NEW ORLEANS - Drew Brees continued his assault on the single-season passing yardage record at the Green Bay Packers' expense Monday night.
Facing only sporadic pressure from the Packers' pass rush and sporting his unfailing accuracy, Brees was in control from start to finish as he threw for 323 yards and four touchdowns, including two 70-yarders, to lead New Orleans to a 51-29 win over the Packers in front of 70,668 loud fans at the Louisiana Superdome.
"He was hot and we had nothing to cool him down," defensive tackle Ryan Pickett said. "He just hurt us all game. He beat us, flat out.
"He just played a great game, an almost flawless game."
That he did, completing 20-of-26 passes and posting a quarterback rating of 157.5, less than a full point from the highest possible rating of 158.3. He came in needing to average roughly 305 yards per game the rest of the season to break Dan Marino's passing record of 5,084 yards, set in 1984, and he was beyond that by the end of the third quarter before taking a well-earned rest.
Even without star running back Reggie Bush, Brees had plenty of weapons to utilize. He completed passes to seven different receivers. Lance Moore led the way with five catches for 115 yards and two scores, while tight ends Jeremy Shockey and Billy Miller combined for nine catches, 93 yards and another TD.
"He was on fire," linebacker A.J. Hawk said. "Their whole offense was on fire. I give our offense credit for keeping us in the game as long as we were, because we definitely weren't doing it."
The loss dropped the Packers to 5-6 and one game behind both Chicago and Minnesota in the NFC North Division with five games to play.
One week after dominating the Bears for four quarters in a 37-3 blowout, the Packers were on the other end of a lopsided score, surrendering more than 50 points for the first time since the 1986 season finale (55, New York Giants).
"We knew coming in we had to have this game," Woodson said, "and that's not the way we played."
The Packers, who came in with the No. 3 ranked passing defense in the league to try to stop the league's top passing offense, simply couldn't rattle Brees. After an opening three-and-out, the Saints got going with a 70-yard TD pass to Moore as the speedy wideout caught a short throw over the middle, made a move past safety Atari Bigby and was off to the races.
Brees went on to complete 13 passes in a row in leading the Saints to two more touchdowns in the first half, the second coming again to Moore, who topped 100 yards by intermission. His completion string was broken on the final drive of the first half as New Orleans settled for a field goal to take a 24-21 lead.
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers were doing their best to keep up in the earlygoing. Despite missing what appeared to be a couple of open receivers deep early in the game, Rodgers still directed three touchdown drives in the first half with the help of 64 rushing yards from Ryan Grant.
The last two were both long marches, covering 12 and 14 plays, respectively, and more than six minutes each. A 7-yard slant to Greg Jennings and a 10-yard scramble by Rodgers accounted for both of those touchdowns, the last one tying the score at 21.
The Packers held the ball for 18 minutes, 24 seconds in the first half, but any supposed rest for the defense didn't seem to help any.
Brees came out and started the second half by directing an 80-yard touchdown drive, capping it with a 16-yard pass to Miller, the No. 2 tight end. That marked the first time either team took a two-score lead in the back-and-forth affair, and it would become the turning point.
On Green Bay's next two possessions, Rodgers threw interceptions. Jason David got them both, returning the first one 42 yards to the Packers' 3-yard line to set up a short TD run by Deuce McAllister.
"If it needed to be a shootout, we felt we could fire right back," said Jennings, who led the Packers with eight catches for 101 yards. "But tonight we had a few turnovers that gave them the advantage, and we couldn't overcome it.
"It's disappointing. We just weren't able to put four (quarters) together. Anytime you're playing an offense like that, you have to put the pressure back on them. When we did put the pressure back on them, they were able to make plays. They played an outstanding game."
The second interception didn't result in points for New Orleans, as a trick play failed when Moore took a backwards toss from Brees and tried to throw deep for the touchdown. Safety Aaron Rouse, who was in the game for Bigby, picked it off.
The Packers couldn't take advantage, though, going three-and-out, and the Saints officially blew the game open with Brees' second 70-yard TD pass of the game. Marques Colston got behind Charles Woodson when the veteran cornerback cut underneath, and Brees bought time and made a perfect throw on the run. Colston then outran Rouse down the sideline to make it 45-21.
{sportsad300}"One of those days you'd like to forget about," Woodson said.
"It just kind of snowballed on us," added defensive end Aaron Kampman. "We just weren't able to find that play to kind of swing it back around. I thought maybe after that trick play that we intercepted, maybe we could mount a little bit of a comeback there. We tried to, but it wasn't enough."
Rodgers (21-of-43, 248 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT, 59.8 rating) threw his second TD of the game early in the fourth quarter to Ruvell Martin, and connected with Martin again on the two-point conversion to keep the Packers barely within two scores at 45-29.
But the Saints tacked on one more touchdown, a 31-yard run by Pierre Thomas (15 carries, 87 yards, 2 TD) that pushed New Orleans over 400 total yards with nearly 9 minutes still remaining in the game.
"We got embarrassed, we got whupped, however you want to put it, that's what we got out there, a butt-whupping," safety Nick Collins said. "An old-fashioned butt-whupping. We know we're better than that, and we can never do that again."
