Mickles: Saints TE Thomas aware of situation

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 27, 2009

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With the undefeated New Orleans Saints playing the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football, lots of people have — and will — compare the two teams by the time they finally get around to playing.

The comparisons that most people are making, however, have nothing to do with what will take place in the Superdome when the 10-0 Saints and 7-3 Patriots meet.

For weeks, fans have been anticipating a nationally televised matchup of the unbeaten Saints and Patriots, who became the first NFL team to finish the regular-season 16-0 two seasons ago.

While Saints backup tight end David Thomas didn’t want to throw any water on what is still an intriguing contest, he said this game isn’t about comparing the 2007 Patriots and the 2009 Saints.

“These are two totally different teams,” Thomas said Wednesday. “I’d say right now that the only thing we have in common with that team is that we were both 10-0 at one point.”

Thomas should know. He’s one of four Saints who were with the ’07 Patriots team, even though he spent the majority of the season on injured reserve with a foot injury.

“Right now, we’re just worried about playing the Patriots and getting ready for a good test,” he said. “Yeah, there are similarities, but we’ve got a long way to go before we can start being compared to them. That was one of the best teams of all time I think.

“We’re just trying to take it day by day and get better every week.”

Still, Thomas knows how fortunate he is to be where he is since only 21 NFL teams have ever started a season 10-0.

While there aren’t that many players walking around who can make that claim, he and current teammates Randall Gay, Kyle Eckel and Heath Evans, who is on injured reserve, can say they’ve done it twice in a three-year span as all were with the Patriots in 2007.

As a result, they know what the Saints are in for the longer their franchise-record winning streak continues.

“A lot of hard work went into that season, and as the season went on it got tougher and tougher,” Thomas said. “The coaching staff did a great job of getting us ready to play each week and it was a fun run.

“But the most important thing we did every day was focus on what we could do that day and prove it every day,” he said. “We looked at it play by play, practice by practice and game by game.”