NEW ORLEANS -- Upon arriving in New Orleans over the weekend, any visitor could sense this Monday night showdown between the Rams and Saints was not going to be normal.

	Kurt Warner threw for 338 yards and four touchdowns in the Rams' victory over the Saints.

On Saturday night, the atmosphere was set when the founder of Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken brawled with a prominent casino owner in a Morton's Steakhouse. Every great heavyweight fight has a feisty undercard. The main event Monday night, though, had the air of a Don King production.

Naturally, there was officiating controversy. Referee Larry Nemmers' crew marched off 27 penalties for 217 yards, 16 against the hometown Saints for 132 yards in an exciting but sloppy 34-21 Rams' victory that clinched them a playoff berth. The scary moment came with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter when Saints fans copied the Browns' fiasco of the previous day.

Angered that Saints cornerback Kevin Mathis was called on a debatably close interference on Torry Holt in the end zone, with the Saints trailing 31-21, fans flooded the end zone with plastic beer bottles and trash. Now you can understand why the NFL was furious with Browns president Carmen Policy for brushing off the Browns' dangerous beer barrage Sunday by saying it was a sign of how much the fans cared.

Fortunately, the public address announcer pleaded with the fans not to act like the Dawg Pound and to be good fans. The fans who had a conscience ceased. The few who didn't were arrested. Saints coach Jim Haslett drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for cursing Nemmers, but Haslett, unlike Policy, made the right statement after the game.

"I think the fans were unacceptable in what they did," Haslett said. "It looked like the Dome Security and the New Orleans police acted quickly and put it out fast. I thought they did a great job. There is no reason to do that."

As for the game, the Saints didn't do everything right and Kurt Warner did. For two years, Warner has been living with the reality that turnovers have cost the Rams three of four games against the Saints. But if anyone had questions who the NFL's MVP is this season, those questions were answered Monday night.

In front of the cameras and the national spotlight, Warner was once again in a zone. As spectacular as his numbers were -- 23 of 32 for 338 yards and four touchdowns -- they don't capture his uncanny way of firing bullets despite being on the verge of getting crunched by defenders.

"I felt focused all day," Warner said. "We've been beaten by these guys because we've turned the ball over and we tried to force things. What I told myself is don't force things. Just try to make the plays that are there to be made. It was very, very important for us to come out and not have turnovers."

Of the three games in which Warner has been in a mental zone as he was Monday night, this was the most important. His 24-for-32 showing for 328 yards against the Dolphins was nice because it showed how he could rip apart one of the league's best secondaries. His 30-for-42 dismantling of the Patriots was fine because it was one of his last games outdoors.

But Monday night was special. This was the Saints. The game was played in the Superdome, where Warner and the Rams hope to be for the Super Bowl. And he had to fight out the incredible crowd noise.

	Road Warrior
	The play of Kurt Warner is the main reason the Rams are 7-0 on the road for the first time in franchise history. Warner is completing 71 percent of his passes and averaging over 316 yards passing per road game this season, compared to just over 62 percent and 293 yards at home. His TD/INT ratio is an amazing 19/5 away from home, compared to just nine TDs and 11 picks at home.
		Home	Road
	Comp. Pct.	62.2	71.0
	Pass YPG	293.0	316.6
	TD/INT	9/11	19/5
	W-L	4-2	7-0

Rams president Jay Zygmunt said after the game that the Rams will file a formal appeal against the Saints for turning the speakers too loud on their side of the field. According to Zygmunt, members of the Rams' broadcasting team performed second audio checks on each sideline. Zygmunt said that the speakers weren't loud on the Saints sideline, but it was twice as loud on the Rams' bench area.

Because of the noise, Warner had trouble hearing the plays coming from the sideline communication system. Late in the first quarter, equipment people worked on the helmet to see if there was a way to make the play calls more audible. Often, Warner would have to walk halfway between the huddle and the sideline to pick up the play.

The result was two delay of game penalties and having all the timeouts exhausted by the first and third quarters. Despite that, Warner was not going to be thrown off his game.

"He was outstanding," Rams coach Mike Martz said. "I think that this was a big challenge for Kurt after the game in St. Louis where he had the (four) interceptions. He was upset with that whole situation. I think Kurt had something to prove in this game."

Rams receiver Isaac Bruce beat three cornerbacks for touchdowns, two of those against tight coverage in which Warner made the perfect pass as Bruce raced ahead of defenders. His other touchdown pass was an easy 4-yarder to Marshall Faulk that opened a 21-14 lead with 28 seconds left in the half.

"He hit all the balls," Haslett said. "We pressured him as much as we could. He stuck balls in there when we had people calling on him."

The Saints tried everything. Before the game, the Voodoo lady spent almost five minutes trying to put the "gris gris" on the Rams before they ran to their bench area. The gris gris featured chants, two drums and a couple of dancers. For six minutes, the Saints had the mojo. Defensively, the Saints almost trapped Warner in the end zone for a safety on a couple of plays during the Rams' first possession. Brooks completed five of his first six attempts and put the Saints ahead, 7-0, with a 4-yard pass to fullback Terrell Smith.

Then Haslett, who complained of Martz's trickery in their first meeting, tried an onside kick that caught the Rams napping and the officials flagging. The ball didn't go the required 10 yards, so Warner burned them for a six-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce. In the second quarter, trailing 14-7, Haslett tried a fake field goal in which John Carney ran to his right. But the call didn't get into the huddle correctly, so two guys missed key blocks.

"We were trying to do everything we could to win the game," Haslett said. "When you play a team like that, you try to do anything. The plays we tried were legitimate plays based on what we saw on tape."

Because Toby Gowin hit a 10-yard onside kick eight yards instead of 10 and two players missed hearing an assignment, both trick plays were disasters. So were the penalties called on the Saints.

In the third quarter, for example, the Saints, trailing 28-14, had a first-and-goal from the Rams' 4-yard line. First there was a delay of game penalty. Next, tight end Cam Cleeland made a false start. Chris Naeole was called for holding. Guard Wally Williams got into a face mask shoving battle with Rams linebacker London Fletcher and got a personal foul call. The Saints were second-and-goal at the 37, and, believe it or not, Brooks hit Willie Jackson for a 28-yard touchdown two plays later.

"We were kind of killing ourselves," Saints back Deuce McAllister said.

Just the way the Rams did in losing three of the previous four. Warner ended that jinx. He had the Gris Gris.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.