NFL
Brees, Saints light it up in rout of Pack
NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees and Deuce McAllister gave Saints fans what they longed to see after 43 days away from the Louisiana Superdome.
Brees threw for four scores, McAllister set a Saints record with his 54th career touchdown and New Orleans rolled to a 51-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.
Brees dismantled a Packers secondary that came in ranked third in the NFL with 176.3 yards passing allowed per game. He was 20 of 26 for 323 yards as New Orleans tied a club record for points scored in a game. Two of his touchdowns went to Lance Moore.
“We spread the ball around pretty good,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “You just saw [Brees] being very comfortable with where he was going each time and I thought he was extremely efficient — and those guys up front did a good job for him as well.”
The Saints quarterback remained on pace to break Dan Marino’s 1984 record of 5,084 yards passing in a season. He has 3,574 yards with five games remaining. He also has the Saints (6-5) feeling better about their hopes of rallying for a playoff spot now that they’ve won two games in a row for the first time all season.
The Packers (5-6) dropped a game behind Minnesota and Chicago in the race for first in the NFC North.
“We didn’t slow them down at all tonight,” Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. “Give credit to the Saints and the play of their quarterback. He was on fire coming into the game and we didn’t cool him off any.”
Aaron Rodgers’ attempt to keep up with Brees’ torrid passing resulted in three interceptions, two by Jason David and one by Kevin Kaesviharn. David returned his first pick to the 3, setting up McAllister’s scoring run, which broke Dalton Hilliard’s club record set in 1993.
Rodgers was 23 of 41 for 248 yards and touchdown passes of 7 yards to Greg Jennings and 4 yards to Ruvell Martin. Rodgers also ran for a 10-yard score. Ryan Grant rushed for 64 yards in the first half, but the Packers were forced to throw more as their deficit grew and Grant finished with only 67 yards.
Leading 24-21 at the half, the Saints began to seize control with a long touchdown drive that ended with Brees’ 16-yard strike to tight end Billy Miller. McAllister then went in from the 3 and Brees hit Marques Colston in stride down the sideline for his second 70-yard TD pass of the game.
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