Brees 4th QB in National Football League history with 60000 yards

“I don’t know exactly what we have going on here”, Brees said.

“Disappointing”, Saints coach Sean Payton said afterward in one of the briefest postgame press briefings in recent memory.

Drew Brees’ 1-yard pass to tight end Benjamin Watson made it 35-27 with 1:55 remaining, but Detroit’s Calvin Johnson recovered the onside kick. Wearing an immobilizing boot after the game, he said he would have an MRI on Tuesday.

Matthew Stafford was a near-perfect 22 of 25 passing for 254 yards and threw three first-half touchdown passes for the Lions (5-9). Two games in a row is the beginning of a trend, and that pattern is the start of a new era for the wide receiver who will always be known in Detroit as Megatron.

Stafford shredded the Saints’ porous secondary in the first half, completing 12 of 13 passes for 142 yards and three touchdowns as Detroit raced to a 21-3 halftime lead.

Brees finished 33 of 50 for 323 yards and three touchdowns, and Brandin Cooks and Willie Snead both caught 10 passes for the Saints.

Another apparent New Orleans touchdown by running back Tim Hightower was waved off because tackle Senio Kelemete, inserted for extra goal-line blocking, failed to report as an eligible receiver.

The Saints managed to gain a few yards on two desperation plays but time ran out on them.

It seems like we can’t go even one week in the National Football League without the officials blowing a call against the Detroit Lions. But right guard Jahri Evans was penalized for being an ineligible receiver downfield to negate the touchdown and end the half. There’s only a penalty for calling an extra timeout if it involves a team attempting to ice a kicker.

“He was in for the prior play, and the explanation I got was that he never reported”, Payton said.

After being eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, there wasn’t anything for the Saints to play for other than pride.

The Lions increased their lead in the opening series of the second half, easily going 78 yards on six plays, punctuated by Ameer Abdullah’s 15-yard scoring run.

The Saints punted, forced a punt, and then began their rally.

New Orleans responded with Brees’ 27-yard touchdown pass to Cooks and closed the gap a little more with Kai Forbath’s short field goal after the Lions made a clutch stop on a third-and-goal from the 4-yard line.

For the record, the Saints weren’t tanking on Monday night.

But Abdullah fumbled on Detroit’s next play from scrimmage, and the Saints capitalized with Brees’ 11-yard scoring strike to Colston.

But the Lions came back with a nine-play 76-yard drive capped off by a 1-yard Joique Bell touchdown run to go back up by two scores, 35-20. On the Lions next possession, on a third-and-1, Abdullah scampered for 28 yards setting up the Lions key fifth touchdown that gave them a 35-20 lead.

At 53 games, the 5-play, 69-yard drive ended with a 27-yard TD and a place in history.