CHARLOTTE, N.C. –- Only time will tell if New Orleans coach Sean Payton made the right decision by turning the regular-season finale into a preseason game.

But, hey, maybe that’s just what the Saints needed to do –- go back to the preseason. That’s when they were paving the way for a 13-0 start and there’s no question it’s been at least three weeks since they were playing anything close to good football. Not exactly the way you want to go marching into the playoffs.

Payton could have decided to play all his starters and play them extensively in an effort to regain some momentum. But he sat a whole bunch of guys, including quarterback Drew Brees. Was it really important to get veteran backup Mark Brunell some work?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 6:14 pm and is filed under National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.