Last year, the New Orleans Saints were the darlings of the NFL universe.

The offense put up points like nobody’s business and the defense forced a bucketful of turnovers with a wide-open, feast-or-famine style.

The Super Bowl XLIV victory over the Indianapolis Colts would’ve made for an unbelievable sports movie and did make a national celebrity of quarterback Drew Brees — even if Oprah Winfrey tried to rub the birthmark off his face.

But this year, the Saints have made a habit of winning ugly. Is it the “Madden” cover curse, since Brees takes center-stage on the cover of this year’s version of the game?

Or is it the Super Bowl hangover effect?

The reasons have nothing to do with either.

The offense has sputtered like a ’75 Ford Pinto thanks to injuries to Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas and a lack of execution at all levels. Too many dropped passes and a couple of inexplicable decisions by the normally-solid Brees have turned 30-point outings into 16-point ones.

Defensively, the Saints have struggled at times without ballhawking safety Darren Sharper in the lineup forcing turnovers. While Malcolm Jenkins has been credible as his replacement, he still isn’t Sharper. At least not yet.

Last year’s biggest vulnerability, an inability to stop the run, is magnified this season since the defense isn’t forcing turnovers at an astronomic clip.

Despite all of that, the Saints are 3-1 and could’ve been 4-0 had last year’s NFC championship game hero Garrett Hartley not hooked a gimme field goal farther left than Obama’s agenda. While John Carney is a good placeholder until Hartley gets his head right, the Saints will need Hartley’s strong leg going forward into the playoffs.

But the future is a bright one for the Saints and the chances for a repeat, despite the ugly start, are excellent.

One thing that helps the Saints is that their next three games are against the NFL’s bottom feeders. Arizona looks light years from a Super Bowl berth in 2008 with no Kurt Warner. Despite Tampa Bay’s 2-1 record, their wins came over winless Carolina and Cleveland. The Browns rank at the bottom of every statistical measure and are, by most accounts, among the worst teams in football.

Bush and Sharper will return in a few weeks, giving the Saints two of their top playmakers back in the lineup when they have to battle two of the AFC’s best teams, the Steelers and Ravens.

Another thing that will help the Saints is the overall weakness in the NFC this season. The NFC East, thought by many to have as many as three playoff teams, is much weaker than anyone could’ve imagined. The West is a mess, and the division title might be won by a team with a losing record. St. Louis Rams, anyone?

So don’t be surprised to see the Saints back in the Super Bowl again. Even if the season is off to an ugly start.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.