MINNEAPOLIS — Oh man. Do we really have to wait six days for Sunday? Can’t we just access a time machine and fast forward to Nov. 4 in New Orleans? Because on that day, the Superdome will host what sure looks like one of the most important games of the 2018 season.

It’s not always smart to separate contenders and pretenders midway through an NFL season. But as Week 8 fades from view, it’s difficult to avoid putting the Los Angeles Rams (8-0) and New Orleans Saints (6-1) atop the NFC playoff race. And, hey, what do you know? The Rams and Saints will meet at the Superdome in Week 9.

A full analysis of the NFC would acknowledge that the Carolina Panthers are 5-2 and still have both games remaining against the Saints. Quietly, the Washington Redskins (5-2) hold the muddy NFC East lead. But the Rams’ unbeaten mark and the Saints’ six-game winning streak, including two consecutive victories on the road, demonstrate clear separation from the rest of the field.

We all know what powers the Rams, namely a talent-rich roster combined with an innovative offensive scheme. What’s impressive about the Saints, however, is that no obvious pattern has emerged from their winning ways. This team is as capable of winning games with an explosive passing game as it is with one that barely reaches triple-digit yardage.

“We feel like we’re battle-tested and have won in a lot of different ways already in the first part of this season,” Saints quarterback Drew Brees said after his team dismantled the Minnesota Vikings, 30-20, at U.S. Bank Stadium in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score appeared.

If you’ve only been monitoring the Saints from afar, you might be shocked to learn that they won handily despite the least explosive passing game of Brees’ 13 seasons with the Saints. He threw for only 120 yards, fewer than any game in his career in which his team scored 30 points, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Overall, the total was Brees’ lowest for any full game he has played since signing with the Saints in 2006.

Brees has thrown for 396 and 363 yards in wins this season, but we learned Sunday night that he doesn’t need to for the Saints to thrive. They plowed through the Vikings with a decidedly ball-control offense that had Brees throwing 82 percent of his passes within five yards of the line of scrimmage — his highest such percentage in any game with the Saints. His average pass traveled just 2.8 yards past the line of scrimmage.

Brees said he considered the passing game “a complement” to the overall offense, an accurate, jarring and exceedingly positive development for the Saints as a Super Bowl contender.

“[It was] positive plays that put us in manageable situations so we could sustain drives to stay on the field and keep their explosive offense off the field,” Brees said. “… It wasn’t a conservative approach. It is just a smart approach.”

Really? The Saints, quarterbacked by Brees and coached by Sean Payton, were driven to keep another team’s offense off the field? Yup. Why challenge one of the NFL’s better defenses when your own defense is setting up easy scores? The turning point Sunday night came late in the second quarter, when cornerback P.J. Williams forced a fumble by receiver Adam Thielen as the Vikings were driving to extend a 13-7 advantage. Cornerback Marshon Lattimore recovered and returned it 54 yards. Two plays later, tailback Alvin Kamara’s one-yard touchdown run gave the Saints a lead they would never relinquish.

Take a moment to consider what the Saints have done this month. In a span of three weeks, they have crushed the Redskins by 24 points, handed the Baltimore Ravens their only home loss of the season and broken the will of the Vikings by halftime. They are now 4-0 on the road for the first time since 2009, when they won Super Bowl XLIV.

Houston Texans wide receiver Will Fuller will undergo surgery on his torn right ACL this week and is expected to miss six to nine months, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Under this timeline, Fuller, 24, is expected to be ready at some point during next summer’s training camp.

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  Texans QB Deshaun Watson has lost one of his favorite targets with wide receiver Will Fuller out for the season with a torn ACL sustained Thursday night. Fuller and Watson have combined for 11 touchdowns in 11 games played together.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo acknowledged Friday that in the days after tearing his ACL, he spent plenty of time replaying that situation, as well as others before it, in his head before soon coming to a point of acceptance and moving on.

“I think just the overall acceptance of it initially, it was tough,” Garoppolo said. “I have never had a serious injury like this so it’s different, but we’re very positive now.”

Given a little more than a month to reflect on the play that led to the season-ending knee injury he suffered on Sept. 23, Garoppolo said his future approach in similar situations could change but only to an extent.

“I’ve always been pretty cautious, so that was kind of the freak accident of the play,” Garoppolo said, addressing reporters Friday for the first time since the injury. “I don’t know if it was just instinct or what, to cut back like that. But it is what it is. Your style of play, I think, will alter initially. But eventually, everyone keeps telling me you’ll get back to how your legs were before, just as strong if not stronger. It’s all about putting in the work right now — coming back stronger than I was before, mentally being better and just overall being better.”

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  Doctors found only a torn ACL and no other damage when they operated on Jimmy Garoppolo’s knee last week, and the 49ers quarterback is expected to be back in six to eight months, putting him on track to be ready for training camp, according to sources.

HOUSTON — Less than a week after Deshaun Watson had to take a 12-hour bus ride to Jacksonville to ensure he could play in the game due to lung and rib injuries, the Houston Texans quarterback threw for five touchdowns in the team’s 42-23 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night.

It took until the eighth game of the 2018 season, but the Texans’ offense looked like the version the team was hoping for entering the year, and Houston finally got a glimpse of the quarterback who lit up the NFL last season before he tore his ACL in early November.

On Thursday, Watson completed 16 of his 20 passes for 239 yards and a season-high five touchdown passes. Those five touchdown passes tied his career high, which he set last season against the Kansas City Chiefs. The second-year quarterback did not throw an interception for the second straight week.

“We were executing, sticking to the details, playing free,” Watson said. “We got our swagger back today. We just wanted to have fun and try and light up the scoreboard in prime time, and that’s what we did.”

Watson has been playing hurt after injuring his lung and ribs in the Texans’ Week 5 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. He was listed with a chest injury on the injury report all week but was a full participant in practice.

The quarterback said he “felt great” on Thursday night and that he had plenty of time to rest between games.

“The biggest thing was more mental,” Watson said. “And then getting a lot of rest and treatment and rehab. And then having three days off — it’s going to be fun. A lot of fun.”

Watson is the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era with multiple games with five touchdown passes within his first two seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Texans had 427 net yards and scored on all four of their red zone opportunities.

For the first time this season, the Texans were able to lean on big offensive plays from their offensive stars. Watson’s third touchdown pass was a 73-yard completion to wide receiver Will Fuller, who beat his defender across the middle and down the right sideline before trotting in the final five yards into the end zone. The pass was the longest touchdown of both Watson’s and Fuller’s careers. The pair have now connected for 11 touchdowns in 11 games played together.