Brees and Saints take it easy, comfortably beat Carolina Panthers 45-17 - NFL Week 17 Recap
Drew Brees and New Orleans Saints made it look so simple as they finished the regular season with a resounding 45-17 victory over division rivals Carolina Panthers.
The Saints had nothing left to play for in the regular season but that did not keep them from tearing apart the Panthers. Brees was merciless putting in another brilliant performance that will have people calling for the quarterback to be named this year’s
Most Valued Player.
"Every facet of our offense is clicking right now, but yet you're constantly finding ways to advance it," Brees said. "We've raised the bar for ourselves. We have a high level of expectations, and we're just trying to meet that level."
The quarterback could not have put it more accurately. Brees had another five touchdown game after last week’s demolition of Atlanta Falcons. The quarterback covered 389 passing yards and threw just a single interception as he completed 28 out of 35 attempted
passes.
The Saints broke record upon record in offense this week. The Saints offense ended the season with 7,474 yards 5,347 on passing and a multitude of individual records were also set during the match.
"I feel like we're playing our best football right now. This is where we wanted to be." Brees said.
The Panthers to their credit put up some fight. They were head to head with Brees’s scoring throughout the first half of the game but could not keep up with the quarterback as the second period rolled on to lose the game.
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton ended with 158 passing yards scoring a single passing touchdown and an interception. The number one draft pick of 2011 completed 15 out of 25 passing attempts as he saw his team’s two game winning run ended in the final game
of the season.
"We caught a football team that is on a roll right now," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. "That's a playoff-caliber football team that did that to us."
The Saints were out of the blocks early in the first quarter with Chris Ivory rushing for 35-yards to score the game’s first touchdown. The Panthers responded immediately. Newton found Steve Smith with a twelve-yard pass to equalise the score at 7-7. With
just three minutes left in the quarter Bress threw his first touchdown pass to Marques Colston for 15-yards to regain the Saints seven point lead.
Panthers kicker Olindo Mare scored a 41-yard field goal at 5:50 in the second quarter to bring the score to 14-10. Three minutes later the Saints scored their own field goal by kicker John Kasay from 43-yards. The Panthers equalled the score at 17-17 with
Jonathan Stewart rushing for 29-yards at 1:18 to score a touchdown but Brees regained the Saints lead with just seven seconds to go with a 42-yard pass to Marques Colston.
The third quarter belonged completely to the Saints as the Panthers failed to keep up with Brees. The quarterback threw two touchdown passes starting with a 19-yarder to Jimmy Graham at 8:54 and a one-yard pass to Jed Collins at 3:47 to bring the Saints
up to 38-17.
The game was all but over by the fourth quarter with the Panthers failing to mount any offense and Brees completed the rout with a nine yard touchdown pass to Darren Sproles at 12:15 to end the game 45-17.
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