But while Rams 54, Chiefs 51 was properly celebrated as a spectacle, it overshadowed the fact that neither of those teams is the best practitioner right now of 2018-style pro football.

That would be the New Orleans Saints.

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Three nights later, the Saints kept on keeping on. Quarterback Drew Brees threw four touchdown passes, all to unheralded receivers, to bolster his case as the MVP front-runner. The Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons, 31-17, Thursday night in New Orleans in the final game of the NFL’s Thanksgiving tripleheader, extending their winning streak to 10 games and upping their record to 10-1.

Brees, not Mahomes or Goff or Aaron Rodgers, is the NFL’s MVP right now.

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The Saints, not the Rams, are the team to beat in the NFC.

How good are the Saints? They won Thursday night by two touchdowns, and it was a ho-hum result. It was almost a disappointment that they didn’t score more points and that the margin of victory wasn’t greater. They scored at least 45 points in each of their previous three games, one of them a win at home over the Rams that gives the Saints the tiebreaker advantage in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.

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On Sunday, the Saints beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 48-7. So in a span of five days, they beat the last two teams to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl — the Eagles and Falcons — by a combined margin of 79-24.

Brees didn’t have a prolific game against the Falcons. He threw for a modest 171 yards. He threw his second interception of the season, although it came on a play on which the officials missed a relatively blatant pass interference penalty against the Falcons. He connected on only 68 percent of his passes, going 15 for 22.

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But he threw four touchdown passes. And while everyone focuses on wide receiver Michael Thomas and running backs Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram as the mainstays of the New Orleans offense around Brees, he took a spread-the-wealth approach Thursday. Brees’s touchdown passes went to undrafted third-year wide receiver Tommylee Lewis, undrafted second-year wide receiver Austin Carr, undrafted second-year tight end Dan Arnold and undrafted rookie wide receiver Keith Kirkwood.

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Brees has thrown touchdown passes to 13 receivers this season. According to the NFL, that’s tied for the most by any quarterback in any season since 1970.

“First of all, those guys really stepped up,” Brees told NBC after the game. “We were down some receivers today. But those guys stepped up and took advantage of their opportunities. And we knew they were gonna need to. Obviously there’s a lot of attention on these two [Kamara and Ingram] and on Mike. So those guys really stepped up to the challenge. I was really excited for them.”

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Brees, at age 39, is having a remarkable season in which he is completing 76.4 percent of his passes. He has 29 touchdown passes to go with those two interceptions. And he could be on his way to securing his second Super Bowl title in tandem with Coach Sean Payton in New Orleans.

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It is fair to assume that Brees will do his part in the attempt to reach and win another Super Bowl. The encouraging thing for the Saints is the quality of the team around Brees.

Last season, the Saints decreased their reliance on Brees and showed that they could run the ball on offense and actually play competent defense. They had a great chance, it seemed, to reach the Super Bowl, only to have their season end in miraculous fashion with that wondrous playoff defeat at Minnesota.

This season, Brees has revved up the passing game. But the Saints again are a relatively complete team. They ranked sixth in the league in rushing offense entering Thursday night’s game. They were first in rushing defense and 16th in total defense. But, remember, playing defense in the NFL this season really isn’t about stopping anyone. It’s about making big plays. On Thursday night, the Saints sacked Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan six times and forced four turnovers by Atlanta.

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“I was really impressed with the Saints defense,” former Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy said on the NBC broadcast. “If the Saints continue to play defense like this, no one is going to beat them.”

There are tests that remain for the Saints. They play at Dallas in their next game. They still must face the Carolina Panthers twice and the Pittsburgh Steelers once. Those are difficult games, and a misstep or two is possible.

But if the Saints can stay ahead of the Rams, if the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC indeed goes through New Orleans, watch out. It is difficult to envision any visiting team, even the Rams, winning a postseason game there. It could be a special season in the works for the Saints, and Brees seems to sense it.

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“We care about one another,” Brees said. “We love coming to work every day. We know how to have a good time. We also know when it’s time to work and get down to business.”

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That was evident yet again Thursday night as the Saints, once more, took care of their business rather handily.