Remember when we used to wear brown paper bags to cover our heads? This year, I’m using them to breathe into. It’s become painfully clear that being perfect ain’t easy.

Midway through the season, the Saints are undefeated but it wouldn’t be the Saints without bringing a little heart-attack inducing drama to the table. For the third week in a row, our boys in black and gold pulled off a dramatic come from behind victory. This time, it was those Cardiac Cats, aka the Carolina Panthers, giving us Saints fans a reason to reach for the blood pressure medication. And in keeping with tradition, it was the defense that helped to solidify the win. An ugly win, yes, but a win nonetheless.

If you’re a true Saints fan, you can’t say you’re surprised that the Panthers put up a fight. We’ve been here before with them. Jake Delhomme didn’t even need to be up to his old Ragin Cajun tricks to give our defense fits. He had the help of another clever cat by the name of DeAngelo Williams. Williams seemed hell bent on exposing our run defense issues…and expose he did. But at then end of the day, not even his 2TDs and 149 yards were enough to pull off an upset. Sorry Panthers…but this is just our year.

The Saints players clearly came out flat against their division rivals but it wasn’t all their fault. I, Nola Chick, admit to not having consumed my game day beer prior to kickoff. It was a rookie mistake. But to make amends, I decided to make a sacrifice to the football gods. I found a pair of Panther-colored tights in my wardrobe and gave them to a beast that I knew would just love making a kitty cat cry. And she didn’t disappoint.

Don’t worry, I didn’t need those tights anyway.

As much as we may despise the way the Saints won, we must appreciate the fact that they consistently make halftime adjustments. It’s an important component to a championship team and will come in handy to a large degree down the stretch. The adjustments, in fact, are what make me feel better about about the bag of crap we gave birth to in the first half, both offensively and defensively. But come next Sunday against the Pop Warner Rams, I’m gonna need us to get out of the gates with guns blazing.

It’s important to note that I predicted a 31 to 20 victory over the Panthers. That’s one point shy of the actual final score. We didn’t get there the way I anticipated, but we got there. We’re halfway through the season and we’re finding ways to win. I don’t want to live on a prayer for the next 8.