta change this half.  The Saints have only had to face two third-down situations.  The best pass defense in the NFC, potentially, is not doing the job. 

Al Harris with a great separation of the ball from Billy Miller.  I think the Packers have an attitude adjustment - get physical - and make the Saints beat that, and beat a 3rd and eight.  Hmm....and Brandon Chillar cannot guard Shockey.  Not like any other linebacker in the known universe can.

At last, as sack!  Chillar, too.  Now, to pin your ears back in a third and long, 3rd and 15....ah, making the Saints waste a time out.  NICE.

Again, Brees hits Moore for a key play - first down?  Maybe not!  Well, maybe so.  McCarthy is challenging the spot of the ball...costly if it doesn't work.  REAL costly.  If I was the replay official, I would put it in the category of smart challenge.

I do give McCarthy a question: why did you nearly hug the official while you dropped the flag?  You nearly hugged him?  Close family or something?

The plan worked.  Will the Saints go for it?  Debating, debating...while being about a foot short, they will go for it..  Momentum changer if it fails, with the ball on the NO 45...the Saints voodoo dude puts a spell on the field.

Does it work?  Yep...Pierre Thomas bangs through on a second effort and the drive continues.

Ugh, another guy burning a linebacker - Poppinga burned on Billy Miller.  Just getting sick.  Ever more with the nine-yard run by Thomas.  The Packers are getting beat up on the point of attack.

Oh no!  Collins with an illegal contact penalty after an incompletion.  That really hurts.

I think the Packers are seeing another team doing the beat-the-Packers-on-defense formula...run the ball and possess it.

Billy Miller just toasted A.J. Hawk like my attempt to cook grilled cheese over a fire.  SICKENING!

2nd Quarter

9:03 p.m.  0:00  Saints' 2nd Drive
New Orleans 24, Green Bay 21
Hartley 30 yd FG
A 63 yard return by Robby puts the Saints in prime territory.  Track meet is REALLY on.

Brees is bulleting the Packers' secondary like a convict in front of a firing squad.  This is getting sickening. 

At this pace, first to 50 wins.

Especially when Aaron Kampman produces a sack and a fumble and the refs call it an incomplete pass instead of a sack or the coughing up of the football. 

Ah, legit call at the replay.  Saints forced to kick a field goal.

8:54 p.m. 1:44  Packers' 2nd Drive
Green Bay 21, New Orleans 21
Rodgers 10 yards TD run
Wayne: "The Packers kickoff return just not blocking anybody," and Blackmon can't get to the 20 yard line.  Scary when you have to drive 80 yards to keep pace in this shootout.

Another 3rd down...we're trying to avoid those if possible with the noise in the dome.  But as long as Rodgers keeps connecting for first downs like the one for Driver, I guess we're OK.

After crossing the midfield stripe, Rodgers gets Jennings a nice 23-yard completion on a LONG keep pass.

This is the kind of march that does shut off a crowd, especially when Grant piledrives for first downs on more short third downs.

Inside two minutes - LONG drive, which we like...but a 3rd and 10 with a screaming crowd...and Rodgers gets the TOUCHDOWN!!!!

8:36 p.m.  8:19  Saints' 1st Drive
New Orleans 21, Green Bay 14
Brees-Lance Moore 14 yd TD pass
Now, to stop the back-and-fourth volleyball match going on here...but Charles Woodson jumped for an interception and Lance Moore barely made a spectacular 11-yard catch.  That's just a gamble and coming up snake-eyes.

Deep play again from Brees  this time to Shockey for 19 yards.  It's the Genesis offense...."In too deep."

Man...Shockey is making catch after catch while Chillar is blanketed all over him.  Brees is getting more time than the wait for fast food at a nearby-spot to Radio City.  And it means he's 9-10 for 151 yards in about 22 minutes of play.

The screen pass for the Saints is like it was for the Packers in the 90's...it's their running game, and it gave Pierre Thomas 14 yards.

Lance Moore score number two.  I hate rhyming that tonight.

8:27 p.m. 13:43  Packers' 1st Drive (continued from 1st quarter)
Green Bay 14, New Orleans 14
Rodgers-Jennings 8 yd TD pass
This is more like it!  A long drive turns into a touchdown pass from Rodgers to Jennings...a combo we'll hear from often in the future for years to come.

It ends a 12 play, 72 yard drive - way to get the clock pushed down.

1st Quarter

8:22 p.m.  0:00  Packers' 4th Drive
Time for some productivity, boys.  We may need to go drive for drive with these guys.

Another 3rd and short?  These seem long odds recently - until Rodgers gets his patented Bart Starr-Jerry Kramer dance on for a successful QB sneak.

Greg Jennings!!!!  If you could have just barely gone slightly farther down on a Rodgers slight overthrow, it's a deep bomb.  That was Rodgers' fault, though.

3rd and four: YES!  Finally got a first down on the throw to Driver.  Shutting up a crowd with third down success can be the most effective method.

Now, 3rd and 1 at the NO 22, but the Saints take a time out....and barely, the change of strategy didn't work for the Saints - first down, barely, on a Grant run.

8:09 p.m.  4:44  Saints' 3rd Drive
New Orleans 14, Green Bay 7
Pierre Thomas 4 yd TD run
With short space to have to work, the Saints start with a 14-yard swing pass to Pierre Thomas and it's sickeningly easy on this Packers defense.  84 yards in two plays.

Brees again goes to Thomas for a first down to the 13 yard line.  Pierre DeCoubertin could gain a first down on every touch of the ball at this pace.  (For the uninformed, he started the Olympic games.)

Brees is javelining passes beautifully and carving up the Packers' superb pass defense.  I am getting sick watching this.

And Pierre Thomas strolls into the end zone untouched.  Ugh.

8:07 p.m.  7:24   Packers' 3rd Drive
Now, the Packers probably ought to go on a long drive to tire out the defense that has been on the field a lot.

They won't do much of that if they lose six yards on a Grant run with Bobby McCray getting unblocked. 

That crushed the Packers' hopes on this eventual three-and-out.

Even worse, another puny punt by Derrick Frost to the GB 41.

8:02 p.m.  8:09  Saints' 2nd Drive
Green Bay 7, New Orleans 7
Drew Brees-Lance Moore 70 yd TD pass
Oh no.  One play, one quick pass to Lance Moore, one touchdown...but ONE FLAG!  Well, it was picked up.  And the Packers are thrown down.

Folks, this team can strike that quick.  They're that scary on offense.

7:54 p.m.  8:15  Packers' 2nd Drive
Green Bay 7, New Orleans 0
Kuhn 1 yd TD run
Rodgers is content to dink and dump and control the ball with the passing game, knocking time off the clock.  The problem is that it's setting up third downs, even though they're short.

3rd and 2 - Grant breaks through for a BUNCH of yards into the red zone.  That's the advantage the Packers have that New Orleans doesn't - the Green Bay running game is producing big right now. 

Grant does it again to get the ball to the 1, and out of a no-huddle, the Packers force the Saints to call an early time out.  Great tempo mix by McCarthy.  Huh?  No time out?  "We need to give New Orleans time to match Green Bay's personnel move."  Whaaa???

On two runs, Kuhn does the job to punch it in!

7:48 p.m.  12:12  Saints' 1st Drive
It's Ali/Frazier, Hagler/Hearns...the Saints' top-ranked passing game against the Packers' ball-hawking secondary, but the Saints are just jabbing and probing and the Packers defense is stuffing them.

3rd and 11: an incomplete pass on a miscommunication from Brees and his receiver...huh?  Two straight three and outs?

Tauscher's got a hammy problem, and his return is questionable.

Not questionable is Will Blackmon's 27 yard return into Saints territory!

7:45 p.m.  13:37  Packers' 1st Drive
Starting the game, it goes to a 3rd and 2 and the crowd rises its volume, and the Packers take a time out.  Can't waste it on decibels, boys.  Actually, it was because Mark Tauscher went out with an injury and Tony Moll had to come in.

The slant pattern went incomplete...as tight coverage by Randall Gay on Donald Driver broke it up and caused a three-and-out.

7:37 p.m. 
The Packers win the toss and will receive the football.

7:35 p.m. 
Wayne says it should be a track meet, then admits whenvever he feels that way, it should be about a 6-3 game.

Pregame

7:07 p.m.
Wayne Larrivee confirms the report that Reggie Bush will not play tonight.

6:00 pm.
A number of media outlets are reporting that Reggie Bush will not play in tonight's game.