It's not every day that we see a quarterback throw for seven touchdown passes, but today, New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees tossed just that many to tie the NFL record with seven other quarterbacks. To make things even crazier, on the other side of the field, New York Giants QB Eli Manning threw six of his own in this matchup that saw 13 total touchdown passes and 101 points scored as the Saints won 52-49.
This game was a truly back-and-forth affair and exemplified how the league has achieved its goal of making the game more exciting because of the high-scoring, high-flying lifestyle of an NFL offense.
Now that's certainly one way to look at but there's also another way..
We saw two absolutely pathetic defenses give up the most amount of touchdown passes in a single game ever. This was a game that is now tied for the third-most points scored by two teams combined in the history of the game.
Little difference of perspective there.
Anybody who has paid attention to the NFL this year knows how bad the Saints and Giants defenses are. They're brutal and you have to wonder how much that kind of dulls the achievement of these two quarterbacks.
Obviously, Brees is one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game and Manning has had his moments for sure. But jeez, really? These defenses have been god awful all year long and today was the epitome of dreadful defense that the league has become accustomed to over the years.
Sure, we still have the examples of how defense should be played over the past decade or so from teams like the Chicago Bears (not recently, of course), Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, etc. But there's also just been so many vomit-inducing defensive units lately, it's becoming an epidemic.
So while I congratulate Brees and Manning, this to me feels more like something that's become commonplace in the league: subpar or even horrendous defense.
© 2024 Classicalite All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
