NEW ORLEANS –– This one is squarely on the defense.

The New England Patriots defense gave up eight passing plays of 15 or more yards.

The Patriots defense allowed New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees to work so precisely that he finished the night with as many incompletions as he did touchdown passes: 18-of-23 for 371 yards and five TDs.

The Patriots defense –– particularly the secondary –– allowed wideouts Marques Colston and Devery Henderson to rack up 237 yards on just seven receptions.

The Patriots defense was supposed to check out of a cornerback blitz on a first-down play in the second quarter, but because of a miscommunication it didn’t happen. The result was that Jonathan Wilhite took off in Brees’ direction while Henderson took off downfield and found himself embarrassingly wide open for a 75-yard touchdown that summed up the night for New England.

“Obviously they came to play and we came to watch,” was safety Brandon McGowan’s assessment.

The Monday Night Showdown in the Bayou was more like old-school Lakers Showtime for Brees & Co. as they trounced New England, 38-17, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are every bit as good as their 11-0 record would indicate.

“We blew it,” Bill Belichick said. “We had blown coverages defensively that they took advantage of. They were mistakes on our part.”

As if the loss wasn’t bad enough, Belichick suffered the small indignity of having his postgame press conference drowned out by the celebratory hooting and hollering of the Saints cheerleaders, who were in the adjoining locker room.

The Saints’ victory ended a 17-game winning streak for New England against NFC teams.

New Orleans came into the game with the top-ranked offense in the league, a balanced attack that saw the Saints with four more rushing attempts on the season than passes for Brees.

But New England was able to slow down the Saints’ ground game, and when Brees went to the air, he really went to the air. The first offensive snap of the game for the home team was a 33-yard completion on the left sideline to Henderson, and there were several more that followed.

Surprisingly for a Patriots defense, players admitted after the game that the Saints didn’t throw anything new at them: The Patriots simply didn’t respond.

“Nope. Nothing at all,” Adalius Thomas said with a slow shake of his head when asked if the defense saw anything unexpected. “Nothing at all. When we made mistakes, they capitalized. They’re good at what they do. We just have to go back to the drawing board, look at the film, make corrections and go from there.”

Very early on, there were few indications that things would go so badly for New England. Despite surrendering the 33-yard pass on the opening play, the Pats kept the Saints out of the end zone, with Leigh Bodden and Brandon Meriweather breaking up a potential touchdown strike to Henderson and forcing New Orleans to settle for a 30-yard field goal from 45-year old John Carney.

New England then embarked on a workmanlike 80-yard touchdown drive, highlighted by a 22-yard second-down carry by Laurence Maroney and a 19-yard catch-and-run by Kevin Faulk.

Sammy Morris returned from a four-week absence to pick up three yards on a fourth-and-one play, and six plays later Maroney was across the goal line for the sixth straight week, riding blocks from Morris and Benjamin Watson to score from four yards out.

The Patriots defense forced a punt on the Saints’ next possession, and Thomas Morstead’s 41-yard punt was returned 41 yards by Wes Welker, who eluded one would-be tackler near the spot he fielded the ball and found a nice seam down the middle.

But that’s when Tom Brady made his first mistake of the night –– really, his only mistake. The Pats began on the Saints’ 46 after Welker’s great return, and on first down Brady was pressured, took a few steps forward and looked to Moss in the deep middle of the field. Only Moss hadn’t come out of his break to look for the ball, and it landed right into the hands of corner Mike McKenzine.

Thirty-two-year-old Mike McKenzie, signed off the street two weeks ago, whose last NFL game was Week 10 of last season. McKenzie was playing because the Saints began the night with both of their starting cornerbacks, Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter, unavailable due to injury and lost a third, Randall Gay, during the game. Despite that, they held Moss and Welker to 99 combined receiving yards.

New Orleans was able to capitalize on the interception, and rather than being up 10-3 or even 14-3 given the short field, the Pats were down 10-7.

They never led again.

A crestfallen Brady said, “We’re all searching.”

“There’s a reason they’re 11-0. We obviously didn’t play up to their level,” he said. “There’s obviously a big gap between us. We’re just not playing as consistent as we would like against these good teams. There’s only one way out of it and that’s to get back to work.”

Moss was looking forward to getting back to work as well, after Belichick has his say.

“I know Bill is going to put it to us. We just have to take our lashes. Coach Belichick is not going to let us down,” he said.

The only letdown was by the Patriots defense.

smanza@projo.com