With Drew Brees tied with Brett Favre for the second longest streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass, how does Brees compare with Favre during that streak?  Drew Brees began his streak on Sunday, October 18, 2009 against the New York Giants and it remains active at 36 games.  Brett Favre saw his streak begin on Monday, November 4, 2002.  Favre's last game in the streak was Monday, November 29, 2004, a game in which he tossed three touchdown passes against the St. Louis Rams.  The Philadelphia Eagles ended Favre's streak on Sunday, December 5, 2004.  The comparison of streaks is below.

Brett Favre's 36-Game Streak

Cmp-Att:  740-1,164

Cmp%:  63.6%

Yds:  8,154

TD-Int:  67-44

Drew Brees' 36-Game Streak

Cmp-Att:  993-1,422

Cmp%:  69.8%

Yds:  11,081

TD-Int:  79-43

Through comparable 36-game streaks, the statistics favor the streak displayed by Drew Brees.  Drew Brees still has a long way to go to tie the record set by Johnny Unitas.  During the record setting streak, Unitas passed for 10,645 yards and 102 touchdowns over a streak that lasted from December 9, 1956 until December 4, 1960.  While we are not at the point where the serious discussion can begin, people should be keeping an eye on the streak.

During the streak, Brees finished the 2009 season with the record for the highest single season completion percentage, set an NFL record most consecutive games with 20+ pass completions (ongoing), set an NFL record for most consecutive games with 350+ passing yards, tied Dan Marino's record for most consecutive seasons with 4000+ passing yards and 30+ touchdowns (he's on pace to break this record), as well as setting other franchise records.  The reality of the situation is that we have been witnessing something incredible without realizing it.

While this has obviously been the most successful season in New Orleans Saints history, many of us have different views about the great moments in that season.  We remember starting 13-0, the Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots and the ultimate victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.  But if you had to narrow down the greatest plays of the entire season to only ten, what would they be?  Here are mine.

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In two games this season following a bye week, Week 6 against the New York Giants and the Divisional Round against the Arizona Cardinals, Drew Brees and the passing attack have been nothing short of dominant.  Against the New York Giants, Brees was 23 for 30 (76.7 completion percentage) with 369 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Thanks to securing home field advantage, the Saints were able to have another bye week.  They faced the Arizona Cardinals and Brees dazzled once again, going 23 for 32 (71.9 completion percentage) with 247 yards and 3 touchdowns.  Most startling has been the passer ratings for these games.  Against the Giants, Brees just missed a perfect passer rating by posting a 156.8 rating against the Giants, who were at the time the most effective defense in the league.  Brees had a 125.4 passer rating against the Cardinals.  Combining the numbers from those two games only proves how effective the passing game was after the bye week.  He had a 74.2 completion percentage with 616 yards, 7 touchdowns, no interceptions and a 142.9 passer rating in the games following the bye weeks.  That's nothing short of extraordinary and Drew Brees has that benefit once again.

The Saints are 12-0.  Let me repeat what I just said.  The Saints are 12-0.  They almost weren't and I was one of those who started saying 11-1 wouldn't be bad because we still won the division yesterday.  With the Vikings loss to the Cardinals last night, the Saints would still have had the inside track to home field advantage even if they dropped yesterday's game.  But isn't 12-0 much better?  There's a lot of disrespect for the way the Saints won yesterday and now I think I can understand what Patriots fans went through in 2007 in terms of getting grief from other fans.  Shaun Suishim missed a chip shot field goal from 23 yards out, giving the Saints an opportunity and the Saints won the game in OT.

There are a lot of myths floating around about yesterday's game.  Some say the Saints were not the better team yesterday and did not deserve to win it.  I'm not going to make excuses, but I will say that we were playing without our starting corners and the field conditions were sloppy.  But let's get those myths out of the way.

1) The Saints were not the better team.  You can easily call people out on this one.  Jason Campbell may have put up 367 passing yards against a depleted Saints defense, but Drew Brees had 419 passing yards.  Campbell had three touchdown passes, but Brees had only two.  This is why football is a team sport.  Your QB does not have to throw more touchdown passes for your team to win.  You just have to score more points than the other team.  The Saints also won the turnover game.  They recorded one fumble (Roby fumbled a ball out of bounds) and Brees threw an interception.  The interception ended up not costing us because Robert Meachem stripped the ball from Kareem Moore on that same play and returned it for a touchdown.

2) The Saints did not deserve to win.  Tell Shaun Suisham to make his field goals.  Tell Mike Sellers not to fumble the ball in overtime.  Better yet, tell Washington's defense that they had an opportunity to put the game away in regulation.  All they had to do was not give up a big play.  We beat Washington in terms of total yards, passing yards , total plays and time of possession.  They certainly deserved to win.  They stayed in the game and did not give up.  No matter how sloppy it looked, the Saints ended up winning the game they were supposed to win.

3) The Saints were exposed.  Every team in the National Football League is beatable and I'd be the first to say that the Saints are beatable.  But are they exposed just because of this game?  I'd say the Saints are vulnerable due to a depleted defense and nothing more.  I look at the Saints to do better in their next couple of games to silence all the doubters.

NEW YORK (AP)—Tommy Henrich, nicknamed “Old Reliable” for his knack of delivering clutch hits for the New York Yankees, died Tuesday. He was 96.

Henrich died in Dayton, Ohio, the team said.

Henrich was a five-time All-Star outfielder who joined the Yankees in 1937 and finished in 1950, winning four World Series championships. He missed three seasons while serving in the Coast Guard during World War II.

Source:  http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-obit-henrich&prov=ap&type=lgns

The news is a few days old.  Since Tom Benson owns the name to the old Pelicans franchise (hence why the team in Metarie is called the Zephyrs), I figured this was worth posting for anyone who cares about the history of minor league baseball in Louisiana.  He played for New Orleans in 1936.  According to BR bullpen, Henrich was tied with Roy Weatherly for the highest batting average for the Pelicans in 1936, which was .346.