OK, it's 8:50, local time here in New Orleans (6:50 back home), and I'm ready to go after a very early evening. How 'bout that?

Of course, had the BBQ shrimp at Pascal's Manale last night for dinner. Then, stopped by the Tropical Isle to see my guys, Late as Usual, belt out a few classics. (I was nursing a bottle of water, by the way.)

I'll be walking over to the Superdome in a few minutes, and will continue the updates from there.

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But, first . . . from the pages of the PD, please read . . . "Bush is Big Easy's Biggest Threat" and "Breaking down 49ers at New Orleans."

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49ers inactives: QB Jamie Martin (No. 3 QB), CB Marcus Hudson, CB Reggie Smith, CB Shawntae Spencer, LB Ahmad Brooks, C Cody Wallace, T Jonas Jennings and LB Tully Banta-Cain.

All the guys listed as questionable on the injury report (Bryant Johnson, Dashon Goldson, Michael Lewis, Donald Strickland and Keith Lewis) will suit up and play.

Also, Takeo Spikes gets his first start, as he takes over at strong inside linebacker for Jeff Ulbrich. The 49ers are wearing their red jerseys today. They typically only wear those tops at home.

Saints inactives: WR Marques Colston, CB Randall Gay, RB Aaron Stecker, CB Aaron Glenn, FB Mike Karney, T Jermon Bushrod, TE Jeremy Shockey and DE Josh Savage.

Lance Moore starts at WR for David Patten; FB Olaniyi Sobohehin starts at FB for Karney, and Mike McKenzie starts at CB for Gay.

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It's a bit nippy inside the dome. I'm guessing the temp is in the low-60s.

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Saints win the toss and will receive.

FIRST QUARTER

--Niners defense hopes with five DBs. Goldson is in, and yhat means Lawson is out.

--Spikes with a big hit on Brees as he's throwing. It's incomplete. Saints have second and 10 from midfield.

--On third down, Willis with the heat on Brees for an incomplete pass. The defense holds.

--Rossum fair-catches at the 8. Niners take over with 12:48 left in the quarter.

--JTO makes the hot throw to Battle for 9 yards and a first down.

--The line is giving O'Sullivan a lot of time to throw. He completes passes to Bruce of 23 and 9 yards.--He has good time again, but is sacked by Charles Grant.

--On third down, JTO tries to get it deep to Bruce, but Roman Harper comes over to break the pass up. He could've made the pick.

--Joe Nedney kicks a 47-yard FG. It's 49ERS 3, SAINTS 0 with 7:22 left in the quarter.

--Saints take over at the 29. Manny Lawson is not in the huddle. This looks like another special-teams only day for Lawson.

--Deuce McAllister gets his third carry of the season, and he moves the pile for 5 yards.

--Brees throws incomplete. Great play by Willis to completely throw off the timing on TE Mark Campbell across the middle. Willis laid quite a hit on Campbell.

--Third and 4 from SF 49, McDonald jumps offside. It's a first down.

--Spikes with a fantastic interception. He is shallow on the tight end and Brees wanted to get the ball down the field to Devery Henderson. That was quite a play. Niners take over at their own 37 with 4:21 left in the quarter.

--Three and out for the 49ers. McKenzie breaks up quick slant to Johnson. Andy Lee onto to punt to Bush. Horrible punt, but got a good roll to the 17. Ended up being a nice exchange.

--Saints get a couple first downs.

--Nice plays from Nate Clements, covering Robert Meachem deep and bring down Bush for 1-yard loss. It'll be third-and-12 from the SF 48.

--Three-man rush . . . Brees throws high. That was the final play of the first quarter. Saints will punt after the switch sides.

SECOND QUARTER

--Awful punt by Steve Weatherford. Niners take over at their own 30 with 14:54 left in the quarter. Time for another commercial.

--O'Sullivan sacked on back-to-back plays, he fumbles the second one, stripped by Will Smith from behind and the Saints recover at the 49ers' 32.

--Third and 5 . . . nice screen set up to McAllister it's a gain of 10 for a first down.

--After penalties on both teams, Saints have first and goal at the 13.

--Brees finds Moore in the front left corner of the end zone. Harris wasn't there in time to break it up. That's a TD, a 5-yard pass. It's SAINTS 7, 49ERS 3 with 9:31 left in the half.

--Niners tried some trickery on the return. Rossum hands off to Robinson, who only advanced it 12 yards to the SF 17. That's where the offense will take over.

--Three and out for the 49ers, as JTO throws high for Bruce on quick slant on third-and-1.

--Lee with a high, 39-yard punt that Bush fair catches. Saints take over at their own 35 with 7:58 left in the half.

--On second and 1, Lawson's on the field at ROLB. Bush gets the first down, but it's coming back on a Jammal Brown holding penalty.

--Willis breaks up pass to Bush.

--Bush gains 10 on a third-and-10 run. Willis makes another great play to bring down Bush for a 5-yard loss on a pass from Brees.

--Franklin called for defensive holding at end of McAllister's 10-yard gain. Saints have the ball at the 39.

--Deuce picks up another 6 yards and a first down at the 33. Niners call a timeout. They're doing a good job against the Saints' passing attack, but they can't stop McAllister's running.

--Lawson's back in after the timeout. Franklin stops Deuce for no gain.

--Moore badly beats Goldson down the field. Michael Lewis could not get over in time and that's a 33-yard TD pass from Brees. It's SAINTS 14, 49ERS 3 with 3:00 left in the half. It was a 10-play, 65-yard drive that took a shade under five minutes.

--JTO sacked by CB Tracy Porter. Nobody picked him up. Don't blame that one on the line. The ball popped loose. He was ruled down by contact. The Saints are challenging the call. Ref Jeff Triplette goes under the hood.

--Hmmm, the Saints might have a point. The ball was certainly moving around in JTO's hands when he went down.

--But Triplette says the ruling stands. It's 49ers ball, second and 18 from the SF 46.

--Nice catch and run from Battle for 22 yards and a first down.

--RG Tony Wragge get caught tripping. Now' it's first and 20.

--Gore with 11-yard run. It's second and 9 from the 31 at the two-minute warning.

--JTO's third-down pass to Bruce was incomplete. Bruce wasn't expecting the pass to come out so quickly.

--Niners settle for Nedney's 49-yard FG. It's SAINTS 14, 49ERS 6 with 1:44 remaining in the half. Saints are scoring TDs, the 49ers are scoring FGs. That's not a good trade-off for the guys in red.

--Wow, that was fast. The Saints come right back on a four-play, 74-yard drive. Brees hits Robert Meachem, who beats Mark Roman, for a 47-yard TD. It's SAINTS 21, 49ERS 6 with :52 remaining in the half. Will the 49ers sit on it or try to match them?

--Niners come out with four wides. JTO hits Battle for 22 yards to the SF 49.

--Morgan takes hard hit across the middle from S Kevin Kaesviharn. Incomplete.

--Battle drops pass on third down. Niners will punt with :25 remaining. Neary blocked, but there's flag down, as Lee goes down. Don't think it'll be an automatic first down, so the 49ers will probably decline it.

--Yep, it's running into the kicker. The 49ers don't take the penalty.

--Brees takes a knee and that's the end of the first half.

--Brees has 195 yards passing at the half, and that's already more than any QB has done against the 49ers this season. Gore has carried eight times for 39 yards. JTO is 7 of 16 for 107 yards. Battle has four catches for 65 yards.

THIRD QUARTER

--Meanwhile, in N.Y. it's Jets 34, Cardinals 7. The NFC West is the Pac-10 of the NFL.

--Gore gains 10 on first down. Niners need to run a little more. They can't get too antsy to make big plays in the passing game.

--Third and 4 from the SF 48 . . . JTO to Gore down the field on seam route for 24 yards.

--Barry Sims beaten Grant for the sack on second down. JTO throws incomplete to Battle in end zone on third down.

--Nedney comes on for 38-yard FG. It's SAINTS 21, 49ERS 9 with 10:18 left in the third.

--My two cents: The Saints secondary is doing a very good job. All of the pressure the Saints have gotten on O'Sullivan has come after he wanted to get rid of the ball. The last sack was an example of that. JTO took his drop and wanted to get rid of it, but it looked as if Davis was covered underneath. Sims didn't keep Grant under wraps, and Grant kept working to get to O'Sullivan.

--Roman called for illegal contact. He doesn't like the call. He's having a rough day.

--Niners challenge the call of a completed pass to Campbell. Looked like he was bobbling it when he went down and lost control of it on the ground. It'll either be second and 4 or second and 10 with 9:06 to play in the third.

--INJURY UPDATE: Lawson's return is questionable with a hamstring.

--The ruling stands. It's a 6-yard gain. And that wastes a timeout.

--Michael Lewis breaks up third-down pass. Saints will punt.

--Niners take over at the 21 with 8:47 left in the third. They're still in the game, but they need to get into the end zone. (How's that for some insightful analysis?)

--On third and 5, Harper is called for defensive holding. It's a first down for the 49ers.

--Foster with his play of the game, and he gains 9 yards and a first down.

--Foster catches a short pass, and now Gore is back in.

--Big third down. Jason Hill is in the game (Bruce is out). The play clock is winding down. O'Sullivan calls timeout. That's the 49ers' second time out.

--Bruce is back on the field after the timeout; he replaces Hill on third and 2. . . This might be four down territory. Gore carries for 7 yards and a first down.

--Walker on a crossing route for 21 yards. Man, he looked good with the ball in his hands.

--JTO tries to get the ball to Johnson in the end zone, but Kaesviharn with a phenomenal interception in the end zone. Martz is not pleased on the sideline. JTO threw that ball into coverage.

--Flea-flicker. Meachem is well-covered down the field, but Brees throws it anyway . . . and he's glad he did. Meachem took it away from Michael Lewis for a 52-yard gain.

--And that, my friends, is the end of the third quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER

--The 49ers missed their opportunity in this game. They dominated the third quarter, but only managed three points.

--Olaniyi Sobohehin catches a 10-yard pass on third-and-2. I think he was Roman's responsibilty. Roman tried to hit him from preventing the FB from getting out in a pattern.

--McAllister scores from a yard out. And this one is over. It's SAINTS 28, 49ERS 9 with 11:23 remaining. I didn't think the 49ers would win this game, but I thought they'd be a lot more competitive.

--As the 49ers take over, JTO's passer rating is 56.1. Vernon Davis has not caught a pass.

--Rossum returns it 55 yards to the N.O. 40.

--On that third-down play, Grant worked over Sims pretty good to get to O'Sullivan as he was throwing. They're going for it on fourth down.

--Battle with an 11-yard reception on fourth down.

--Another interception in the end zone. This time it was rookie Tracy Porter with the pick. No doubt about this one. The 49ers had two horrible red-zone interceptions.

--Willis breaks up pass to Moore. Not a lot of guys have played well on the 49ers' defense today, but Willis has been very, very impressive. Bush has not done much today, and Willis is the reason.

--Devery Henderson gets behind Clements for an 81-yard gain. Clements trips him up at the 2-yard line to save the TD -- for now.

--Lewis makes the stop on the Sobohehin just short of the goal line. Willis recovers the fumble. But the Saints will challenge, saying the ball crossed the plane of the goal line.

--Triplette determines the ruling on the field stands. The 49ers take over at the 3-yard line with 6:26 left.

--There's a Vernon Davis sighting. He caught a 19-yard pass. (That came after a 43-yard PI penalty on the Saints.)

--Kendrick Clancy beats Snyder up the middle for a sack. That's six sacks for the Saints. They came into the game with four in the first three games.

--For the first time this season, the 49ers don't have a RB on the field. They go with four wides and Delanie Walker. JTO finds Bruce in the end zone for a TD. Niners go for two. Shovel pass to Gore. It's good. It's SAINTS 28, 49ERS 17 with 4:08 remaining. Time for a Nedney onside kick.

--Saints recover the kick . . . that guy, Lance Moore.

That's going to wrap it up from here. I'll be heading down the locker room shortly. Thanks for tuning in.

FINAL SCORE: Saints 31, 49ers 17