NEW ORLEANS -- The bad news in the Bayou is that the Saints lost. The good news is that the season-ending loss of quarterback Jeff Blake won't end their bid for the playoffs.

	Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks is capable of leading the Saints' playoff push.

Aaron Brooks is for real. In a 38-23 Superdome defeat to the Denver Broncos, Brooks proved again -- as he did against the Rams a week ago -- that he won't be the weak link in their offense.

The Broncos' defense basically decided to take away any threats of a Saints run and let the Saints win it with Brooks' arm. Brooks completed 30 of 48 passes for a franchise-record 441 yards and two touchdowns, but those weren't garbage stats in a blowout.

He completed his first eight passes for 133 yards. Most impressive was a 95-yard drive, in which he completed four passes in five plays. In that drive in particular, Brooks did things that you normally don't see from quarterbacks making their second career start.

The Broncos tried to confuse him with a hybrid form of the 3-4 defense. They used linebacker Ian Gold as a standup defensive end to go along with three linebackers and then stack a safety or one of those linebackers in slots to fake a blitz.

Twice, he spotted those alignments and audibled into a shotgun formation. On the first, he hit Joe Horn for 10 yards. On the second, he bought time with his feet, avoided a rush and hit Horn for a 49-yard gain down the right side of the field.

His ensuing 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Andrew Glover illustrated how well he can see the field. At 6-foot-5, he's a tall quarterback who can peer over the huge blockers in front of him. He saw his first couple of passing options covered and then spotted Glover running toward the goal post in the back of the end zone.

That first-quarter touchdown tied the score at 7.

"I'm quite sure that their intention was to take away our run," Brooks said. "That is their intention every week. That is how their defense plays. They are an aggressive, nasty defense. They stack nine guys in the box, and they have a great linebacker who can pursue the ball well. I guess that is their way of playing football."

Because the Saints' defense was victimized for 283 rushing yards and five touchdowns, Brooks knew that everything was going to fall on his strong right arm. But Saints coaches knew he couldn't do everything and had to protect him all the time.

That was evident at the end of the first half. Trailing 28-10, Brooks executed a 68-yard drive in the final two minutes, but he didn't have any timeouts. After hitting receiver Robert Wilson for a 30-yard gain to the Broncos' 2, Brooks had to hustle to the line of scrimmage and spike the ball. He got there in time to draw an offside penalty on the Broncos, so the Saints had a first-and-goal at the 1.

Instead of going for the touchdown and leaving him with the possibility of not getting any points, coach Jim Haslett opted for the short field goal to go into the locker room trailing 28-13.

	“	We had a couple of opportunities to put the ball in the end zone but we weren't as successful in the red zone. We need to improve in the red zone and obviously on third down, too. ”
		— Aaron Brooks, Saints quarterback

In the second half, Brooks threw what could have been a 17-yard touchdown pass to Horn when center Jerry Fontenot was flagged for illegal use of the hands in ripping off the helmet of defensive tackle Trevor Pryce. Once again, the Saints settled for a field goal instead of a touchdown.

Had they made those two touchdown opportunities, the score would have been 31-24 instead of 31-16 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter.

"We had a couple of opportunities to put the ball in the end zone but we weren't as successful in the red zone," Brooks said. "We need to improve in the red zone and obviously on third down, too."

Actually, the Saints weren't bad on third downs. They converted five of 12 and even made their only fourth-down chances. For a quarterback with two NFL career starts, that's remarkable. With games coming up against weak defenses such as the 49ers, Falcons and Rams, Brooks doesn't expect to drop into the 100-yard passing yardage days of, say, Akili Smith of the Bengals.

"We've been through a lot of adversity all year, and we've bounced back," Brooks said.

At the end of the day, the Saints, despite the loss, still had a tie with the Rams for the NFC West lead. Ahead is a schedule that is easier than the Rams. And the Rams have to visit the Superdome in the season finale for what appears to be the division-deciding game.

With Brooks at the helm, the Saints won't be conceding anything at the quarterback position.

John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.