New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Article Brees: ‘We plan on being there’ at the end

METAIRIE, La. — With seven games to play, the Saints sit out of first in the NFC South by one game and out of the NFC lead by the same amount.

For quarterback Drew Brees, that’s not a bad place to be.

“The fact of the matter is we’re one game off the lead in the division, in the NFC and the one seed if you really look at it,” Brees said. “We happen to play one of those teams again, Atlanta, who’s sitting on top of our division at 7-2. We control our own destiny right now. That’s really all you can ask for.”

In fact, several teams at 6-3 muddling the NFC standings right now. The Falcons are the only 7-2 team in the conference and six others are 6-3, including the Saints. With an NFL rule keeping division winners in the top four seeds regardless of record, the Saints are in a wild card fight for now.

The Giants, Saints, Packers, and Buccaneers all are in a four-way battle for the fifth- and sixth-seeds right now. If the playoffs were to start immediately, the Saints would be a sixth-seed traveling to 6-3 Chicago.

But the Saints play teams with a combined record of 32-31, including three with losing records over the final two months of the season. Two would seem to be looming large at this point – Dec. 19 at Baltimore and Dec. 27 at Atlanta.

For now, talk seems to hover around the Falcons, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots as best in the NFL.

That’s quite alright with Brees.

“We’ll just keep flying under the radar, keep winning games, doing what we can, let the chips fall where they may at the end,” Brees said. “Everybody can talk about who they want as maybe being the favorite or there’s going to be plenty of speculation.

“We plan on being there.”