New Orleans Saints quarterback Chase Daniel played an essential role on the night that Drew Brees broke Dan Marino’s passing yardage record. Daniel was the go-to guy on the sideline for teammates who wanted to know how close Brees was to the record.

Or as Brees often calls him, he was “Statman.”

During the season, Daniel said he always kept up with the various records that Brees and the team were chasing, since he’s so active on Twitter and follows various media reports.

“Then he’ll always come up to me and say, ‘Do you want to know what record you just set,’” Brees said, chiding Daniel from the next locker.

Daniel said he found out how many yards Brees needed during halftime of the Saints’ Week 16 game against the Atlanta Falcons, then he kept the running tally in his head after that. He said teammates kept coming up to him to find out the target number.

Brees outed Daniel as the team’s mathematician during pregame interviews last week with FOX, which then revealed the details during last week’s broadcast.

New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints have played at such a high level lately that there’s been more drama about which records would be broken rather than whether or not the Saints would win. As a Saints fan, the last two weeks have been surreal as one NFL record after another fell by the wayside. That trend continued on Sunday as the Saints dominated the Panthers 45-17 and laid waste to more records.

New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers

Despite the incessant stat watch that took place during the FOX broadcast of the Saints vs. Panthers game, I was much more interested in scoreboard watching. As nice as it is for the Saints to now own all these records, it was more important for New Orleans to keep their fleeting chances at a first round bye alive.

Personally, I was glad to see New Orleans give 100% because I despise the Panthers loud-mouths Steve Smith and Jeremy Shockey. Also, it seems like every year, an NFC South also-ran picks up a cheap win over the Saints in the last game because New Orleans rests its starters. However, the Panthers received no such gift from the Saints today.

I believe New Orleans has been playing so well that Sean Payton wanted to keep that momentum going against the Panthers. Brees was on fire and torched the Panthers for 389 yards and 5 TDs. He finished the regular season with 5,476 passing yards. And it was nice seeing the Atlanta Falcons and Panthers get humbled in the last two games.

I was also happy to see New Orleans feed the ball to Darren Sproles so he could break the NFL all-purpose yardage record. I wonder if the critics will complain about that too. All in all, it was a great day for the Saints. New Orleans stayed sharp by dismantling the Panthers, they broke some more records and most importantly they stayed healthy.

Looking ahead

Thanks to the St. Louis Rams, the Saints will have to play next week. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Detroit Lions and the Falcons embarrassed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who quit a long time ago. So now the Saints get to face the Lions as New Orleans begins its quest to win a second Super Bowl in three years.

Patrick Michael was born and raised in New Orleans and currently resides in the Big Easy. As such, he is a lifelong, diehard New Orleans Saints fan. His highlight as a Saints fan was experiencing the magical Super Bowl season of 2009.

Sources

FOX broadcast of Carolina Panthers vs. New Orleans Saints

“Week 17 Scoreboard,” yahoo.com

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Recapping the New Orleans Saints’ 45-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints clinched the NFC South title and remain in contention for the No. 2 seed in the playoff race.

DID YOU SEE?

MARQUES COLSTON

Once again, when the NFL’s Pro Bowl rosters are announced today, the Saints’ sure-handed receiver will be left out.

He’ll probably finish as a distant alternate behind players with flashier statistics from offenses that don’t spread the ball around as much as the Saints do, but it’s quite possible Colston is the best player in the league who has never been invited to the Pro Bowl. In another offense, he might catch 90-plus passes with double-digit touchdowns.

Colston surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the fifth time in his six-year career with another typical performance in Monday night’s 45-16 victory over the visiting Atlanta Falcons — seven catches, 81 yards and a touchdown. He especially was clutch early, catching four passes for third-down conversions in the first half, including an 8-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

“That’s my role,” Colston said in his usual humble fashion. “I think everyone in the receiving corps has their role, so I just try to play it to the best of my ability.”

JIMMY GRAHAM

Graham, on the other hand, will undoubtedly earn an invite to the Pro Bowl, which will make him the Saints’ first skill-position player to do so since receiver Joe Horn in 2004.

Graham had a pedestrian game by his standards Monday night, catching four passes for 42 yards. But his 9-yard touchdown late in the second quarter was one of the best of his young career. He leaped high over cornerback Brent Grimes to make the grab, showing his old power-forward form from his basketball days at the University of Miami. That was Graham’s 10th touchdown catch of the season, which set a franchise record for tight ends. He has a chance to set a NFL record against the visiting Carolina Panthers on Sunday. He’s 67 yards behind Kellen Winslow, who set the NFL record for tight ends in 1980 with 1,290 receiving yards. However, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is 6 yards ahead of Graham and could also break that record.

After the Falcons game, Graham gave praise to quarterback Drew Brees, insisting that he never wants to play for another quarterback.

“He only makes me look better,” Graham said.

HOW THE GAME WAS WON

The Saints’ offense was in fine form, converting its first nine third-down attempts en route to a 28-10 lead in the third quarter.

But once again, the Saints’ defense came up equally big.

After allowing Atlanta to score 10 points on its first two drives, the Saints’ defense went into shut-down mode. They held the Falcons scoreless on their next four drives, and then forced them to settle for field goals on the next two drives. After New Orleans’ offense then stalled, the defense came up with the biggest play yet — a forced fumble by linebacker Scott Shanle that was returned 30 yards for a touchdown by safety Malcolm Jenkins in the fourth quarter.

Jenkins had a great effort, coming up with two huge hits earlier in the game that led to punts.

Also big for the Saints was second-year defensive end Junior Galette, who made a rare start and came up with two hits against quarterback Matt Ryan that led to drive-killing incompletions and a third that forced a holding call.

LOOKING AHEAD

REMATCH IN TWO WEEKS?

The Saints finally put together a convincing victory against their rivals, snapping a streak of four games in this series that were decided by three points.

And for their reward? They’ll probably face the Falcons again in less than two weeks at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

The Saints (12-3) are the third seed in the NFC, and the Falcons (9-6) are the sixth seed, which would set up a first-round playoff rematch. New Orleans can move up if it defeats the Panthers and the San Francisco 49ers lose at St. Louis. The Falcons can move up if they win and the Detroit Lions lose at Green Bay (questionable since the Packers might rest their starters).

If the rematch happens, it won’t be a “gimme” for the Saints. The Falcons are a bona-fide playoff team, but please spare me the argument that it’s “tough to beat the same team three times.” That’s bogus, based on historical data and common sense. It would be even tougher for the Falcons to come to the Superdome and beat a Saints team that has proven to be the better team twice.

DILEMMA FOR PAYTON?

The Saints are alive for the No. 2 seed, but they could consider resting their starters against Carolina.

Last season, Coach Sean Payton admitted that his biggest regret was playing his starters in Week 17 when New Orleans had a slim chance of earning the No. 1 seed. As a result, key players Graham, Jenkins and Chris Ivory all got hurt and couldn’t play in the playoffs.

The Saints now are in the same boat, with the 49ers unlikely to lose at St. Louis, though the Saints did Oct. 30.

Further complicating matters, if Brees doesn’t play, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady could pass him up for the all-time single-season passing record.

The Saints should and will try to win — at least until the scoreboard shows the 49ers comfortably ahead.

When the New Orleans Saints take on the Atlanta Falcons tonight at the Superdome, will you be torn?

Are you in a fantasy league championship game this week and facing Saints players or do you have Falcons players?

How are you going to handle it?

Tell us your story.

The New Orleans Saints have won six straight Monday Night Football games, dating back to 2008, which is the longest streak in the NFL according to ESPN.com. That streak includes a dominating 49-24 victory over the New York Giants last month, and they Saints are hoping to keep it alive Monday against the Atlanta Falcons in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Saints Coach Sean Payton has a simple explanation for the Saints’ Monday night streak: The Saints have simply been a good team in general over that stretch.

“I think we’ve been able to that because I think we’re a better football team than maybe in years past,” Payton said. “And we get comfortable to a schedule or a routine, I think, like all the teams do. I think it comes down to the execution and understanding how to focus for that three-hour period to play your best football. And chances are the team that does that this upcoming Monday night will be the team that’s most successful.”