Drew Brees throws for 511 yards; Saints top Giants in 101-point shootout

Most passing touchdowns in a single game. Third-most points in an NFL game. With 1,030 yards of combined offense.

Love it or hate it?

Football purists might bemoan the lack of defense in the New Orleans Saints’ 52-49 victory against the New York Giants, but the NFL wins again: In this fantasy-football era, a game with 101 combined points and 13 passing touchdowns is a win every day of the week.

Drew Brees joined the 500-yard passing club — again — in completing 40 of 50 passes for 511 yards, with seven touchdowns. He’s now the eight quarterback in NFL history to throw for seven in a game, with Nick Foles and Peyton Manning the most recent to accomplish it back in 2013.

Brees and Ben Roethlisberger are the only two-time 500-yard passers; there have been only 18 such games in NFL history, and Brees’ 511 puts him 10th all time behind the seemingly unbreakable mark of 554 set by Norm Van Brocklin back in 1951.

Do you love it? 

We had a game in Week 8 where two teams, the San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams, combined for fewer yards (574) than the Saints had by themselves (614). Meanwhile the Giants and Saints combined for 64 first downs. This was Madden-on-easy-mode level execution. 

And they had a chance for more. A facemask penalty on the Giants in the final moments moved the ball up into field-goal range, which the Saints converted for the win. It could have gone to overtime, where the fireworks — we assumed — could have continued. Or, had Brees completed a Hail Mary pass from where the ball would have been spotted without the penalty, he would have taken down the TD mark in a game and Van Brocklin’s record in one fell swoop.

But as it was, regulation offered plenty of bullets flying through the Superdome air for one day.

The last time an NFL game featured this many points? Back in 2004, a 58-48 shootout between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns (Kelly Holcomb vs. Carson Palmer, for you shootout completists out there). 

Let’s not forget about the Giants’ portion of this. Eli Manning had six touchdown passes of his own, and the combined 13 passing TDs in the game broke a mark that has stood for almost 46 years to the day. Somehow, on a day when the Giants were only 1-for-8 on third-down attempts, they scored 49 points. And lost.

Eight people scored touchdowns, and three scored multiple times — including Odell Beckham Jr.’s three TDs. Saints tight end Ben Watson, who had only one 100-yard game in his career prior to this season at age 32, notched his second of the season, with a career-high 147 and a score.

If you’re a defensive guy, you’re in the minority. People’s football-watching intentions are more fantasy- and gambling driven (shh, don’t tell the NFL!) than ever before. This is the kind of rollicking, scoreboard-rattling that gets people talking. Not, say, the 16-10 final in Pittsburgh.

That was the more important game in the NFL landscape perhaps, but what happened in New Orleans is what the NFL is more rooting for.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm