Brees, as great as he is overall, is good for at least 2 or 3 poor performances by his standards every year. Yesterday was one of them. Not to put the loss squarely on him -- team effort, win or lose -- but he's the undeniable X factor for the Saints. When he's on, the team can beat anybody. When he struggles, the other team weaknesses tend to be enough to do the Saints in. Fortunately he doesn't struggle that often.