SmashMouth

When the Dallas Cowboys kicked off to New Orleans on Nov. 10, the Saints had done a poor job of protecting Drew Brees from sacks, complementing him with a reliable running game and avoiding penalties on the offensive line.

Opponents in the first half of the season were sacking Brees 2.5 times a game on average, when typically he’d be brought down behind the line of scrimmage 1.3 times an outing.

The Saints had gained just 638 yards on 191 carries — a paltry 3.3 yards an attempt.

The regular starters on the offensive line had been whistled for four false starts and a deplorable 12 accepted holding calls, often setting up obvious passing situations that exposed Brees to sacks.

Then, between kickoff of the Cowboys game and the end of the night Thursday, the Saints rushed the ball 86 times in three games for 437 yards, a superb 5.1 yards per attempt.

The starting offensive linemen eliminated false starts. They were called for holding just twice. Opponents sacked Brees only once each game.

The crucial result: The Saints (9-2) reaped three victories during a brutal 11-day stretch preceding a Dec. 2 visit to the Seattle Seahawks (10-1), the NFC’s front-runner, and a clash at home Dec. 8 against the Carolina Panthers (8-3), who sit right behind New Orleans in the NFC South.

“We seem like we are in a great spot right now,” said Saints running back Pierre Thomas, who averaged 5.5 yards on 38 carries in the three wins and made a touchdown catch and a touchdown run against the Cowboys. “Our offense can really do it all: Go out there, run the ball, execute, pick up first downs on the ground and also in the air.

“We just feel like we’re in a great position now and just need to stay focused.”

Achieving that won’t be an issue if an offensive line that had drawn a hefty share of criticism at the year’s halfway mark maintains the level it displayed in New Orleans’ recent wins of 49-17, 23-20 and 17-13 over Dallas (6-5), San Francisco (6-4 going into Monday nights’ game) and Atlanta (2-9).

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