Drew Brees acknowledged the New Orleans Saints' thrilling 17-point comeback to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers was a "wild one" but says the win will help the team become "battle-tested".
The veteran quarterback overcame a deficit of 17 points or greater for just the second time in his career as the Saints earned a 30-27 overtime win at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Brees last achieved the feat against the Miami Dolphins back in the 2009 Super Bowl-winning season and his 12th career overtime victory sees him tie Tom Brady for the most in the NFL as a starting QB.
After finishing with 325 passing yards, a touchdown pass and a touchdown run, Brees told ESPN: "Yeah, this was a wild one.
"The bottom line is we were not playing Saints football in the first half. There were too many mistakes that get you beat.
"We shouldn't have had to mount the comeback we had to mount in order to win this game."
The Saints are enduring a mixed season but now move to 3-2 and once again showed their mettle having come back from 14 points down against the Detroit Lions last time out.
It was a comeback triumph that took the shine off a fine performance from Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who became the first rookie to throw for four touchdowns in a Monday Night Football game.
How it started: How it ended: pic.twitter.com/Gn1ol5UWQJ
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 13, 2020
"At the end of the day, these are growing experiences. These are learning experiences," Brees added.
"To have wins like this, where you really have to fight to win – just like we did last week – this is how you grow as a team. This is how you become battle-tested. And I think it pays dividends as you move along here."
The Saints now have some time to recharge with a Week 6 bye, after which star wide receiver Michael Thomas should be back in the fold.
Thomas was not part of the line-up against the Chargers following reports he threw a punch at a team-mate in practice, having missed three games because of an ankle injury.
Brees said head coach Sean Payton had addressed the issue and there will be no lasting ramifications.
"Mike is a big part of this team, and he's going to be a big part of this team moving forward," he said.
"We had an incident, and Sean addressed it and we're gonna be all good."