This looks to be a very interesting football game in the Bayou.  The 49ers have won two games in a row while the Saints have lost two in a row on the road.  The 49ers will likely look to get the ball into RB Frank Gore’s hands as much as possible in this game as he has 412 combined rushing and receiving yards already this season.  The Saints linebackers will have issues in dealing with Gore as the Saints are allowing 133.3 yards rushing per game and 5.3 ypc this season.  If QB J.T. O’Sullivan gets time to throw the ball (he has been sacked 13 times this season) against the Saints the Niners should be able to move the ball well against a Saints’ defense that is allowing 258.7 yards passing per game this season.

The Saints will come out throwing the ball as they always do but who will be catching the passes from Drew Brees this week?  With Marques Colston and Jeremy Shockey out for this week and the next couple look for Reggie Bush to even be more involved in the passing game if that’s possible seeing how he has already caught 26 passes this season.  Bush has accounted for 412 combined rushing and receiving yards this season but the Niners have a pretty good linebacking corps to deal with him.  The Niners will be blitzing a lot (they have 8 sacks) to try to pressure Drew Brees into rushing into some mistakes.

PREDICTION:  SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 34, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS 30

Drew Brees has been awesome this season especially when you consider that the Saints are only averaging 81.3 yards rushing per game and 3.4 ypc this year.  Brees has completed 84 of 113 passes (74.3%) for 980 yards with 5 TD passes and 3 interceptions (103.9 QB Rating).  It will be interesting to see if Brees’ can keep up the solid passing with his receivers falling down like flies. 

Offensive guard Jamar Nesbit has been suspended for the next four games by the NFL for steroids abuse.  This will likely hurt the Saints’ offfense some as he is a pretty good guard.  The Saints quickly went out and signed 29-year old veteran guard Matt Lehr.  Lehr played in all 16 games (0 starts) for the Buccaneers last season.  In his 7-year NFL career, Lehr has played in 85 games (48 starts).  The Saints were lucky to find a player as good as Lehr sitting at home on his couch at this point of the season.

The Saints have signed 28-year old TE Sean Ryan to a 1-year contract.  Ryan was cut at the end of the preseason but the Dolphins and that should tell you a little something about him.  He played in 10 games with the Jets last season and he caught 3 passes for 46 yards (15.3 avg).  Ryan has now played in 26 games in his NFL career and he has caught 9 passes for 90 yards (10.0 avg).  Don’t expect miracles out of Ryan as he’s just not that good of a football player.

The Saints have lost starting TE Jeremy Shockey for the next 3-6 weeks due to surgery he had to repair a sports hernia.  This will hurt the Saints offense as he has caught 16 passes for 151 yards this season (9.4 avg).  Billy Miller will take over as the Saints’ starting TE until Shockey is ready to return to action.  Miller has caught 2 passes for 41 yards (20.5 avg) this season and he has decent skills as a receiver so look for him to catch a lot of passes while Shockey is out.  Still, going from Shockey to Miller is a huge dropoff for the Saints’ offense.

The New Orleans Saints signed Joey Harrington to see if they had more faith in him as the backup to Drew Brees than Mark Brunell.  But, Brunell proved to be the better man for the job so the Saints have released Joey Harrington.  It will be interesting to see if Harrington hooks up with another team down the road this season or if his career is done.

The Saints fell just a bit short against the Broncos last Sunday.  Can’t fault Drew Brees for this loss as he completed 39 of 48 passes for 421 yards with 1 TD pass and 0 interceptions.  Reggie Bush was very busy in this game as he carried the ball 18 times for 73 yards (4.1 ypc) with a TD run.  He also caught 11 passes for 75 yards (6.8 avg) with a TD grab.  Pierre Thomas carried the ball 6 times for 15 yards (2.5 ypc) with 2 TD runs and he also caught 3 passes for 8 yards (2.7 avg).  Jeremy Shockey led the Saints in the passing game with 8 catches for 75 yards (9.4 avg).  WR Lance Moore also had a big game with 7 receptions for 78 yards (11.1 avg).  The Saints finished up with 88 yards rushing on 25 carries (3.5 ypc) and they also completed 39 of 48 passes for 414 yards.

The Saints’ defense didn’t play too well in this football game.  DE Charles Grant had 6 tackles and a safety when he tackled RB Andre Hall in the endzone.  DBs Tracy Porter and Kevin Kaesviharn each pitched in with 7 tackles apiece.  The Broncos finished up with 105 yards rushing on 24 carries (4.4 ypc) and they also completed 21 of 34 passes for 264 yards.  The Saints fell to 1-2 on the season with this loss.

The Saints have signed 29-year old QB Joey Harrington to serve as the #3 QB behind Drew Brees and Mark Brunell.   Harrington played in 12 games (10 starts) for the Falcons last year and he completed 215 of 348 passes (61.8%) for 2,215 yards with 7 TD passes and 8 interceptions (77.2 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 14 times for 33 yards (2.4 ypc) last year.  Harrington has never stepped up in his NFL career and he’s running out of time.  He has now played in 81 games (76 starts) and he completed 1,424 of 2,538 (56.1%) passes for 14,693 yards with 79 TD passes and 85 interceptions (69.4 QB Rating).  He also has carried the ball 142 times for 402 yards (2.8 ypc) in his career.  This might be Harrington’s last chance to prove himself in the NFL but he will have a couple of good veterans to learn from.  He was worth the small risk that the Saints are taking on him.

The Saints have released CB Jason Craft and DE Alvin McKinley.  The 32-year old Craft played in both games off of the bench for the Saints this season and he made 9 tackles.  McKinley injured his foot his first day in practice with the Saints and they didn’t want to keep him around.  Neither of these players should hurt the Saints’ defense much.

This should be a very exciting game between two teams with great offenses and very little defense.  Drew Brees will be in attack mode tomorrow against a Broncos’ defense that is allowing 266.5 yards passing per game and opposing QBs have a 116.3 QB Rating against them so far.  TE Jeremy Shockey will get a lot of work in this game against the safeties of the Broncos who have not played well this season.  The Broncos are also allowing 115.0 yards rushing per game and 4.8 ypc so look for Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas to be very busy against them.

The Broncos will likely come out running the ball with Selvin Young, Andre Hall and Michael Pittman against a Saints’ defense that is allowing 147.5 yards rushing per game and 5.8 ypc.  But don’t think for a minute that QB Jay Cutler isn’t going to attack a defense that is allowing 256.0 yards passing per game.  WRs Brandon Marshall, rookie Eddie Royal and TE Tony Scheffler have all been dominating this season for the Broncos and they should all have good games against the Saints.

PREDICTION:  DENVER BRONCOS 31, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS 30