1 Drew Brees — The whole country witnessed on Monday night why the Saints’ quarterback deserves the NFL?MVP. The most underappreciated player in the NFL completed 18 of 23 passes for 371 yards and five touchdowns in New Orleans’ 38-17 victory over New England. Brees has 27 touchdowns on the season to 10 different receivers. He has played six of the league’s top 10 defenses and averaged a passer rating of 113.6 with 13 touchdowns and just two interceptions in those contests. Yeah, he’s kind of good.
2 Easy schedule — While the Colts play two surging teams the next two weeks, the Saints can kick up their heels because none of their remaining opponents will threaten for the NFC crown. Washington is the toughest defense left on their schedule, but the Skins simply don’t have the fire power to compete — they only scored six points against the Cowboys in Week 11. The Vikings are the only team who can seriously challenge the Saints, likely coming in the NFC?Championship.
3 Complementary pieces — If for some reason a defense figures out how to shut down Brees, Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush are playmakers in the backfield. Then there’s that defense, which leads the NFL with 32 takeaways.
