Despite close calls, Saints aren’t feeling vulnerable

METAIRIE, La. (AP) — Drew Brees’ advice to those concerned about New Orleans’ past two performances is to ignore point spreads and judge the Saints by wins and losses.

“Despite what the odds might say, every game is a huge game, especially when we remain undefeated,” Brees said on Monday, still beaming from the Saints’ 26-23 win at Atlanta a day earlier. “We know we’re getting every team’s best game. They’re all going to be close.”

When the Saints handled the Patriots 38-17 on national TV on Nov. 30, they showed how dominant they could be. They’ve been unable to regain that form in their next two games, pulling out an improbable 33-30 overtime win at Washington and narrowly holding off the Falcons the next.

“You can’t throw for five touchdowns every week,” Brees said.

Still, the Saints were heavy favorites at Washington. Instead, Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell threw for a career-high 367 yards against a New Orleans defense that has looked increasingly worn down lately. Washington finished with 455 total yards and could have taken a 10-point lead inside the final two minutes, but missed a short field goal.

After that miss, New Orleans tied it with a quick touchdown, got an interception from Jonathan Vilma to stop Washington’s last possession of regulation, forced a fumble to end the Redskins’ first possession of overtime, then won with a field goal.

“What’s important to me is that we’re making the plays in crunch time,” Brees said. “When we’re called upon to make them, we’re making them and I feel like in Washington when we were given the opportunity at the end of the game to win it, we did. Against Atlanta, when we were given the opportunity, really defensively, to win that game at the end, they did it. So that’s what I see.”

In Atlanta, New Orleans led most of the way and went up by as much as two touchdowns in the second half, only to have the Falcons storm back to tie it.

Although the Saints have outscored opponents 125-34 in the fourth quarter this season, they struggled to put the Falcons away, managing one field goal and botching a fake field goal on two trips inside the Atlanta 20-yard line.

The game got tight because Falcons backup quarterback Chris Redman threw for 303 yards.