So that was the season that was. 16 and done with a bunch of team and personal records in the locker. What I love about it is the Madden like numbers that I used to post as a kid on a console now playing out in real life. I mean its just unbelievable right down to the last game of the regular season and the most offensive yards in a game in team history! Here let's hand it off to 4th back Chris Ivory so he can rack up 100 yards plus and infuriate the hell out of perennial chip on his shoulder Smith on the Panthers side line. Genius.
Then there's the fact that no more will the Saints always be associated with NFL greats breaking their records against us. We've lived with 'Quick pitch to Walter' for years. Now finally we have 'Brees over the middle to Sproles and that's the record' and all against the dirty birds as well. Does it get much better?
Well yes it does. In the NFL record books we now have some names and numbers that are going to stick around for a while and that is dreamlike stuff for all of us who grew up knowing the season was over by game 8 and hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, our punter or kicker might sneak into Pro Bowl recognition so at least we still had our name on the map no matter how pathetically.
Well now, in black and white, in record books all over the land and on the internet it will be plain for everyone to see that the Saints team of 2011 posted some unbelievable numbers. 'The Greatest Show on Turf' can move over for one thanks to 'The Greatest Show on Earth!' Then there's the greatest single season QB display and MVP which, and I'm sorry Jamie Dukes and others on NFL Gameday, has to go to Brees and not Rodgers. If it was going to Rodgers he would have broken the passing yard record but he didn't, end of. Sure he's as accurate as a laser guided missile but then so is Brees who, incidentally, broke the record for completion percentage in a single season with 71.2%. He also led the league in TD's thrown, broke league records for completions and 300+ yard games.
Sure Drew tossed up a couple more INT's but you're really going to tell me that there is daylight between Rodgers and Brees based on that? Come on, who are you kidding? I know it plays better to a national audience and the annals of NFL history to always have a Packers player on the national conscience and roll call but facts are facts and you have to look at the total package of what has been achieved.
1. Most passing yards in a single season EVER. Drew Brees 5,476 yards - eclipsing record held by Dan Marino since 1984 of 5,084.
2. Most completions in a single season EVER. Drew Brees 468 - breaking record of 450 by Payton Manning.
3. Highest completion percentage in a single season EVER. Drew Brees with 71.2% - breaking his own record of 70.6%
4. Most 300+ yard passing games in a single season EVER. Drew Brees with 13.
5. Most consecutive games with 300+ yards passing in a season EVER. Drew Brees with
Then there's the fact the guy led an offense which set new records all over the place.
1.. Most yards by an offense in history. And that's EVER again. 7,474 yards - eclipsing the previous record of 7,075 by the 2000 Rams.
2. Most all-purpose yards by a player in a single season. EVER. Darren Sproles with 2,696 yards.
3. Most first downs in a season by an offense. EVER. 416!!
4. Most receiving yards by a tight end in a season EVER (well until the Pats unsportingly went to Gronk and then took a knee so they could steal one record off the breakers).
5. Most net yards passing by a team in a single season EVER. 5,347 yards.
6. Fewest fumbles by a team in a season EVER. Just 6!
Did Rodgers and the Packers O do any of the above? Nope. Did he play in the same 2011 season with all the so called inherent advantages for team O's which came from having short training camps? Yes. So you can't lay that as argument can ya? Well no I guess we can't.
So what else? What else is possibly out there to in anyway detract from this Saints O, led by Drew Brees, going down in history as the finest ever with an MVP gong to match? Well I guess there's... nah nah nah shut up. You're just making noise.
Admit you were wrong, you over jumped the gun with Rodgers early in the season and frankly you made a mistake. Now swallow your pride, do the right thing and acknowledge just how special Brees and the O played this season. It's the right thing to do, it's the honorable thing to do and it's the blindingly obvious thing that must be done.
If not for the numbers posted then what? How else can anyone do better than smash so many records in one season? What else do they need to do? Well apart from play in green and yellow.
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