"The Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints arrive at Candlestick Park on Monday. Bring 'em on, Vernon Davis said.

"I strongly believe we have the better team going into this game,'' the 49ers tight end said Saturday.

A better team than New Orleans? The Saints won the title last season behind Drew Brees, the game's MVP, and are coming off a season in which they went 7-1 in road games.

"It's exciting because we know that they're competitive,'' Davis said. "But we're not worried about them being Super Bowl champion or anything like that."

Asked about the prospect of being covered by Pro Bowl strong safety Roman Harper, Davis said: "Is that No. 41? No, I don't think he can check me man-to-man, one-on-one."

Davis' bold talk comes days after Mike Singletary made brash statements in an interview with KPIX. When host Dennis O'Donnell asked Singletary about trying to stop Brees, the coach responded with: "We will stop Drew Brees. Next question." Singletary also said: "We will not try to move the ball against the New Orleans defense. We will move the ball and we will score."

Singletary's comments sounded vaguely like a Joe Namath-type guarantee, but the coach rankled at the use of the G-word on Saturday. "I didn't say anything about a guarantee, OK? I just said we would stop him.""