Whew! That was the collective sigh of relief that was heard throughout the Gulf South Sunday as New Orleans Saints fans’ sweated out a heart stopper.

The Saints drove nearly the length of the field and punched it in with only one second left on the clock to dispense with the Carolina Panthers, 27-25.

I won’t put a damper on the warm fuzzy feelings everyone must feel from experiencing an exciting come-from-behind victory like the “one” over Carolina by pulling in a bunch of negatives.

On second thought, yes, I will. It should never have come down to that.

As coach Jim Haslett said in the locker room afterward,” We made some mistakes, but a win, is a win.” Yeah, Jim you’re right on the money on both parts.

The Saints are now sitting at 3-1 and to be honest with you, a lot of the time they haven’t looked good getting to said point. Sunday’s nailbiter provided Saints fans with a musical mixture of a little bit of everything.

For those that have been around awhile, you surely recognized a New Orleans oldie.

You know, the song and dance where the Saints grab a commanding lead, only to sit on it and watch the other team – previously sleepwalking – come to life.

And yes, there’s the ever-popular, “Watch our kickoff and punt teams implode.” That last little number almost cost the Saints the game.

And beer man or no beer man, young Michael Lewis had better learn to hold on to the football lest he find himself back on the other side of Airline Drive in Metairie loading trucks again. And how many folks recognized the strains of, “We can’t pick up a blitz package,” made famous from the Mike Ditka era?

But, one thing is for sure, with 1:48 to go, they spun a record that doesn’t get played very often, but may become a standard as the campaign rolls on.

It doesn’t really have a title yet, per say, but the gist of it is, “lets play clutch football and actually come through when the chips are down.” You see, if you haven’t heard it enough before, you are starting to see glimpses of it as this season goes along. These aren’t your father’s Saints. Heck, they aren’t even your big brother’s.

This is the type of club that can pull out an honest-to-goodness, length-of-the-field, ala John Elway, clock-ticking-down and-we-need-a-score-now touchdown drive.

Not quite with the Elway frequency, mind you, but you can bet if the Saints would have been able to punch it in down near the goal line a few weeks ago in New Jersey, we’d almost be talking about, dare I say it, a trend?

Nah. Last week after the Viking win, Kyle Turley told a group of reporters that they regarded the triumph the same as their Chicago win last year. If you recall, after the Bears were routed at Soldier Field, the saints went on a nice little streak. Or as Turley put it, “We got on a roll after that.” A roll? Well, that remains to be seen and if trends hold up, this one won’t be for the faint of heart.

Richard Dark is a sports writer for The Natchez Democrat