They are still buried two games below .500.

Their defense still gives up points late and often.

Their offense is still inconsistent and commits too many turnovers.

Yet somehow, someway, the Saints are still in the hunt for the postseason.

If this were college football, the playoff committee would laugh at their résumé. But it isn’t.

This is the NFL, where you must win something to make the playoffs. In this case, with no hope of a wild card, the Saints must win their division.

That’s where the good news comes in. The Saints play in the NFC South, where those misfortunes of above only mean you are tied for first place with another struggling team, the Atlanta Falcons.

The only difference is the Falcons

own the tiebreaker thanks to their win over New Orleans the first week of the season in Atlanta. The teams will play in the Superdome in Week 16 — the penultimate week of the regular season — on Dec. 21.

The winner will likely find a ticket to the playoffs when they awake on Christmas Day. The loser, one big lump of coal.

What’s strange is both the 5-7 teams have destiny in their own hands. With four games to go it is a sprint to the finish.

“It’s not time to reflect,” said Saints quarterback Drew Brees. “Not the time to reflect right now. We’re full steam ahead.

“We have four regular-season games here that are going to determine our season or at least give us an opportunity to win the division and get in the big show. That’s all that matters.”

Both teams showed they have the potential to play well. The Falcons easily handled Arizona, which entered the game with the best record in the NFC, Sunday. Meanwhile, the Saints were hanging on to beat Pittsburgh.

Now the Saints head home for a game against Carolina. They will not play a team that, as of this week, is better than two games below .500 the rest of the way.

After three-win Carolina, the Saints head to 5-7 Chicago, then return home for the showdown with Atlanta before heading off to finish the season at 2-10 Tampa Bay. Those teams have a combined record of 15-31-1.

Atlanta must go to Green Bay (9-3) this Sunday.

“It’s a big challenge for us this week with Aaron Rodgers,” Atlanta head coach Mike Smith told The Associated Press. “No doubt, he’s playing the best of any quarterback in the NFL right now. He’s got a number of weapons he can get it to. He’s played extremely well at home. I don’t think he’s thrown an interception at home this season, and I don’t even want to talk about how many points they’ve scored.”

Despite the difference in opponents, Smith said his team and the Saints are on even ground.

“They’re playing for the same thing we’re playing for,” Smith said. “They’re in first place in their division. We’re in first place in our division. It’s no different from this past week.”

With the scheduling advantage, the Saints seem to be in a better position and looking forward to what is ahead.

“We’re going to enjoy it and yet we have a lot of work to do,” Brees said. “We have three divisional games out of the next four so it will all be determined here very soon.”

For most 5-7 teams, time would be running out on their playoff chances right about now. For the Saints and Falcons, there is still plenty of time to win a postseason spot with a division title.

After that, nobody will care what their record is, just who they play next.

And remember, the winner of a division gets a home game no matter what the record.

So for both, the season really is just getting started.(Associated Press)

Gene J. Puskar