METAIRIE, La. — As one would expect, any disappointment that lingered for the Saints from a gut-wrenching. 24-23 loss to the Detroit Lions a week earlier was long gone when New Orleans played the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night.

Saints coach Sean Payton never lets wins or losses affect his team.

The Packers found that out when the Saints shook off the doldrums that came from surrendering a 13-point lead in the final four minutes against the Lions. New Orleans out of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with a 44-23 victory over Green Bay.

Down 7-0 just five plays into the game and locked in a 16-16 halftime tie with the Packers, who won their previous four games, the Saints (3-4) created some separation in the second half and made sure they finished the job.

“We played well a week ago, but a few big plays kept us from winning,” a relieved Payton said. “We responded the right way.”

It couldn’t have come at a better time. Stung by the loss to the Lions and earlier road setbacks at Atlanta, Cleveland and Dallas — the first two, New Orleans should have won — the Saints dumped Green bay and kept their season moving forward with an NFC South matchup looming Thursday night at Carolina against the Panthers.

That the win came against the Packers, who were playing well for the last month on the hot right arm of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, should give the Saints some confidence once they reach the midway point of the season Thursday night.

It could be the shot of confidence they needed after that loss to the Lions made them sit up and take stock of what was happening, quarterback Drew Brees said.

“It’s like my grandfather always said,” he said. “There are three types of people in the world: those that make it happen, those that watch it happen and those that wake up one day and say, ‘What the heck happened?’

“I feel like all this year we’ve been waking up and saying, ‘What the heck happened?’ It’s about time we made it happen.”

REPORT CARD VS. PACKERS

–PASSING OFFENSE: A — As he usually is in prime-time games, QB Drew Brees was on — especially in the decisive second half. Brees was 11-for-11 for 124 yards and three touchdowns as the Saints snapped a 16-16 halftime tie and pulled away for the win. Brees, who didn’t have a bad first half, wound up completing 27 of 32 attempts for 311 yards with three scores, no interceptions and a 138.4 passer rating. He threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to WR Brandin Cooks in the third quarter to give his team the lead for good and fired a 45-yard strike to WR Kenny Stills to set up a short first-quarter touchdown run by Cooks. Cooks led the Saints with six catches for 94 yards, while TE Jimmy Graham added 59 yards on five receptions, including a 22-yard touchdown. Stills finished with four catches for 57 yards, while WR Marques Colston had four grabs for 49 yards. TE John Hill caught Brees’ other touchdown pass, a 2-yard reception.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: A-plus — The Saints went into the game without injured HBs Pierre Thomas and Khiry Robinson, but Mark Ingram, who just returned last week after missing three games with a fractured hand, didn’t seem to mind the heavier workload. Ingram carried the ball 24 times for 172 yards — both career highs for the four-year veteran — and finished off the Packers with a 21-yard touchdown run with just more than three minutes to play. Ingram averaged 7.2 yards per attempt with gains of 28, 21, 18 and 14 yards. Behind Ingram’s running and the solid blocking of their offensive line, the Saints as a team averaged 6.2 yards per carry with 193 yards on 31 attempts. The only miscue came when they failed to make a first down after having third-and-1 just across the midfield stripe on their first possession of the second half.

–PASS DEFENSE: C — It didn’t look good early for the Saints, who gave up a 70-yard TD pass from QB Aaron Rodgers to WR Randall Cobb on the fifth play of the game and a 67-yard screen pass from Rodgers to RB Eddie Lacy on the second possession of the game, helping Rodgers pile up 203 yards in the first quarter alone. However, the Saints tightened up after that, holding him to 215 yards in the final three quarters. CB Corey White tipped away a pass at the goal line that was intercepted by ILB David Hawthorne to end a drive that could have given the Packers the lead early in the third quarter, and White later intercepted a pass. The pick by Hawthorne was the first for Rodgers in 213 attempts, which stretched back to the third quarter of the season opener. Cobb caught five balls for 126 yards but had only 56 yards on four receptions after his touchdown. Lacy finished with 123 yards on eight catches as Rodgers went 28-for-39 for 418 yards. However, he was sacked three times for 19 yards, and backup Matt Flynn, who was 1-for-1 for 8 yards, also went down once.

–RUSH DEFENSE: B-plus — The Packers had some success on the ground, just not enough to make a huge difference in the final outcome. Lacy produced 59 yards on 13 carries with a long gain of 19 yards, but several times he wasn’t able to get a head of steam going and was tackled going sideways. Lacy also was stopped cold in the backfield on a key fourth-and-1 gamble by Packers coach Mike McCarthy at his own 40 in the third quarter, which the Saints’ offense promptly turned into a 22-yard touchdown pass from Brees to Graham to double the lead to 14 going into the final period. Rodgers had two carries for 21 yards with a 14-yard touchdown late in the game. The Packers finished with 89 yards and a 4.7-yard average on 19 carries.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: A — For the second game in a row, Shayne Graham converted all three of his field-goal attempts, this time from 31, 29 and 37 yards. Thomas Morstead, who did not have to punt, boomed all eight of his kickoffs deep into the end zone for touchbacks. The Packers didn’t have to punt, either, and the Saints had no kickoff returns as well. The Saints managed to knock a surprise onside kick past the Packers in the first quarter out of bounds.

–COACHING: A — After the Saints’ heartbreaking one-point loss at Detroit a week earlier, New Orleans went into the Green Bay game without two of its top three running backs and the starting center. However, coach Sean Payton managed to rally his team and had them ready to go Sunday night. Even with a depleted backfield and a key injury on the offensive line, Payton knew he had to run the ball, and the result was 193 rushing yards and a hefty 6.2-yard average on the ground.