2 weeks Ago
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) is all smiles as he runs off the field after breaking the all-time NFL passing record that was held by Payton Manning, after the 34-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, La. Monday, Dec. 16, 2019.
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save When you set out to rank the best offensive performances by a Saints player in the past 25 years, you know there’s going to be a lot of Drew Brees. The greatest player in franchise history set the standard for offensive prolificacy. So it’s no surprise that this week’s installment of my “25 for 25” series is Brees bonanza.
Four of the top five performances during my 25-year tenure covering the Saints were executed by Brees. A look at the top 5 list: No. 5: Drew and the Undrafteds (Nov.
22, 2018) No game better illustrates Brees’ ability to instill confidence and raise the performance level of his teammates than the Saints’ 31-17 Thanksgiving Day win over the Falcons. It wasn’t the four touchdown passes he threw that made it special. It was the guys who caught the touchdowns that made it historic.
Austin Carr, Keith Kirkwood, Dan Arnold, and Tommylee Lewis began their NFL careers as undrafted free agents, and three of them initially signed with the Saints right after their respective drafts. It was the first time in NFL history that a quarterback had thrown four TD passes to former undrafted free agents. The epic performance illustrated how Brees did more with less than any NFL quarterback ever.
No. 4: Drew’s near-perfect night (Dec. 16, 2020) No NFL quarterback has ever pitched a perfect game.
But Brees came close on this night. He captivated a national audience on Monday Night Football and set an NFL record by completing an absurd 29 of 30 passes for 307 yards and four touchdowns. The 96.
7 completion percentage was the highest ever for a quarterback with 20 or more attempts in a game. His 148.9 passer rating was the 13th highest of his career.
Brees’ lone incompletion came early in the second quarter on a second-and-11 pass in the right flat to Latavius Murray. He completed his final 22 consecutive passes in the game. Unsolicited, Sean Payton texted me the next day that Brees was “magnificent” while breaking down the tape of the game.
An understatement. On this night, Brees also broke Peyton Manning's NFL record for career touchdown passes, adding four more to his total, finishing the game with 541 TD's, two more than the 539 Manning threw during his career. But it will long be remembered as the night the most accurate and prolific passer in NFL history, authored a display of accuracy nobody had ever seen before.
No. 3: An All-Saints Day Shootout (Nov. 1, 2015) Brees christened the 49th anniversary of the Saints with a passing performance for the ages in a wild 52-49 win in the Superdome.
He outdueled New Orleans native Eli Manning by becoming only the third quarterback in the modern era to pass for seven touchdowns in a game. He completed a team-record 40 of 50 passes for 505 yards, the second highest total of his career. He completed passes to nine different receivers and hit five different players for touchdowns.
Against most teams and most quarterbacks, Manning’s six touchdown, 350-yard passing day would have been more than enough for victory. In the storied history of the New York Giants, only Y.A.
Tittle had ever thrown for as many touchdowns in a game. And, yet, it wasn’t enough. Brees was better.
From a sheer offensive standpoint, this was undoubtedly the wildest game I’ve ever covered. The Saints and Giants combined for 101 points, 1,030 yards and an NFL-record 14 touchdowns. It was the third highest scoring game in NFL history.
No. 2: Alvin’s Christmas Miracle (Dec. 25, 2020) Alvin Kamara was in the holiday spirit.
Wearing one red and one green shoe on Christmas Day, he tied an NFL record by running for six touchdowns in a game and finished with a career-high 155 yards in a 52-33 beatdown of the Minnesota Vikings. The performance helped the Saints claim their fourth consecutive NFC South title, and he became the first player in the modern NFL era to score six touchdowns from scrimmage. It had only ever been done by Ernie Nevers in 1929, and then by Dub Jones in 1951.
Kamara sprinted for a 40-yard touchdown on the game's opening drive. He added scoring runs of one, five, six, seven and three yards against a Minnesota defensive front hit hard by injuries. No.
1: A perfect pounding of the Pats (Nov. 30, 2009) Brees has thrown for more yards and touchdown in a game, but he’s never had a better overall game than this one. It was the greatest passing performance of his career.
He compiled a club-record 158.3 passer efficiency rating, the highest the system allows and one of just 21 “perfect” passer ratings in NFL history at the time. His 16.
1 yards per pass attempt was a team record and is still considered one of the great statistical achievements in NFL history. It had only been done a handful of times in league history and never against a defense as good as the Patriots. While it was not a vintage Bill Belichick-coached team, the Patriots still entered the game at 7-3 and ranked second in the league in pass defense and scoring defense, allowing 16 points a game The Saints had gains of 75, 68, 38 and 33 yards against a defense that had allowed one pass play of 40 more yards to its first 10 opponents combined.
It was the first time a Belichick-coached defense had allowed five touchdown passes in a game. Brees threw touchdown passes to five different receivers and led the Saints to scores on seven of their first nine series. He finished with 371 yards on 18-of-23 passing.
The Saints averaged a franchise-record 9.6 yards a play and it would have been even higher had head coach Sean Payton not called off the dogs on their final series. The beating was so bad, Belichick removed Tom Brady from the game with 5 minutes left in regulation.
.
