The 2006 NFC South visors stood neatly arrayed on top of every Saints locker. Even though New Orleans had won its first division title since the turn of the century, no one was in a particularly festive mood.

The Saints had just fallen 16-10 to an underachieving Washington Redskins team – their offense never got going, rookie back-up Redskin quarterback Jason Campbell had ventilated the defense for 204 yards and a touchdown, running back Ladell Betts had just amassed 169 yards on 22 carries.

Saints wideout Devery Henderson, however, reminded everyone that something had still been done: a 37-3 Carolina Panthers misfortune against the Pittsburgh Steelers meant fortune for the black-and-gold.

“We still did something no one thought we could do,” he said. “The task at hand was to beat the Redskins, and we didn’t do that. But on the other hand, we got two games left.”

Quarterback Drew Brees (21-of-38, 207 yards, one interception), who was limited to no touchdowns for only the second time of the season, added, “Everyone in America had us placed fourth in the NFC South at the start of the season. But now we’re sitting here as champs with two games to go, looking to take care of home field advantage.”

“If we play Saints football, we’ll be fine,” Henderson said.

New Saints football, that is.

*

If it’s anything these Saints ain’t, they ain’t the same old Saints.

For the most part.

They, unfortunately, fell back into character after a lethargic 16-10 loss to the Washington Redskins on a Sunday afternoon in which they still nabbed their first-ever NFC South crown.

It’s the usual: after posting an improbable win (probably the biggest road stand in franchise history, after blowing out the Dallas Cowboys 42-17 in their near impregnable Texas Stadium fortress) via electrifying plays we’ve seen all season, it was as if the momentum they had penned up had been sapped from their limbs.

Out-of-sync were the playcalls that downed Michael Vick and Atlanta Falcons twice; ones that kept Donovan McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles at bay long enough for John Carney to steal it in the last minutes; ones that embarrassed the surging Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys.

Electrifying plays the Who Dats ain’t used to seeing from a hardly-ever seen league-leading Saints offense, still holders of the No. 2 seed in the NFC.

But on Sunday, typical ‘Aint’s plays permeated the turf on which an improbably successful, fun and historic season has unfolded.

A Drew Brees pass batted down on 3rd-and-3. Marques Colston’s converting a 3rd-and-17, only for Brees to throw an interception immediately on the next play. Surrendering 12 yards to Ladell Scott, on a 3rd-and-4 with 8:00 to go, facing a 13-10 deficit in the fourth quarter.

Dropped passes from primary gamebreakers Colston (84 yards on seven catches) , Devery Henderson (20 yards on two catches) and Reggie Bush (14 yards on seven carries; 19 yards on five catches).

Henderson and Bush, the respective authors of a 42-yard sky rocket/mile-high-leap-in-the-air-to-catch-it and a mile-long zig-zag to the end zone in Dallas.

Either way, a long week later, both gamebreakers found themselves at the wrong end of a 16-10 decision, yet another loss in which their offense found themselves in the negative when it came to turnovers.

“We looked like we started asleep out there. We really couldn’t put a drive together,” coach Sean Payton explained it.

A bid for a big play blown on a fouled-up flea flicker between Brees and Deuce McAllister (15 carries, 48 yards) near the end zone. Surrendering a sack immediately on the next play.

No one in the locker room wanted to say it, but everyone in the Dome’s sullen stands and concourses thought it.

These ain’t the same old Saints, right? The ones who’d peter out in the crunch stretch, going from home-field advantage playoff probables to a titanic collapse? Like they did in 2002, the bullet to the temple being John Carney’s missed, game-tying extra point in the dying seconds of their regular season closer against the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road? Seconds after the River City Relay?

Ones that, in the playoffs, wouldn’t play a game just like this one and disappoint their first time out?

For one, Willie Parker and the Pittsburgh Steelers did New Orleans the favor of steamrolling the Carolina Panthers 37-3, bagging the Crescent City its first NFC South title ever.

And, as a bonus, the massive roster turnover Payton engineered made it so that very few of them even remember who those same old Saints are.

And the game wasn’t all muck. Brees brandished his confidence and resiliency down the stretch, hitting Colston and seeing the rookie flip a tackler for a gain of 7 yards on a 4th-and-5. On a 3rd-and-11 on the next set of downs, Brees hit Henderson for 13 yards right at the two-minute mark.

But it still wasn’t enough, not when Washington rushers were in Brees’ mug every other pass attempt, not when he fell back on tons of throwaways because he wasn’t afforded time for his receivers to get open downfield.

“They gave us the defensive looks we practiced all week. They came with the same blitz packages. There’s a lot of in-house stuff we can clean up, but other than that, I have no explanation,” offensive lineman Jon Stinchcomb said.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a lot. I know for a fact that we left a lot of yards out on the field, and that’s on us,” center Jeff Faine added.

But even when it came down to the last gasp, where the Saints were in a position to win within a minute to go, on a 4th-and-7. Brees delivered a playable pass for Terrence Copper, it’s just Washington’s Carlos Rogers undercut it and batted it down, throwing black-and-gold aspirations for more improbable dramatics to the Superdome’s turf in the Girod Street end zone.

“I saw the DB had his back turned and I thought I could get the ball on the opposite shoulder,” Brees said. It turned out he couldn’t.

“It took us a while to get going, and then it seemed that little things here, another one there kept us from key plays, from key first downs,” Brees said.

And while clinching the division was instrumental in a storied run, the cool as ice quarterback admitted he’s far from done.

“I won’t be celebrating if that’s what you’re wondering. I have the shirt. I have the hat. They’re in my bag, and when I get home tonight, I’ll put them in my closet.”

Ramon Vargas can be reached at [email protected].

Ramon Antonio Vargas