Brees' Saints to make Super Bowl run

The New Orleans Saints enter December eyeing a run at the Super Bowl behind the sharp passing of their star quarterback Drew Brees. "What it comes down to is we have a lot of confidence and we play very aggressive," said Brees, whose streak of 38 straight games with a touchdown pass is second-longest in league history behind Johnny Unitas (47). Brees is looking to lead New Orleans to a fourth consecutive victory Sunday when they host the Detroit Lions, who are fighting for a playoff spot. To make matters worse for Detroit's postseason chances, they will likely be without star defensive end Ndamukong Suh because of suspension. New Orleans (8-3) heads into the game after an impressive 49-24 victory over the New York Giants on Monday. Brees threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns and had an eight-yard touchdown run as the Saints finished with a whopping 577 yards. It was their second most yards in franchise history. In another key matchup Sunday, the next stop for the Green Bay Packers in their pursuit of perfection is an opponent that has a reputation of ruining unbeaten seasons -- the New York Giants. In a battle of teams headed in opposite directions, the Packers travel to New York to face the Giants at MetLife Stadium. New York ended Denver's 13-0 start in 1998 although the Broncos went on to win the Super Bowl. The Giants also snapped New England's attempt at a 19-0 season with a 17-14 win in Super Bowl XLII. "It is different circumstances but it is the challenge of playing a team that is obviously a very good football team," Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said. Green Bay is five games away from a perfect regular season. The Packers will wrap up the NFC North title with a win and a loss by Detroit at New Orleans on Sunday. "It is motivating to go out every week and compete better than you did the previous week," quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. "We have been able to play the way we wanted to play consistently the first 11 games. We will see what happens when we get down this road a little bit." The Packers' win streak began with a 45-17 home rout of the Giants in the next-to-last week of the 2010 regular season. The NFL week got started with the Seattle Seahawks defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 31-14 on Thursday night. Marshawn Lynch ran for 148 yards and a pair of first-half touchdowns for the Seahawks who posted their third victory in the past four games. The Dallas Cowboys look to win five straight for the first time in nearly four years when they visit the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The Cowboys have not won five in a row since a seven-game run October 21-December 9, 2007. While it has not always been pretty, the Cowboys have climbed their way to the top of the NFC East. They face Arizona before their schedule gets much tougher. Dallas endured a disappointing 3-4 start to the season but rebounded to reach 7-4 thanks in part to a favorable schedule. "The teams that play in the playoffs and win in the playoffs are the teams that get better," coach Jason Garrett said. "We believe that if you improve over the course of the season, week-to-week, you are going to be playing well when you need to be playing really well, and that's the end of the year." Quarterback Tony Romo said: "We needed to get going. We had some tough losses earlier in the year, and we were in position to win some games. At some point you've got to get on a roll and stack the wins together. Getting these four wins was very big." In other games Sunday, Indianapolis is at New England, Denver at Minnesota, Atlanta at Houston, New York Jets at Washington, Kansas City at Chicago, Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, Oakland at Miami, Tennessee at Buffalo, Carolina at Tampa Bay, Baltimore at Cleveland, and St. Louis at San Francisco.