Sniffing the regular season, and it smells like . . . Victory

I'm not a fan of preseason. It's just one long practice. The games' outcomes don't mean much. And teams don't want to risk injury but at the same time want their units to find rhythm and cohesion.

For the first-team starters, this should be happening by the third game of preseason. And it's definitely happening for us. On Saturday, like a 1980s elementary school principal paddling bastard kids who egged their school bus, we laid the wood to the Raiders and scored at will on our first three possessions for a 45-7 ass-whooping.

We were supposed to play into the third quarter. But we were pulled from the game before the middle of the second, with Coach saying "I've seen enough."

As for myself, I can't wait to see more. Everything's coming together and I feel as if I'm on the verge of a breakout season. I've got the best quarterback in the business chunking the rock in my direction; I'm on an offense with more deadly weapons than Uzbekistan has in its entire possession; and I'm developing a rapport with Drew Brees who says we're not only on the same page but we're developing a rapport.

And he's not shy to explain to me the definition of rapport, either.

Anyway, four catches for 48 yards for myself in just three series of work against Oakland and I'm ready to get this Redux mission rolling. If I were to average just that a game this season (56 catches, about 800 yards), I'd nearly match my last very good season -- 65 catches, 891 yards and seven touchdowns in 2005.

Enough about that, though. What's really got me and the rest of the offense excited (and I'm not naming names) is how the defense is showing marked improvement over last season. The defense might not be stifling, but for chrisssakes the turnovers are encouraging. Watching Pearson Prioleau (the best name on the team, by the way) strip the ball from Oakland's Richard Murphy and Usama Young, in his new role at safety, break to the ball for a near interception has got the O-line giddier than a fat boy who hears the ice cream truck jingling down his street. And I'll tell you why: this team is approaching this season with a more-improved running attack, and there's nothing the big men up front enjoy more than pushing some Butterballs off the ball and eating up the clock. Because that's what wins games in the fourth quarter.
 Devery Henderson also had a blow-up game. He's really turning it on, with even more improvement after his much-improved season last year. For chrissakes, what do defenses prepare for with Marques Colston, Reggie Bush, Lance Moore, Devery, Pierre Thomas and myself as threats?

 Get some, JaMarcus, from Bobby McCray!