Dat’s out of the bag

They’re no longer the gutty little occupants of the NFL’s feel-good file. They’re not sweet, not cuddly and, especially when it comes to opposing defenses, burn at least as many hearts as they warm.

They are the New Orleans Saints -- in your face and in your end zone -- and they’re two victories away from the Super Bowl.

Look past them, and you might as well strap on ankle weights and try to chase down Reggie Bush, because you’ll be gasping in a vapor trail.

Oh, and forget that noise about them playing on the raw emotions of Hurricane Katrina.

In the New Orleans locker room, that’s a tired cop-out.

“That’s an excuse for analysts to say why we’ve won football games,” receiver Joe Horn said. “That’s their way of backing out. At the beginning of the season, they didn’t think we’d win four games, five games. So now that we’re in the playoffs ... it’s ‘Aw, the New Orleans Saints, they came back, feel-good story, Katrina,’ all that crazy stuff.”

Somewhere along the line, the Saints went from the little engine that could to a bullet train, averaging a league-leading 391.5 yards per game and ranking in the top five in scoring, plays and time of possession.

The Saints also have the league’s coach of the year, Sean Payton; quarterback Drew Brees, who was runner-up -- albeit a distant one -- to former San Diego teammate LaDainian Tomlinson for most valuable player; and a host of talented rookies, among them USC’s Bush, who scored seven of his nine touchdowns in the last month.

None of that is lost on the Philadelphia Eagles, who play at New Orleans in a divisional playoff game Saturday night, with tickets for prime Superdome seats going for more than $3,500 each. After winning their first three games in the restored stadium, the Saints have struggled at home with five losses in six games.

The matchup with Philadelphia is certainly tantalizing, a mulligan for the Eagles three months after their 27-24 loss at New Orleans in Week 6. The Eagles, too, are a vastly improved team, and have won six straight with quarterback Jeff Garcia running the offense in place of injured Donovan McNabb. In terms of passer rating, Garcia’s best career game came in the Superdome five years ago, when he registered a 149.3 with four touchdowns for the San Francisco 49ers.

This season, the Eagles finished second to New Orleans in total yards, averaging 10.1 yards fewer per game.

“They’re a little different, and we’re a little different,” Philadelphia Coach Andy Reid told reporters this week. “They weren’t quite sure what kind of team they were at that time, and I think they know what kind of team they are now.”

Last season, the Saints were displaced by the hurricane and flooding. They played some of their games in Baton Rouge, La., and others in San Antonio, Texas. Their story, as much as their play, won them countless fans and changed the way America once viewed one of the most hapless franchises in professional sports.

This season, with the signing of Brees and the drafting of Bush, selected second overall, the team saw a huge spike in interest -- a record sale of more than 55,000 season tickets, nearly twice as many as the previous year. And the Saints have upheld their end of the bargain on the field.

“We’ve done some things this year that no one expected,” Horn said. “Now we have an opportunity to go higher, and that’s to win a Super Bowl. And trust me, we’re working toward that.”

Those are lofty yet reachable goals for a franchise that has won just one postseason game in 40 years and went two decades before its first winning season. Saints fans, loyal but beaten down over the years, used to wear bags on their heads at games in a playful way of concealing their identity.

But now, it’s hip to be a Saints fan. The team’s Monday night victory over Atlanta on Sept. 25, the first game back in the rebuilt Superdome, was among the most talked-about games of the NFL season.

Sellouts are now commonplace. And, according to Reebok, Bush’s No. 25 jersey has outsold any other in the league this season.

That the Saints have gone from 3-13 in 2005 to 10-6 this season, with a first-round playoff bye, might be a surprise to everyone outside their organization. But not to those on the inside.

“We went into every game envisioning that we could win this game,” said Mickey Loomis, the team’s general manager. “So we’re not surprised. We weren’t surprised that we beat Cleveland” in the opener, “or that we played the next week and beat Green Bay. We’re not surprised that we beat Atlanta here. We’re not surprised that we beat Dallas in Dallas. Other people may have been, but within the building we aren’t.”

Some of the Saints are agog, however, at how rapidly the team’s popularity has grown. In the road game against the Cowboys last month, for instance, seemingly half the crowd at Texas Stadium was pulling for New Orleans. Saints linebacker Scott Fujita was so overwhelmed that he impulsively floated an offer during a postgame interview with a New Orleans television station. He promised, to the first 25 fans who contacted him, a free ticket to the Saints’ Christmas Eve game at the New York Giants. Five players kicked in five tickets each.

Fujita figured only a very small percentage of fans would be willing to change their holiday plans on just two weeks’ notice. He figured wrong. Within minutes, the calls, e-mails and faxes started pouring in. About 100 fans began forming a line at the Saints’ facility in Metairie, La.

“It probably got up to 1,000 requests,” said Fujita, who, along with his teammates, eventually raised the ticket total to 50. “I have a stack of envelopes, and I’m trying to respond to every one.”

Fujita, who has played for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cowboys, said there’s a completely different feel to playing for the Saints.

“In Kansas City and Dallas, everyone’s excited when you’re winning and doing well,” he said. “But here, I’ve never had so many people that were so thankful for a team winning. ‘Thank you for being here! Thank you for winning games!’ And it’s like, ‘No, thank you!’ ”

Loomis has a favorite story from this season. A friend from New York was looking around for a good sports bar in Manhattan. She stopped by one place and asked the bartender if they had all the games on TV there.

“That depends,” he said. “Who’s your favorite team.”

She told him the Saints.

“Lady,” he said, “the Saints are everyone’s favorite team.”

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sam.farmer.@latimes.com