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METAIRIE, La. – Unlike Terrell Suggs, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is well aware that the Baltimore Ravens are the only NFL team he has yet to beat in his 14-year NFL career. “Just this one,” Brees said, almost interrupting a reporter when the question was asked Thursday. Anyone familiar with Brees’ encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much every game he’s played shouldn’t be surprised at that. “I can tell you each game too. It was really just three, ‘03 in San Diego, ‘06 here, ‘10 there,” Brees said. Then when asked if that adds a little extra motivation heading into the Saints’ Monday night matchup against Baltimore, Brees said, “Maybe a little bit.” That also shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s familiar with Brees’ ultra-competitive nature. But Brees doesn’t exactly need any extra motivation this week, considering the Saints are 4-6 and coming off of one of their most lackluster offensive performances in his nine-year tenure in New Orleans. The Saints lost 27-10 at home to the Cincinnati Bengals, their lowest point total at home since 2006. Brees was efficient, completing 33 of 41 passes for 255 yards without a turnover. But he didn’t complete a pass longer than 17 yards as the Saints’ long drives stalled repeatedly. Brees said he thinks the extra day off this week leading up to a Monday game was helpful for guys, “especially maybe coming off that game, just to kind of get realigned and really focused on the task.” But he added that he didn’t want to dwell too much on the Cincinnati game since it’s now “in the past.” “I think you walk away from that saying, ‘Gosh we didn’t feel like we had a whole lot of opportunities offensively, and we weren’t really efficient with the ones we did have. We sustained drives, we did some things, but obviously not near enough,” Brees said. “So in some ways you just say, ‘We’ve gotta find ways to be more efficient, take the things that we’re doing well, continue to master those, and then the things that we need to work on, let’s really fine-tune.’ “Because when you get out there, you want to be able to simplify the game as much as possible. And you want to play fast and confident.” There’s no better opportunity for the Saints’ offense to do that than at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in prime time. They’ve won 14 straight primetime home games, including the playoffs, by nearly 20 points per game. “It’s primetime ‘Monday Night Football.’ We’ve had a lot of these games here. Our fans always seem to rise to the occasion. I think our team always seems to rise to the occasion,” Brees said. “And we need it more than ever right now.”
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