Watching the New Orleans Saints (62-7) demolish job on the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night without star quarterback Peyton Manning in the lineup brought back memories of the Saints Super Bowl run in 2009.
The Saints scored in their first nine offensive possessions and set a new club record for most points scored in a game with 62.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees completed 31 of his 35 passes for 325 yards, posted a quarterback rating of 144.9 and threw for five touchdowns. He finished with the second highest completion rate in a game in the history of the NFL.
The pace was very reminiscent of the 2009 Super Bowl run when the Saints were driving in the left hand lane of football traffic all season long.
In 2009 the Saints scored a grand total of 510 points and averaged 31.8 points per game. After seven games in 2009 the Saints had scored 273 points.
This season after seven games the Saints have scored 239 points and are averaging 34.1 points per game.
Not only was Brees red hot, but so was the Saints running game that totaled 236 yards. The Saints also scored in seven of their eight trips to the redzone.
After the game head coach Sean Payton, who had surgery to repair damage to his knee Monday morning and watched the game from the press box, was quick to give full credit to Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael for his play-calling acumen.
“We didn’t make a formal announcement about this during the week, but Pete took over the offensive play-calling duties and he made every call out there tonight,” Payton said. “I was proud of the way the coaching staff responded to extra duties and the game plan we had was tremendous. Pete did a marvelous job making the calls and relaying them to Drew Brees and they have a special relationship that goes back to when both of them were in San Diego. Joe (Vitt) also did a great job managing the extra duties out on the field.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what happened out there after the adversities we faced last week and playing such a disappointing game against Tampa Bay.”
The Saints defense played their best game of the year limiting the Colts passing game to just 102 passing yards, holding All-Pro tight end Dallas Clark to zero catches and forcing three turnovers, one being an interception that nickel-cornerback Leigh Torrence brought back 42 yards for a touchdown.
Saints starting middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma says the team was pumped up by the crowd noise and excitement of returning to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome after playing three straight weeks on the road.
“It was great coming back home and hearing that crowd go crazy before the game,” Vilma said. “It was electric out there tonight and we fed off their energy. I was real proud of our effort on defense and the turnovers we got. Drew and company did their job on offense in a huge way. We are going to enjoy this win for a little while.”
Wide receiver Marques Colston caught seven passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns against the Colts. Tight end Jimmy Graham continues to serve notice to opposing teams that he is the best tight end in the game today and he caught six passes for 54 yards and two touchdown passes against Indianapolis.
Next week the Saints play the winless St. Louis Rams and there is a good reason why they haven’t won a game this season.
The Rams have scored only five touchdowns all season long in 6 games.
Sunday night the Saints grabbed the headlines with an impressive overall effort, but as the week passes a lot of the talk will go back to the showdown Nov. 5 between the two best teams in college football, Alabama and LSU.
Whoever wins the LSU-Alabama showdown will raise the National Championship crystal in January.
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