Brees connected with Josh Hill early in the third quarter to give the Saints a 27-0 lead, and it made Brees the league’s all-time leader in touchdown passes. He later threw a touchdown pass to Taysom Hill to extend his lead to 34-0.
Brees entered the night two touchdown passes shy of Manning’s 539 total. Tom Brady of the New England Patriots stands pat at 538, and will likely surpass Manning next week and jockey alongside Brees for the top mark until they Brady.
Brees accomplished the feat against the team most-notably guided team by Manning for more than a decade. Brees defeated Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl 10 seasons ago in Miami, which ironically, is the site of this season’s Super Bowl.
Should the Saints win Monday, they will be 11-3 along with three other teams in the NFC. This means the Saints need to keep winning in order to stay in the race for the NFC’s best record, which would mean home-field advantage through the NFC playoffs. New Orleans will get at least one home game in the playoffs as they clinched the NFC South on Thanksgiving Day.
Here are the major passing records, and the top five in each (active players in BOLD):
Touchdown Passes 541 — Drew Brees 539 — Payton Manning 538 — Tom Brady 508 — Brett Favre 420 — Dan Marino
Passes Completed 6,972 — Drew Brees 6,335 — Tom Brady 6,300 — Brett favre 6,125 — Peyton Manning 4,967 — Dan Marino
Pass Attempts 10,169 — Brett Favre 10,063 — Drew Brees 9,926 — Tom Brady 9,380 — Peyton Manning 8,358 — Dan Marino
Passing Yards 76,577 — Drew Brees 74,079 — Tom Brady 71,940 — Peyton Manning 71,838 — Brett Favre 61,361 — Dan Marino
Passer Rating 102.9 — Aaron Rodgers 101.4 — Russell WIlson 98.0 — Drew Brees 97.1 — Kirk Cousins 97.1 — Tony Romo
Completion Percentage 67.5 — Drew Brees 67.0 — Kirk Cousins 66.0 — Chad Pennington 65.9 — Dak Prescott 65.5 — Kurt Warner
Brees went to Westlake High School in Texas, just outside of Austin, and led the Chaparrals to a state championship in 1996. He led the Purdue Boilermakers to a Big Ten title and Rose Bowl berth following the 2000 college season, and he was drafted by the San Diego Chargers.
After five years with the Chargers, he was picked up by the Saints—after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, ripped apart the Superdome and left the Bayou State rebuilding hope.
Brees and new coach Sean Payton seemed to be the perfect storm of rebuilding the city, and by 2009 they built the perfect team and hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl champions.
The Saints went to their only Super Bowl in Miami that season, beating the Colts and Manning in the process. Now they are accomplishing a major feat—yet again versus the Colts.
