The New Orleans Saints might be peaking at the right time. They put together a complete game during Monday night’s matchup with the Indianapolis Colts, with quarterback Drew Brees turning in a vintage performance. It might be even better than that.
Brees completed 29 of his 30 pass attempts, including his final 22 throws. He broke Peyton Manning’s record for career touchdown passes (539), and then lobbed one more score to set the high-water mark at 541. He averaged 10.2 yards per completion. Brees connected with nine different receivers on the night, though Michael Thomas (who else?) paved the way by catching all 12 of his targets and gaining 128 yards, including Brees’ first touchdown pass.
Those efforts helped ensure Brees could take most of the fourth quarter off, with backup Teddy Bridgewater stepping in to close it out.
And New Orleans had success on the ground, too. Alvin Kamara paved the way with 67 rushing yards on 14 attempts, also catching all five of his targets for 23 more yards through the air.
On defense, the Saints turned in a huge rebound from last week’s ugly performance against the San Francisco 49ers. They only sacked Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett once, but hit him eight different times and deflected four of his passes. Linebacker Demario Davis made several stellar plays in pass coverage to force the Colts offense to leave the field empty-handed on third down.
The special teams units turned in some quality moments, too, including an early blocked punt. They didn’t make much headway on returns against the Colts coverage units, but the Saints prevented Indianapolis from picking up any yards of their own in the return game.
It was as complete a game as the Saints have played this year. This victory keeps them in the hunt for a top-two seed in the NFC playoff picture, and could do a lot to build momentum as they continue to march towards Super Bowl LIV.