METAIRIE, La. -- Drew Brees detected a certain theme to many of the questions being asked during his weekly news conference Wednesday.

"You guys are asking me questions like you want me to reminisce, like the season's over," Brees said.

Such is life for the New Orleans Saints now that they have fallen to 4-7 and have been virtually eliminated from the playoff race after losing three straight games.

Brees made his comment after a series of questions about whether he is monitoring Peyton Manning's situation and if he has ever thought about his own endgame; whether he thinks this could be his last run with longtime teammates like Marques Colston, Jahri Evans and Zach Strief; and how he has felt about his season overall.

"The season's not over," Brees said. "I mean, I'm disappointed with our record. But you can't go back and do anything about it. All we can control is what's in front of us. And I think the only thing that can make us feel better is winning.

"There's so much football that's left to be played."

The final five-game stretch starts with a doozy -- Sunday's home date with the undefeated Carolina Panthers.

But Brees was one of many Saints who insisted that they would be up for a game against the rival Panthers even if they weren't the NFL's last unbeaten team.

"Listen, regardless if they were 11-0 or 10-1 or had our record, it's a divisional game, it's a home game. It's against an opponent that we've had extremely tough matchups with ever since we've been here, especially in the last few years, kind of in the Ron Rivera era," Brees said. "So we know the type of game it's gonna be. It's a four-quarter game, regardless."