Mickles: Saints try to keep division home perfection

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Dec 28, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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If the New Orleans Saints defeat the Carolina Panthers in the Superdome this afternoon, the home team will have won all 12 games within the NFC South this season — which would be a first in NFL history.

But it’s not just their fellow NFC South members the Saints, Panthers, Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Bucs have been beating up on this season.

The NFC South teams are a healthy 26-3 (.897) at home with the Panthers already finishing their home slate with an 8-0 mark. The Saints, Falcons and Bucs are all 6-1 going into their home finales today.

The NFC South needs just one win today for the division to finish with the NFL’s highest combined winning percentage since 1970. The NFC West was 26-6 (.813) in 2003, which the NFC South is certain of matching.

Regardless of whether Saints quarterback Drew Brees breaks Dan Marino’s NFL single-season passing record of 5,084 yards today or not, coach Sean Payton said he thinks Brees should be strongly considered for the league’s most valuable player award.

“Clearly, when you watch him play and you see what he’s done over the course of the season, his success is not just a product of the offense,” Payton said of Brees, who leads the NFL with 4,683 passing yards going into the season finale. “He’s been a reason for the offense when you see what he’s done.

“It’s not just been the intermediate throws, it’s been downfield and it’s a big reason we have been able to lead the league in total offense, scoring offense, passing offense. There are a number of numbers, but outside of that, we have a chance to get our ninth win. And he’s been a big part of that.”

The NFL will celebrate today the 50th anniversary of the 1958 league championship game, the epic sudden-death overtime game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants in Yankee Stadium.

The game was later dubbed as the “Greatest Game Ever Played,” with the Colts kicking a late field goal to send it into overtime and then scoring on Alan Ameche’s 1-yard TD run in the extra session for a 23-17 victory.

The game is widely recognized as the one that brought the NFL out of the Stone Ages and started the wave of popularity that it enjoys today.

“None of us on the Colts had played on a championship team,” said Pro Football Hall of Famer Raymond Berry. “It was a tremendous experience just winning the Western Conference championship and being able to play the Giants at Yankee Stadium for the world championship.