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You donated one million dollars to the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. What inspired you and your foundation to do this and what type of impact do you hope to make?

“Obviously, we know the type of devastation that a hurricane like that can cause. Obviously, being here six months after (Hurricane) Katrina and the length of time it’s taken to get things back here and then also to watch (Hurricane) Gustav come through here and (Hurricane) Isaac, we can only imagine the devastation and the way that it’s changed people’s lives up there. I know they have a long road ahead of them. Certainly they can use all the help they can get. It’s something we felt compelled to do as a foundation.”

What has Joe Vitt’s return meant to this team and at what point do you think the Saints started turning the corner to working back in the playoff hunt?

“I’d say after the Denver game has been the real push and I think there's a feeling that we’re starting to hit our stride and find a rhythm. We had our moments in the two games prior to that, the Chargers game and the Tampa game. You can feel it, you can see the results. All that hard work, all that stick-to-itiveness, just the fact that we went through that adversity together and hung tight and just battled, I think that’s going to pay dividends as we move down through the rest of our schedule. Joe Vitt, he brings a lot of just institutional knowledge, not only about what we do here, but he’s been around the game since 1979. That’s the year I was born, so 33 years, and his stories about this league when he first got here, I mean he can just go down the roster about all these great teams from the past, and usually there’s an anecdote or a story that would apply to something that we’re going through. So he can really draw the analogy or bring a story full-circle and communicate it in a way that guys get it and it’s a motivational tactic, but also in a lot of ways it makes you appreciate just how far we’ve come, how far this game has come, and I think it allows us to go out there and play better because, number one, we’re thankful because of the situation we’re in and the opportunity we have.”

Last year, you threw over 60 passes in the loss to San Francisco. Do you think you guys need to see more balance in this game?

“I think throwing it 60 times against these guys is not the ideal scenario. I think we are quite a different team now than we were then. Obviously that was a huge game. We were playing extremely well going into San Francisco. They were playing extremely well. Two teams that were playing about as good as you can play on both sides of the ball, and it was a great game. Unfortunately, we came out on the short end of that. I think for us, just looking at all that’s transpired from the last time we played those guys to now, I just feel like we’ve been through a lot and it’s made us stronger as a unit, as a group and as a team. I think we’re doing some things offensively, as you look at let’s just say the last six weeks, I think we’ve averaged throwing it maybe less than 30 times a game, which is quite a bit different from what we did there last year and what we were doing going into that game last year. I’d say on that note, obviously when we think about what’s going to be successful against these guys, number one sustaining drives, staying on the field, keeping their offense off the field. We know the type of playmakers they have offensively. Certainly we want to put our defense in the best position we can. We want to try to take advantage of every opportunity we get offensively to control the ball, to run the ball, to make plays in the passing game, and to score points when we can. Really just execution becomes so vital in a game like this because you know how well disciplined they are. They do all the little things very, very well. We need to be able to match that.”

Read more: Drew Brees: "We're Starting to Hit Our Stride"

QBREES9

I love Drew Brees. Their I said it.