• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 21, 2009

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TAMPA, Fla. — When the New Orleans Saints won their first five games by a total of 99 points, each of them by a double-digit margin, they turned the ball over only six times.

They capped that stretch of good football by not giving the ball away in a 48-27 win against the New York Giants. It marked the 11th time since Sean Payton became their coach in 2006 that the Saints had not lost the ball in a game. It’s no coincidence that they won every one of those games.

What’s happened since that game with the Giants on Oct. 18, however, is enough to turn Payton’s brown hair gray.

Thirteen giveaways — seven interceptions and six fumbles — in the last four games are a major concern for the Saints (9-0) going into today’s noon game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-8) in Raymond James Stadium.

The 13 turnovers haven’t been unlucky yet, but Payton and many of the Saints said that can turn quickly. It’s the most giveaways they’ve had in a four-game stretch under Payton, surpassing the 12 they had in the first four games of 2007 — which produced a disastrous 0-4 start.

All told, the Saints have given the ball away 19 times this season — almost four more than the NFL average of 15.2 per team — and are tied for fifth-most in the league.

The Saints heard about it from Payton on Monday, less than 24 hours after they escaped an upset bid from the one-win St. Louis Rams. In that narrow 28-23 victory, they had three turnovers; one cost them a touchdown and another led to a Rams TD.

“The biggest thing was turnovers,” running back Pierre Thomas said of Payton’s theme. “Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers. Look at the result of most games, the team that has the most turnovers loses.

“You can say it’s like a rash,” he added. “It’s an itch you have got to get rid of. You can’t keep scratching it. If you do, it’s going to get a little worse. It sounds so simple (to stop it), but it’s tough.”

Brees will be the first to tell you that. He’s accounted for 10 of the 13 turnovers with seven interceptions and three fumbles lost.

“It’s not a good habit to get into,” he said. “We’re an aggressive team, but there’s being aggressive and there’s being reckless … reckless is not what we want to be. I don’t think we are.

“We just need to continue to make an emphasis on taking care of the ball, because it is without a doubt the biggest statistic in football,” he continued. “If we keep going at the pace we’re going, it will get us beat at some point — not once, but again and again.”

No one has to tell Brees, who threw nine touchdown passes in the first two games, that he’s served up more interceptions than TD passes in the last four outings.