As if Drew Brees didn’t have enough reasons for people to root for him in New Orleans, he breaks Dan Marino’s NFL passing record for yards thrown in a single-season last night against the Atlanta Falcons. Marino set the record in 1984 with 5,084 yards for the Miami Dolphins. Brees finished the game by breaking the record on his last pass, a 9-yard touchdown pass to Darren Sproles, which put him at 307 yards for the game and 5,087 yards for the season. He had thrown for 5,069 yards back in 2008. The touchdown pass also put him at 276 touchdowns for his career, moving him ahead of Joe Montana at 273 and Vinny Testaverde at 275, and moving him within 14 of tying Colts great Johnny Unitas at 290.
In a season of passing dominance with 10 quarterbacks over 4,000 yards, the Patriots Tom Brady is set to pass Marino as well at 4,897 yards. Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers was also on pace to pass Marino, but has thrown for less than 300 yards the past three weeks putting him at 4,643 yards on the season with one week left to play. Wes Welker, the quick New England Patriots slot receiver, broke a franchise record held by Randy Moss with 1,493 in 2007 for receiving yards with 1,518 yards. This is still only 24th on the all-time NFL single-season receiving yards leaders, but still a great accomplishment for the soon to be free agent.
The Saints also beat a franchise record for total offensive yards in a season with 6,857 yards breaking the old record of 6,571 and putting them on pace to pass the NFL-record of 7,075 offensive yards set by the “Greatest show on Turf”, the 2000 St. Louis Rams and Kurt Warner.
Sean Payton and his Saints beat the Falcons 45-16 and clinched the NFL South on Monday Night Football. Brees finished 23 for 39 with four touchdowns and two interceptions while his counterpart, Matt Ryan, finished 34 for 52 with 373 yards passing and one touchdown with no interceptions. The Saints had 164 yards rushing with Darren Sproles at 67 and Pierre Thomas at 53 versus the Falcons 35 net rushing yards with a leader of Michael Turner at 39 yards. Julio Jones and Roddy White led all receivers with 128 and 127 yards receiving while Brees spread the ball around for the Saints and had not one receiver over the 100-yard mark.
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