Handwerger: This Saints team proving it's from a different mold

NEW ORLEANS ? Heath Evans listened to the statement and allowed virtually no time to pass to allow the fact to sink in.

New Orleans hasn't trailed in any games this season.

Five games. Twenty quarters. Three hundred minutes.

He knew exactly how he wanted to answer the query right away.

"That scares me a little bit, too," said Evans, the ninth-year professional fullback. "You only really know who you are until you get to see yourself and your team in certain situations."

And that right there might just be the main difference between this year's Saints and every other version that franchise has put out.

New Orleans improved to 5-0 Sunday for only the third time ever, defeating the previously undefeated Giants 48-27 in front of a raucous 70,011 fans inside the Superdome.

He's not scared, as he says. He's humbled and wary of a letdown. And you know what, he's not the only one.

Evans is representative of the 53 individuals who make up the Saints team.

This is not your mom and dad's New Orleans Saints.

Don't believe me?

New Orleans was 0-3 coming out of a regular season bye week under Head Coach Sean Payton.

A 14-point loss a year ago to Atlanta. A 3-point defeat to Carolina in 2007. A 13-point putdown by the Ravens in 2006.

And now? Now the Saints own a 21-point win over a team many were calling the best team in the NFC heading into Sunday's Superdome Showdown.

Oh, these guys are different.

"We've learned a lot from the three seasons we've had here thus far," quarterback Drew Brees said. "Probably most importantly the last two seasons when we didn't achieve the goals we had set for ourselves of being a playoff team every year, fighting for that one or two seed."

He continued, "I think we've learned from that. Our ability to remain focused coming off the bye week, playing one of the best teams in the NFC in the Giants and to win the way we did, I think it says a lot about the guys we have, the coaching staff we have and our mentality."

The Saints have one of the NFL's best offenses, highlight by one of the league's best running attacks. They have one of the NFL's top defenses, highlighted by a secondary that is making plays like never before.

"We've got great coaches and we've got great locker room chemistry," Saints defensive end Bobby McCray said. "We motivate ourselves to go out and play hard no matter who it is. When people want to break down stats and all that, the bread is in the pudding."

The finesse moniker that took a hold the past few seasons is no more.

"We've had that reputation the last couple of years," Brees said. "Now you look at us and we're top 3 in rushing. Top 3 in total offense. Top 5 in total defense. Outrushing one of the best rushing teams in football today."

But it all gets back to how Evans is thinking. This team is driven. It knows there will come a time that it trails. It knows there will be some adversity to the season.

And only the weekly focus that they've shown to this point will get them to where they want to be - the top seed in the NFC with home-field advantage on the way to the Super Bowl.

"Do I think we're front runners? Heck no," Evans said. "Do I feel we're an extremely physical tough team? You better believe it. We're going find a team here that's going to test us in a way we haven't been tested yet."

When that happens, don't expect the Saints to buckle like they used to. That's this franchise no more.