New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) runs off the field after a 35-32 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in an NFL football game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Saints quarterback Drew Brees earned himself his 18th NFC Offensive Player of the Week award since arriving in New Orleans in 2006 with the five touchdowns he threw in his team’s 35-32 victory at Pittsburgh on Sunday.
No one has won more player of the week awards in the last nine NFL seasons than Brees, who also bagged two others when he was a San Diego Charger from 2001-2005, league spokesman Randall Liu said Wednesday, when the Saints quarterback’s latest honor was announced. Liu also said that Brees joined quarterbacks Tom Brady (New England) and Peyton Manning (Denver) as the only three in the NFL to win 20 or more Player of the Week awards — Brady has 24, and Manning has 27.
Like the rest of his team, Brees struggled at junctures as the Saints lost seven of their first 11 games this year. He threw 11 interceptions over that stretch, several of which were major factors in some of New Orleans’ defeats.
But then Brees on Sunday delivered his top passer rating of the season so far (140). He completed 19 of his 27 throws for 257 yards and five scores, including a 69-yard TD strike to receiver Kenny Stills that was the Saints’ longest play from scrimmage this season. The Saints improved to 5-7 with the win over the Steelers (7-5) and secured themselves a dose of momentum for this weekend’s game at home against Carolina (3-8-1).
Brees — who was the MVP of the Saints’ lone NFL championship victory in Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7, 2010 — also left Sunday’s game as the first player in league history to throw for five touchdown passes and no interceptions on seven different occasions.
That performance followed a Sunday morning report from the NFL Network that the Saints were prepared to invest a high 2015 draft pick in a player that would succeed Brees as New Orleans’ franchise quarterback. That report also stated that the Saints regretted they didn’t already have that player.
Brees denied that report gave him extra motivation to light the Steelers up. But perhaps the only thing the Saints regret is the NFL Network didn’t run that story sooner in the season, if the Steelers game was the kind of outing they would’ve gotten from Brees shortly thereafter.