By Pat Yasinskas

NEW ORLEANS – After getting pushed around by St. Louis in Week 8, the New Orleans Saints did the only logical thing. They brought out the bats.

Yeah, the baseball bats.

For those who haven’t followed the Saints in recent years, the bats are significant. For those who have, you know the bats mean the Saints are swinging for something besides the fences.

“The whole philosophy behind a bat game is it’s going to be a physical, physical game,’’ New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees said. “You’re not going to look at the scoreboard. All you’re going to do is think about winning the physical battle, and if you can outhit the opponent, you win the game. We save these for special occasions. Typically, we don’t do it for a division opponent. You can say they’re all physical and important and all those things. But, maybe in light of where we are in the season and what happened a few weeks ago at their place, (coach Sean Payton) felt like it was appropriate.’’

Read the rest here.

The New Orleans Saints beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-16 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Sunday, and looked pretty dominant at times doing so.

Saint quarterback Drew Brees was 27 of 36 for 258 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

As a team, the Saints ran for 195 yards as well, mixing it up evenly among Chris Ivory 67, Pierre Thomas 66 and Darren Sproles 42 — Brees had a 20-yard run in there as well.

The Saints are now 6-3 and will take on Atlanta at the Georgia Dome next week in another key NFC South game.