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Drew Brees understands his place in the fantasy football hierarchy. So he feels the pain of his thousands of investors who have been stunned to see him go the past two weeks without throwing a touchdown pass.

Other than that, he said, he's been perfectly content in his supporting role for the New Orleans Saints. David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees hasn't thrown for a touchdown in each of the past two games, but he isn't worried about his numbers. The only number that matters is 4-0, the Saints record.

"For me, it's all about winning the game," Brees said. "And I enjoy seeing the way that we're winning football games, with great defensive play, with creating turnovers, giving the offense opportunities -- just playing with a great attitude and confidence level. The running game, the way it's going. The offensive line playing the way they have.

"For myself and the receivers, we talked this morning. It was, 'Hey, we're winning.' And we understand our opportunities are going to come. There's going to be those games where we have to throw it 40, maybe 45 times to win the game, and we're ready to do that when we're called upon to do it. But until that time comes, we're going to do whatever we can to win -- try to be as efficient as we can."

Brees also hasn't thrown an interception in the past two weeks. He had 172 passing yards at Buffalo in Week 3 and 190 against the Jets on Sunday in the Superdome.

Of course, the perfectionist in Brees still has some regrets from Sunday's 24-10 victory.

He said he should have held off safety Kerry Rhodes with his eyes for an extra beat before throwing to Reggie Bush on third-and-4 on the Saints' opening drive. Instead, his pass was tipped away and the Saints kicked a field goal.

He also wishes he could have "fit a ball in there to one of those guys" when the Saints were shut down by a goal-line stand in the second quarter.

For the most part, however, both he and Coach Sean Payton said the Saints perfectly executed their game plan, which was to avoid game-changing turnovers, win the field-position battle and force the Jets to work for every point.

"Not to say that we weren't going in with a very aggressive mentality -- we always do -- but we just knew the formula for winning these last two games," Brees said. "And we won going away in both."

The plan was especially effective against the Bills and Jets because Buffalo had an inexperienced offensive line, and New York had an inexperienced quarterback in rookie Mark Sanchez.

The challenge will be much more difficult when the Saints return from their bye next week and host the unbeaten Giants, who do everything well, from defense to the passing game to the running game. The Giants host Oakland this week.

The Saints appear primed for that challenge, having shown an impressive amount of balance and versatility. Not only have they demonstrated that they can win with offense or defense, or by running as well as throwing, but they've shown they can be patient, as well as aggressive.

Payton said he didn't want to use the word "conservative" to describe his team's approach in the past three games, including their matchup against the attacking Philadelphia defense in Week 2.

The coach said after the Saints lost a number of close games last season, he came into this season focused on what can win games -- and what can lose them.

"We talked about that," Brees said. "For example, when we played (Jets Coach) Rex Ryan last time, when he was with Baltimore in '06, we turned the ball over five times. That's going to get you beat against a Rex Ryan team."

Don't expect Brees to stop throwing for 300 yards and three or four touchdowns from time to time, but depending on what each matchup calls for, he said, "I think we're ready to handle whatever's thrown at us."

"I think that we've experienced a lot, for the last two years especially, of the agony of defeat, and losing some of those close games that we felt like we never should have lost," Brees said. "We never should have been in that position to begin with, and we had opportunities to win but we just didn't take advantage of it.

"We've learned a lot from that. We don't want to be that team ever again. So I think there's always that fire burning inside of us that makes us feel like that part is in our past, but yet we needed to go through that in order to be where we are right now."

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees content to keep on winning | New Orleans Saints Central - - NOLA.com