While quarterback Drew Brees was smashing the single-season record for passing yards, the New Orleans Saints’ running backs were putting together an impressive season of their own.

In fact, it may surprise you to find out the Saints’ running game finished sixth in the NFL, gaining 129.9 yards per game. On a per carry basis they checked in at fourth in the league with a 4.9-yard average.

“It’s a huge part of our offense,” Brees said. “Typically, I’d say when you look at an offense, it would probably be hard to be top ten passing and rushing because there are only so many plays in a game and so you’re running it more you’re throwing it more. I think it’s great that we’ve been able to sustain the efficiency in both and create for the other, especially when you look at the overall yardage, both passing and rushing. It’s pretty unique.”

Perhaps the biggest reason the New Orleans’ rushing attack doesn’t get the proper attention — aside from Brees dominating the headlines — is because the team doesn’t have a traditional featured back. Instead they had a committee of four players sharing the load over the course of the season, ranging from 79-122 carries.

In terms of carries, the Saints were led by rookie Mark Ingram, yet he had the lowest yardage per carry (3.9) of the four players. New Orleans will be without Ingram on Saturday after the team was forced to place him on IR with a toe injury.

Picking up in Ingram’s absence is Chris Ivory. 

Ivory, who burst onto the scene last year as an undrafted rookie out of Tiffin University, missed the first seven weeks this year while recovering from  lisfranque and sports hernia surgeries. Since returning to the lineup, he has rushed for 374 yards on 79 carries, including a 127-yard performance in the Saints’ Week 17 win over the Carolina Panthers. 

In addition to Ivory, the Saints have Pierre Thomas (562 yards, 110 carries) and the always-explosive Darren Sproles. 

A versatile free agent pick up from San Diego, Sproles has effectively replaced Reggie Bush in the Saints offense. He finished the regular season with 1,303 total yards, 86 receptions and a ridiculous 6.9 yards per carry. 

New Orleans Saints individual records (non-Drew Brees) and notes from the win against Carolina on Sunday.

· TE Jimmy Graham had eight receptions for 97 yards and a touchdown. He set a franchise record for receptions in a season with 99 and tied another mark with his 11th touchdown reception. The previous mark for catches was 98 by Marques Colston in 2007. Colston, in 2007, and Joe Horn, in 2004, are the other receivers in Saints history with 11 touchdown catches.

· For a brief moment, Graham held the NFL record for receiving yards in a season by a tight end (1,310), before New England’s Rob Gronkowski caught a 23-yard pass in the final two minutes to up his season total to 1,327.

· Running back Darren Sproles had 168 combined net yards (40 rushing, 29 receiving, 45 punt returns, 54 kickoff returns) Sunday to improve his season total to 2,696, an NFL single-season record. The previous mark of 2,690 was set by the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Mason in 2000, and the second-highest total (and previous Saints franchise mark) of 2,647 was set by Michael Lewis in 2002.

· Colston caught Brees’ first pass on Sunday to go past the 1,000-yard mark in receiving yards for the fifth time in his six seasons with the Saints. Colston, who had 10 catches for 145 yards against the Panthers, ends 2011 with 80 receptions for 1,143 yards.

· Graham, Sproles and Colston all finished with 80 or more receptions.

· Colston and Graham are only the second set of teammates in franchise history to each have 1,000 or more yards receiving. In 2001, Joe Horn finished with 1,265 receiving yards and Willie Jackson 1,046.

· Cornerback Patrick Robinson’s second-quarter interception was his team-leading fourth of the season, two of which came off Carolina’s Cam Newton. Robinson is the seventh different Saints defender to lead or co-lead the team in interceptions since 2007.

· Rookie linebacker Martez Wilson’s third-quarter sack of Newton was the first of his career.

· Punder Thomas Morstead broke his own franchise history for punting average at 47.9. He averaged 45.9 yards per punt a year ago.

· Kicker John Kasay’s 144 points scored and 63 points after touchdown extended his own franchise records

The Saints will play to win Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.

Although they could opt to rest some starters in the regular-season finale, Coach Sean Payton said he doesn’t want to give up the Saints’ chance at the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs, and he doesn’t want to mess with the momentum they’ve built during their seven-game win streak.

“We’re playing some of our best football here the last few weeks. There’s some value to that,” said Payton, who said he doesn’t plan to keep an eye on the scoreboard to see what’s happening between the San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams at the same time Sunday.

The Saints need the 49ers to lose at St. Louis to have a chance at the No. 2 seed and the first-round playoff bye that comes with it. That’s obviously a long shot, because the Rams are 2-13. But as Payton reminded, the Rams beat the Saints in St. Louis in Week 8.

“I’d hate to make that decision, (then watch the 49ers lose),” Payton said. “Our league is a league where every week, any team that lines up can win. A perfect example is the team we’re talking about is a team that beat us.”

Safety Roman Harper said he’s glad the Saints are playing to win, saying he wouldn’t want to turn off the switch at this point. But he was skeptical that the Rams will be able to hold up their end of the bargain.

He said in their situation, they probably have their bags packed for the offseason already.

“If they really wanted to help us, they wouldn’t have beat us in the first place. That’s how I look at it,” Harper said. “But we really can’t worry about what St. Louis and San Francisco are doing. We can only focus on how we’re going to control Cam Newton and Steve Smith and the Panthers.”

Fearing the injury bug

If Payton had any hesitation about playing his starters this week, it’s because of what the Saints experienced firsthand in Week 17 last season.

The Saints were in the same position, needing a victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Atlanta Falcons to lose to a struggling Carolina Panthers team in the final week to have a shot at the No. 1 seed. So the Saints played their starters, and they lost three key players to injuries in the first half — tight end Jimmy Graham, safety Malcolm Jenkins and tailback Chris Ivory — before losing the game.

All three players missed the playoff opener at Seattle the next week, which the Saints also lost. And Payton later said that playing his starters in Week 17 was one of his greatest regrets of the season.

Payton said this season is different, though, because the team is well-rested after a Week 10 bye. And, he said, “knock on wood, we’re healthy.”

Quarterback Drew Brees agreed with Payton’s decision to go all-out this week, saying it didn’t work out last season when they were essentially straddling the fence.

“I think we all found ourselves scoreboard-watching a little bit as to what was happening in that other game (last season),” Brees said. “And therefore I feel like, not that we took a step back in that game, but we just didn’t progress. And our mindset is we want to continue to progress and get better. I think there’s things that serve you well in this game if you can continue to stay on the rise as you go into the playoffs, whether they’re just confidence builders or situations that come up that you fight through.

“So I think we’re taking on a little bit different mindset than we did last year at this time in a very similar situation.”

Records within reach

Payton’s decision likely would have been the same under any circumstances this season. But it would have been an awkward choice to bench Brees.

Brees broke the NFL record for passing yards in a season in dramatic fashion Monday night in front of the frenzied crowd at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and a national-television audience. But he remains only 190 yards ahead of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, so he probably needs to add at least another 150 yards or so to secure the record.

Brees said that wasn’t the reason for the decision to play the starters this week. Neither was the team’s chase for the all-time yardage or first downs records, or Graham’s chase for the all-time receiving yardage record for tight ends, or tailback-kick returner Darren Sproles’ chase for the NFL all-purpose yardage record.

“Listen, there’s a lot of records out there that we could potentially set, break, what have you in this game,” Brees said. “I think our mindset, above and beyond that, was, ‘How do we put ourselves in the best position to play well and win in the playoffs?’”

Not that those records aren’t special.

Kudos flow in

Brees was emotional about breaking the passing record Monday night, as were his teammates, coaches, members of the organization and the fan base. He fought back tears as he addressed the team in a postgame speech, sharing the credit with everyone from his receivers to the equipment managers. And he even went out and celebrated with teammates after the game, not part of his usual routine.

“I figure life is too short. You have to appreciate these moments,” said Brees, who figured he received hundreds of phone messages, texts and emails from friends, family and heroes of his own.

One of them, he said, was a hilarious message from Metairie-born entertainer Ellen DeGeneres, who suggested that her coaching and advice had paid off during her visit to the team’s training camp practices in Oxnard, Calif.

Another came from the former record-holder, Dan Marino, whose mark of 5,084 yards had stood since 1984.

“Dan Marino called me yesterday and we talked for a little bit, and that was obviously a very classy move on his part to reach out and tell me congratulations,” Brees said. “We talked for a while. Obviously I have a ton of respect for him, not only what he accomplished as a player, but the way he has handled this whole situation. I heard from him last week saying he was rooting for me.”

Although Brees had tried to compartmentalize his emotions during the record chase, he said he also tried to prepare for what the moment would be like — especially in case it happened during a tense moment in the game.

That wasn’t the case in the Saints’ 45-16 rout of the Falcons, though it did come down to a late drive in the fourth quarter.

“Mid-fourth quarter we felt like the game was in hand, but the record was still out there,” Brees said. “It was obviously important to a lot of people, I know everybody in that stadium and everybody watching, that we did it that night and in the fashion we did it. But I guess the moment itself was surreal. You still kind of pinch yourself that it really happened. But maybe just because we’re so locked in with where we’re at and what we still have to accomplish.

“It’s not necessarily time to reflect. We can do that after the season. We’re thinking about what’s ahead.”

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Mike Triplett can be reached at mtriplett@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3405.

New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton said his team will play to win on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. He said he will not bench any starters for the regular-season finale.

“We’re going full speed ahead,” said Payton, who said he doesn’t even plan to pay attention to the score of the San Francisco 49ers-St. Louis Rams game, which will be played at the same time.

The Saints need to win and have the 49ers lose to earn the No. 2 seed in the NFC.

Payton said he decided to play his starters this week, both because of that shot at the No. 2 seed and because he feels like his team is well-rested and has a lot of momentum going during its current seven-game win streak.

“We’re playing some of our best football here the last few weeks,” Payton said. “There’s some value to that.”

 

On the night after Christmas, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees broke an NFL record that had stood for nearly three decades, and New Orleans beat its archrival Atlanta 45-16 to clinch the fifth division crown in franchise history. The victory keeps the Saints (12-3) in the hunt for the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs, and its convincing nature offered further evidence no team in football is more explosive than New Orleans.

The Saints, undefeated at home this season, have now won seven in a row.

All of those heartwarming holiday milestones the team reached paled, however, to Brees breaking Dan Marino’s record of 5,084 passing yards in a season. Brees threw for 307 yards in the game, but it was a 9-yard scoring pass to running back Darren Sproles with 2:51 remaining, and the Saints already holding a commanding lead, that gave him 5,087 for the season.

Brees thrust a fist into the air exultantly and then was mobbed by teammates led by guard Carl Nicks. Even referee Jeff Triplette came over and shook Brees’ hand. The performance also left Brees as the only player in NFL history to throw for more than 5,000 yards in a season twice.

“It was a big win, a special night for us with all of it kind of culminating in one game,” Coach Sean Payton said.

Brees’ record overshadowed a more sustained assault the Saints are putting on the NFL’s offensive record book, in an outing that left the already playoff-bound Falcons (9-6) completely outclassed by the divisional champ. For example, Brees also extended his streak of consecutive games throwing a touchdown pass to 42 as he chases a mark even older than Marino’s — Johnny Unitas’ 47. Similarly, the Saints amassed 463 yards, leaving them with 6,857 yards for the season and 219 short of the all-time record set by the St. Louis Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf.”

“There’s a lot still to be written, and we look forward to that,” Payton said.

The Saints now host the Carolina Panthers on New Year’s Day in a game that holds significance only if the San Francisco 49ers lose at St. Louis on the same day. In that case, a Saints’ victory would give them the No. 2 seed and a bye in the playoffs before hosting a home game.

From the outset Monday night, a setting in which the Saints traditionally play superb football, it was clear New Orleans was a team on a mission.

While opening a 21-10 halftime lead, the Saints converted eight of eight third-down opportunities and scored touchdowns on three of their four trips inside the Falcons’ 20-yard line. Running back Pierre Thomas began what would be the most points scored against Atlanta since 2004 with a 4-yard scoring run, and Atlanta sandwiched a field goal and touchdown around that to hold a 10-7 lead.

However, Brees then marched the Saints 81 yards in 10 plays, the last of them an 8-yard scoring toss to wide receiver Marques Colston, and though 70,086 in attendance didnt yet know it, the rout was on.

“It was a huge deal,” Colston said of Brees’ record and the win. “To be able to do it against the Falcons and for the division and on Monday night, all those things just make it more special. It was a huge win, and to be able to achieve that is obviously a great thing for us. But we’ve got higher places to go.”

With just 24 seconds left in the first half, Jimmy Graham collared a 9-yard touchdown pass from Brees, a catch that made Graham the first Saints tight end to have 10 touchdown catches in a season.

In the second half, Brees added a 24-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Robert Meachem and then the record-breaker to Sproles, giving Brees four scoring strikes in the game.

Brees said that, after the Meachem score, he overheard a voice on the sideline saying, “you’re really close,” and it struck him as an improper vibe.

“Like jinxing a no-hitter,” Brees said. “I mean, we were rolling at that point. Like a pitcher — don’t talk to him, leave him alone.”

Yet, from a purely statistical standpoint, it wasn’t his finest effort. Brees also threw two interceptions, one of them a bizarre pass to the end zone that Falcons safety William Moore batted high in the air and back toward the goal line, where it was caught by cornerback Dominique Franks.

The first of those picks ended a streak of 233 passes by Brees without an interception, the longest such streak of his career, and the second helped hold his quarterback rating for the game to 96.8. But all of that could not blemish the uncontestable fact Brees was commanding one of the best offenses football has ever seen.

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who completed 34 of 52 passes for 373 yards, managed to move the ball at times against a Saints defense that appeared to play with more and more emotion as New Orleans’ lead widened and Brees closed on Marino’s mark. Despite the Falcons best efforts, they managed two field goals by Matt Bryant in the second half — the first a 51-yarder that made the score 28-13 and the second a meaningless 30-yarder that finished Atlanta’s scoring.

The Saints’ defensive spirit burst into flower after Bryant made that second field goal. After the Saints, playing conservatively with the big lead, went three-and-out, linebacker Scott Shanle stripped Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones of the ball. New Orleans safety Malcolm Jenkins scooped up the bouncing ball and raced 30 yards untouched for a touchdown that made the score 38-16.

That score also provided Payton the cushion he needed to give the green light to Brees push for the yardage record in the closing minutes. With the game and the divisional crown in hand, the team cast its steely gaze at Marino’s venerable achievement when they took over on downs at the Atlanta 33 with 5:08 left.

Brees insisted he didn’t know the exact number he needed at that point. Leading up to the game Brees said he strove to compartmentalize the record and the game itself, and that mindset carried over into the fourth quarter.

On a third-and-9, Brees went to Colston on the left side for 12 yards, then hit Devery Henderson for 11 more. After a bullet to Henderson on the next snap went incomplete, Brees and Sproles hooked up for the memorable touchdown.

“That’s when I knew I had done it,” Brees said. “Just an amazing feeling.”

Nicks said the pretzel he put his quarterback in when he “bum- rushed” him after the record was set was a labor of love.

“If Hollywood were to make a movie I don’t know if Tom Cruise could play him,” Nicks said. “This guy is out of this world. Probably one of the best guys I know, period. If I could put him on my shoulders and parade him around the whole stadium I would have done that.”

Afterward, even the media broke into applause when Brees entered the postgame interview room.

“Not as tough a crowd as I thought,” Brees joked, before immediately turning to the rewards the team had reaped. “It feels great to be division champs. It feels great to have done what we just did, especially on Monday night before a national audience.”

But he did permit himself a personal note.

“I haven’t had a whole lot of time for reflection,” he said. “For now, I just feel like there’s still so much to be done. I do feel life his short and you have to enjoy these things. I’m never going to take it for granted.”

James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or 504.717.1156.