Glenn Pakulak

The Saints' punter, who grew up about 40 miles north of Detroit, had roughly 80 friends and family members in the stands to support him Sunday. The only problem was that they never got a chance to see him kick.

The Saints cruised up and down the field, scoring touchdowns on their first six possessions and converting their first 11 third-down attempts. Pakulak said it was the first time he had ever played in a game without punting once.

"I got a chance to hold quite a bit, so that was good," joked Pakulak, who served as the holder on all six of the Saints' extra-point attempts.

His rare feat earned him a game ball from Coach Sean Payton. That, too, was a first for Pakulak, who said he'll probably give it to his grandparents to display in their family room.

The 'Losers' Lament'

Games like this drive both the Saints and their fans crazy. When they play bad teams, they look absolutely dominant. But over the past two years, they have never been able to develop any momentum from such performances.

Although New Orleans was playing a clearly inferior opponent Sunday, the efficiency on both sides of the ball was impressive. The offense could seemingly do no wrong, except for a dropped pass here and there and tailback Pierre Thomas' late fumble, and the defense started to tee off on Lions quarterbacks Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton once the Saints jumped to an early lead.

"It's frustrating, because I know how good we can be," Saints quarterback Drew Brees said after throwing for 351 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. "I know how many tough losses we've had. But the whole 'coulda woulda shoulda' thing, I've said this before, that's a losers' lament.

"You know, it's easy to sit back and say that we should be fighting for a divisional championship at this point with a 10-win season or an 11-win season. But I think what we can take from finishing the season on a high note is that if we can win next week (against Carolina), we will have won five of our last seven, and we can take a lot of positives into next season."

Deuce McAllister

The Saints' veteran has been battling nagging soreness in his surgically repaired left knee throughout the second half of the season, and he missed practice Thursday to have it drained. But he bounced back with perhaps his most explosive performance of the season Sunday.

McAllister ran for 61 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, including runs of 19 and 18 yards.

"I'm still looking for that 4.3 to 4.2 I used to run (in the 40-yard dash). I don't know if I still have that in me," said McAllister, who turns 30 on Saturday. "A couple of those runs, I thought I should have got more yards than I did, but the offensive line, the fullback, the tight ends, they did a great job and I was just able to get up on the secondary a little bit today."

The 18-yard gain came on McAllister's first run in the first quarter, when the Saints took over on their own 3-yard line. He was just one more cut away from breaking a possible 97-yard touchdown run -- assuming, of course, that he had enough gas left in the tank.

"Even in my younger days, I haven't had a 97-yard run," McAllister said. "I tried to get outside, but I should have just hit it straightforward and run 1-on-1 with the safety."

In the process, he passed the 6,000-yard rushing mark for his career, extending his franchise record.

"It's a goal that you accomplished," McAllister said. "But it's a little short of where I want to finally be at in the end."

HOW THE GAME WAS WON

The Lions' defense had a deer-in-the-headlights look against New Orleans' high-powered offense. The only time the Saints failed to convert a third down was when Brees took a knee at the end of the game.

But the Saints' defense also did its part to make sure Detroit never put up a fight with any early momentum.

They kept dangerous receiver Calvin Johnson out of the end zone, starting with two close calls on Detroit's opening drive. First, cornerback Randall Gay caught up with Johnson to make an outstanding pass break-up in the end zone. Then the Saints got lucky when Johnson burned cornerback Usama Young for a 43-yard touchdown catch, but it was called back because of an illegal formation penalty.

"They had that one long foul ball," Saints safety Roman Harper said, comparing the play to a missed home run. "It looks good, but it just drifted out. After that, we just had to step up and make some plays."

The Saints' pass rush didn't give Detroit's quarterbacks much time to look for Johnson down the field after that -- especially once New Orleans took a substantial lead. Defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis and defensive end Jeff Charleston each had a sack, and Orlovsky was forced to throw countless balls away.

"I think we got good pressure on him the whole game," said Ellis, who now has four sacks in his rookie season. "That's been the case all season. All the games where we got ahead, we were able to just get after the passer and we were able to win those games."