Saints QB Brees Falls Just Short!

Saints QB Brees Oh so Close to Single Season Passing Yardage Record!

Drew Brees and his New Orleans Saints fell just short of a record as well as a win on December 28th in a game that seemed a microcosm of the team's 2008 season.

Brees, who started out slowly, threw for 386 yards and four touchdowns to rally his team from a poor first half only to lose on a 42-yard fieldgoal with six seconds remaining to play in the game against the Carolina Panthers.

After the fieldgoal, one second remained on the game clock and the Panthers set up for a squib kick to run out the remaining second on the clock only to kick the ball out of bounds untouched, causing a penalty and for no time to be taken off the clock.

In the end, Brees had one second and one play to not only win the game, but to possibly break a record that many thought to be unbreakable.

But Brees' final pass of 2008, arguably his worst pass of the entire game, fell harmlessly to the Superdome turf, and the Saints fell to the Panthers by a score of 33-31 and Brees fell an agonizing 16 measly yards short of breaking Dan Marino's NFL record of 5,084 passing yards in a single season.

"I guess it wasn't meant to be," said Brees, whose 5,069 yards passing this season made him just the second quarterback in the NFL's history to surpass the 5000 yard mark.

Brees said he didn't know how close he was to the record until after the game and with the Saints down to their last shot from their own 35 yard line, he said he wouldn't have planned the play any different.

"We kind of made it up in the huddle," Brees said of the play call. "We didn't specify who was going to get the ball because we didn't know the kind of release they were going to get off the ball, so we just decided for them to turn around after 20 yards and I'd throw it to who ever was open, only the guy I threw it to didn't turn around, so that's what happens."

New Orleans head coach Sean Payton said the Saints hoped to complete the pass and then lateral to a trailing player to break a big play for the winning score.