Drew Brees: “I don’t think anybody’s going to work today. It’s a holiday in New Orleans.”
December 1, 2009 – 6:30 pm by Bunk
Wow. What a performance by the undefeated New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football. With the mighty Patriots in town, Drew Brees and the Saints offense turned in perhaps their best performance of the year. Brees vaulted his name right back up the MVP watch list with an 18 of 23 performance for 371 yards and 5 TDs. Brees hit seven different receivers on the night and five different Saints were the recipient of a Brees TD pass. The win moves the Saints to 11-0 and puts them one step closer to matching the 2007 New England Patriots perfect regular season. The performance by Brees last night and all year frankly, raises the question of whether Brees is now the second best quarterback in football today behind Peyton Manning.
Brees joined XX 1090 in San Diego to talk about his monster game on the huge national stage, how awesome the home crowds are at the Superdome, how he appreciated Coach Belichick finding him after the game to congratulate him, and how the Saints will continue to take the same game by game approach as they draw closer to a perfect regular season.
On if he’s ever heard the Superdome that loud and rowdy since its reopening after Katrina several years ago:
“Here’s the thing – it just keeps getting louder. I mean it’s hard to believe because that Monday night game [in 2006] was something else, you guys were there, you know what that was all about. I think obviously the scenarios are different, but then again it shows just how far we’ve come since the opening of the Dome and what that symbolized, to now three years later and where we’re at as a team, and where we’re trying to get.”
On the buzz around town when Brees left to head home following the huge win:
“Yeah, it was nuts. Our fans first of all, we have the greatest fans and it creates such a home field advantaged. And they just live and die and breathe Saints football, especially on igame day. So when you can put together a performance like that for them, of which obviously they’re a big part of as well, it’s great. So as they’re leaving the building, they’re just nuts. I don’t think anybody’s going to work today. It’s a holiday in New Orleans.”
On the wide open TD to Devery Henderson early in the game where the Patriots totally blew their coverage in the middle of the secondary:
“If you noticed on the first drive, their middle safety Meriweather #31, he was really active kind of reading my eyes, ended up breaking up a play in the end zone on Devery Henderson. So he’s a guy just from watching film you notice, he’s overly aggressive at times. And on that specific play that we came back to later on, he was responsible for that area of the field where Devery was and when I pumped to the left, you see him on the pass pictures just go flying over there and just creates that void where Devery catches that ball and runs 50 yards unabated to the end zone. So I think there’s times where it’s kind of feast or famine and those guys are going to guess and try to make a play. But at the same time, you make yourself vulnerable to give one up too.”
On the play of the Saints defense, particularly the contributions of recently added veteran corner Chris McAlister and Mike McKenzie:
“I mean, what an amazing story too because we’re banged up at the corner position so literally two weeks ago we go out and sign Chris McAlister and then on Tuesday we sign Mike McKenzie. And Mike is flying all over the field, gets a bigtime interception, a big time pass breakup on 4th down down there on our 5 yard line on Randy Moss that gets us the ball back. I mean, both those guys played pretty much the entire game and did an unbelievable job. So for two guys that have only been in the building for less than two weeks, I mean you just find that amazing. But that’s what you get from veteran corners – both those guys have been around a long time, they know the game, and they know how to play in big games. And so that was huge. I can’t say enough about those two guys.”
On the ever-growing prospect of New Orleans actually finishing off their regular season undefeated:
“One at a time, brother. One at a time. I know that’s boring and not what you want to hear, but that’s the way we’ve approached every game this year. I feel like this week, coming off a short week, having to go to Washington who I think is obviously playing much better than they were early in the season, and just coming off a big emotional high like you do after a big game like this, we’ve got to find a way to bring it back down and focus and go get a big win on the road. And we know we’re getting everybody’s best game, and hey, regardless of records, injury situations or anything else, we’re going to get every team’s best performance. So in turn, we have to give them our best in order to win.”
Listen here to Brees with Scott and BR on XX 1090 in San Diego
Tags: 2009 NFL MVP race, best QBs in NFL, Brees is better than Brady, Drew Brees, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, XX 1090
