Drew Brees destroys Packers secondary in 51-29 romp

The Green Bay Packers had to like the situation they were in early in the first quarter of their Monday Night Football game against the New Orleans Saints.  They were up 7-0 after a John Kuhn 1 yard touchdown run, and had entered the game with the #3 ranked passing defense in the NFL.  That was before Drew Brees went to work shredding their defense en route to a 51-29 blowout. 

Brees threw for 323 yards on 20 of 26 passing, with four TD passes and no interceptions.  The Saints put a total of 7 TD passes on the board, tying a franchise record.  Their 51 points scored also equaled the all time franchise best.  Deuce McAllister ran for his 54th career touchdown as a Saint in the third quarter, which set a new team record.  Brees also has a decent shot of challenging Dan Marino’s 1984 single season record of 5,084 yards passing—he’s got 3,574 yards with five games remaining. 

The game was actually a see-saw affair until halftime—after Green Bay opened the scoring to take a 7-0 lead, New Orleans responded with two touchdowns to go ahead 14-7 at the end of one period.  The Packers would tie the contest early in the 2nd on an Aaron Rodgers 7 yard TD pass to Greg Jennings.   Brees and Rodgers would trade TD passes again later in the quarter, and the Saints would finally take the upper hand at halftime by virtue of a 30 yard Garrett Hartley field goal as time expired.

In the 2nd half, however, the bottom fell out for the Green Bay Packers as two Brees TD passes and McCallister’s record breaking rushing score blew the game open.  New Orleans led 45-21 entering the fourth quarter before the Packers managed to get on the board again as Rodgers found Ruvell Martin in the end zone from four yards out.  The Saints would tack on another TD later in the quarter as Pierre Thomas ran it in from 31 yards out.

Packers’ coach Mike McCarthy offered no excuses in his post game press conference:

"We didn't slow them down at all tonight."Give credit to the Saints and the play of their quarterback. He was on fire coming into the game and we didn't cool him off any."

Saints QB Brees, meanwhile, deflected the attention from his monster performance expressing appreciation for his teammates and returning home to the Superdome after an extended absence:

"I mean, 40-something days on the road. It was great to get back in the dome. You look at this game, so many things. Deuce getting the record, us just really feeling like we had our stride going the whole game. We're kind of in the middle of pack, just like a lot of other teams. This is the time where a few of those teams start to separate themselves and we want to be one of those teams."

His teammates were quicker to praise their QB, including wide receiver Lance Moore who caught two of Brees’ TD passes:

“It's a dream come true playing with him. All we have to do is run our routes. We don't have to worry about doing anything extraordinary."

The Saints improved to 6-5, but now must play two of their next three games on the road.  They head to Tampa Bay for a matchup with the Bucs before returning to the Crescent City the following Sunday to host the Atlanta Falcons.  They’ll then travel to Chicago for a Thursday night game against the Bears on 12/11. 

Green Bay dropped to 5-6 with the loss and faces a tough test on Sunday hosting the 8-3 Carolina Panthers.  They’ll host Jacksonville the following Sunday before hitting the road again for a 12/14 game in Jacksonville against the Jaguars.