NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees sat at his locker Sunday afternoon, his head down, staring at the floor.
Brees tried to come to grips that he lost out on a couple of things in the New Orleans Saints” 33-31 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Brees” precise pass-making skills brought the Saints back from a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter were wasted as the Panthers managed to kick a last-second field goal for the win.
Then, with one second left, his final shot at history fell short when his 49th pass attempt went incomplete, leaving him 16 yards shy of eclipsing Dan Marino”s 24-year old record for the most passing yards in the single season.
Brees finished the 2008 season second to Marino, compiling 5,069 yards after throwing for 386 yards in the loss to Carolina. He also threw four touchdown passes and one interception giving him 34 touchdowns, a career high, and 17 interceptions for the season. Brees did tie an NFL single-season record with Rich Gannon with his 10th game with 300 yards or more passing.
“As I went through the week, and of course everybody brought it up to me, I”d see 20 people on the street and not one of them would say, ”We want you to win the game against Carolina,”” Brees said. “It was, ”We hope you get that record.” I could tell the receivers, the tight ends, all the guys catching the ball, all the offensive linemen, coaches, they wanted the record.
“They probably wanted it worse than I did because in the grand scheme, I”ve said this many times, if it happens, it happens. Then it wasn”t meant to be. I can go to sleep at night and say we made a heck of a run at it. Obviously we weren”t just trying to throw the football for yards. We were trying to do whatever we could to win games and we came very, very close to one of the most coveted records in all of football. I guess it wasn”t meant to be.
“I”m not sure that”s the way the record deserves to be broken. That”s why I”m able to accept the fact that it didn”t happen.”
Panthers punter Jason Baker could also be to blame. He shanked a 21-yard punt to the Carolina 45 on the Saints” final scoring drive leaving Brees only 45 yards to work with. At the time, Brees needed 61 yards to pass Marino”s record and no guarantees that he”d get the ball back.
Then it almost seemed like the record was meant to be broken as the Saints did get the ball back with one second left as Carolina”s Rhys Lloyd booted the kickoff out of bounds giving Brees one more chance.
Brees said the final play as the players were running onto the field that he didn”t know who he was going to throw the ball because it was going to depend on which receiver had better release from the covering defender.
Saints coach Sean Payton called the play a Hail Mary-type pass and wanted the receivers to look for the lateral. But Brees” pass for Lance Moore fell incomplete, ending the game and the run at history.
“Winning the game was priority No. 1,” Brees said. “And then obviously if the record came with that, then it was great. It just maybe makes you think about all the completions you left out there at the beginning of the game that could have put you over the mark with taking the lead.
“Even if I would have committed the ball to Lance at the end of the game and he gets tackled at the end of the game. Yeah we get the record, but we lost. That record is when I sit back and look at it, that record has stuck for a long time. One of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game owns it and it”s a huge record. “Maybe the fact that we are 8-8, it wasn”t meant to be for us to get it.”
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(c) 2008, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.).
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