SmashMouth

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees had just become the first NFL player to throw five touchdown passes eight separate times.

On defense, the Saints battered Buffalo Bills quarterback Thad Lewis and took the ball away from him three times en route to a 35-17 win at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome that boosted New Orleans’ record to 6-1, keeping it on pace with Seattle in the fight for the top record in the NFC.

But if Brees and his teammates were in the mood to celebrate, it was muted. Among other things, they had been penalized eight times, had gotten just seven points out of their first three trips to the red zone and had let Brees get hit quite a bit himself.

Such lapses won’t doom a win in October at home against a Bills team that’s now 3-5 and was led by a QB who was on the practice squad until starter E.J. Manuel suffered a knee injury earlier this month. But the same may not be true in the postseason.

“It’s weird where we’re happy with the victory ... (but) we need to be better in some situations,” Brees said.

“There were a lot of good things, but a lot of things we could have done much better.”

Defensive end Junior Galette, who had one of the Saints’ four sacks and one of their two fumble recoveries, agreed.

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