Classy Drew Brees Has Perfect Response After Making Wrong Kind of History Against Cowboys
In the midst of his 18th NFL season, Drew Brees has pretty much seen it all and done it all.
However, something happened in the New Orleans Saints’ 13-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday that had never happened before in Brees’ career: The future Hall of Famer started the game 0-for-4 on passing attempts.
Those struggles were a sign of things to come.
“I felt like we didn’t really find a rhythm for pretty much the whole game,” said Brees, whose 127 passing yards were his second fewest when he played a full game in his 13 years with the Saints. “I guess we may have had one decent drive. … So credit to them.”
A stout Dallas defense as well as some dropped passes contributed to the struggles of the Saints offense, which was held to 176 total yards.
That is their lowest total since the 2001 season, when Brees was a rookie with the San Diego Chargers.
“A little bit of it was execution on our part,” Brees said of the offensive woes. “I felt like we had some opportunities to connect on some pass play early and we didn’t. First drive, I know there was a least a few that would’ve gotten things going. So, you start off a game with two three-and-outs and that’s not the way you want to start, and then on the other side they were able to put together some decent drives.
“For us, as an offense, we think, ‘Hey, man, complementary football, let’s put together a drive, let’s keep our defense off the field, let’s control the game, control the clock, control the ball.’ It just never felt like we really did that as an offense like we’ve done this year.”
The Cowboys have the league’s No. 2 scoring defense and have allowed the second-fewest passing touchdowns.
The analytics from Thursday’s game back up those stats as the Saints’ receivers struggled to get open all night.
The Cowboys defensive backs didn’t give the Saints WRs much room to operate tonight. According to @NextGenStats, 50% of Drew Brees’ passes to WRs Thursday were into tight windows, his highest rate of the season. Entering the game, 20% of his passes to WRs were into tight windows. pic.twitter.com/udKZCoN6h8
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 30, 2018
New Orleans could have become the first team this season to clinch a playoff berth with a victory, but that will now have to wait.
Running back Mark Ingram said the team’s 10-game winning streak was a good run but the focus for the Saints going forward is to make sure something like Thursday doesn’t happen again.
“I’m not worried about it. We’ll be just fine,” Ingram said. “We’ve still got the same playmakers. … We good. We just gotta fix it. We didn’t do enough today. We just need to make sure that this never happens again.”
This was the second-largest winning streak in Saints history, behind 13 straight victories in the 2009 season.
The Cowboys also snapped that streak, but New Orleans ended that 2009 season with its only Super Bowl victory.
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