POSTGAME NOTES

New England Patriots vs. New Orleans Saints ● Monday, November 30, 2009

• At 11-0, the Saints have now guaranteed their fourth 11-victory season in franchise history. The last time New Orleans won 11 games was in 1992, when they finished 12-4.
• The crowd of 70,768 was the second-largest to attend a Saints game at the Superdome behind an announced crowd of 70,940 in a contest vs. Atlanta on September 2, 1979.
• QB Drew Brees completed 18 of 23 passes for a season-high 371 yards, five touchdowns and his first-ever perfect passer rating of 158.3.
• Brees’ 15.3 yards per pass attempt is a Saints single-game record, shattering the previous mark of 13.65 by Bobby Hebert on October 18, 1992 vs. the Cardinals.
• The perfect passer rating was the second in Saints history. Mike Buck had a 158.3 rating on Oct. 17, 1993, at Pittsburgh (10/11, 164 yards, 2 TD).
• Brees has had a passer rating of 111 or higher 20 times in his four-year Saints career. The Saints are 19-1 in those games.
• Brees moved into 35th place in career passing yards in NFL history with 29,375. Brees now has 195 career touchdown passes, moving past former Saint Ken Stabler into 36th place all-time. With five more touchdowns, Brees would become the 30th player in NFL history with 200 career TD passes.
• Brees extended his own franchise record with his 29th career 300-yard passing game. It is one of 14 franchise records held by Brees.
• S Darren Sharper’s fourth-quarter interception was his eighth of the season. Sharper’s eight picks have accounted for 355 yards in returns, which ranks second on the NFL single-season list behind the 358 yards in returns by the Ravens’ Ed Reed in 2004
• DE Will Smith had four tackles and 1 1/2 sacks. The takedowns give him 46.5 for his career. He passed Jim Wilks and current teammate Charles Grant to move into seventh place on the club’s all-time list. It capped a month where Smith recorded 7.5 sacks, the highest total in the NFL for November. With 10 sacks, he is one-half sack shy of his career high of 10.5 set in 2006.
• CB Mike McKenzie, in his 2009 Saints debut, had a first quarter interception in New Orleans territory on a drive that led to New Orleans’ first touchdown of the game. He also had a pass breakup on a fourth down play in the third quarter.
• LB Jonathan Vilma and S Roman Harper led the Saints with nine tackles each.
• RB Pierre Thomas led the Saints in rushing with 11 carries for 64 yards. Thomas’ 26-yard first quarter run, keyed a drive that resulted in a touchdown with his 18-yard reception on a screen. Thomas is tied for the team lead with Robert Meachem with seven touchdowns.
• WR Devery Henderson had three receptions for a season-high 116 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown pass from Brees. It was the longest play from scrimmage this season for the Saints.
• With the touchdown grab, the 16th of his career, Henderson moves into a tie for ninth place on the club’s all-time list with Dave Parks and Torrance Small. Tonight’s performance was Henderson’s team-leading second 100-yard receiving game of the season and the seventh of his career.
• WR Marques Colston had four receptions for 121 yards and a touchdown, including a 68-yard grab. Colston now has 3,808 yards receiving in his career.
• The dual 100-yard receiving games were the first by the Saints since November 5, 2006, at Tampa Bay, when Colson caught 11 passes for 123 yards and Henderson had three receptions for 111 yards.
• WR Robert Meachem had a team-high five receptions for 69 yards, including a second quarter 38-yard touchdown grab from Brees that gave the Saints a 24-10 lead. It was Meachem’s team-leading seventh touchdown reception of the season and his fifth in his last four games.
• TE Jeremy Shockey caught a pass for the 106th consecutive game, the second-longest active streak among tight ends in the NFL behind Atlanta’s Tony Gonzalez (143). Shockey had one receptions for 15 yards.
• K John Carney appeared in the 300th game of his career tonight, making him only the the sixth player in NFL history to appear in 300 games, joining former Saints Morten Andersen (377), Jeff Feagles (347), Gary Anderson (346), George Blanda (325) and Jerry Rice (302).

Marched over by victors
By Bob Ryan
Globe Columnist / December 1, 2009

Except from Bob Ryan. Boston Globe. For the entire article, please click here.


"It’s always risky to extrapolate sports success to the sociology world, but it is a fair statement to say that the Saints have been the best thing to happen to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit. This is a football culture, and, no, the Saints aren’t going to bring back jobs or the staggering amount of people who were forced out of town after the catastrophic flood and have never come back, but this team is now Topic A for those who have survived and right now New Orleans is a very upbeat place.

If any city deserves this team, it’s New Orleans, all right."

The Saints took a 3-0 lead on a 30-yard John Carney field goal.

New England answered with a 4-yard Laurence Maroney TD run for a 7-3 lead.

Pierre Thomas took a swing pass from Drew Brees and scored from 18 yards out to make it 10-7 in favor of the Saints.

Brees fired a 75-yard TD strike to Devery Henderson to make the Saints lead 17-7.

Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 36-yard field goal for New England to cut it to 17-10.

Robert Meachem hauled in 38-yard TD pass from Brees to make the score 24-10.

Maroney opened the 3rd quarter with a 2-yard TD run to narrow the margin to 24-17.

Brees found TE Darnell Dinkins on a 2-yard TD pass to make it 31-17.

Marques Colston caught a 20-yard TD from Brees to extend the New Orleans advantage to 38-17.