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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Brees lifts Saints past Packers, 51-29

By BRETT MARTEL
Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, right, outplayed Green Bay counterpart Aaron Rodgers in last night's game.

ALEX BRANDON | Associated Press

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NEW ORLEANS — After heading out on the road for more than a month, the New Orleans Saints were unstoppable at home.

The Saints spent 43 days away from the Louisiana Superdome for a trip to London, a bye and three road games, the Saints returned to New Orleans and put on one of the more memorable performances in franchise history.

Drew Brees threw for four scores, Deuce McAllister set a Saints record with his 54th career touchdown and New Orleans rolled to a 51-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers last night.

"I mean, 40-something days on the road. It was great to get back in the dome," Brees said. "You look at this game, so many things. Deuce getting the record, us just really feeling like we had our stride going the whole game.

"We're kind of in the middle of the pack, just like a lot of other teams," Brees continued. "This is the time where a few of those teams start to separate themselves and we want to be one of those teams."

Brees dismantled a Packers secondary that came in ranked third in the NFL with 176.3 yards passing allowed per game. He was 20 of 26 for 323 yards as New Orleans tied a club record for points scored and touchdowns (seven) in a game. Two of Brees' touchdowns went to Lance Moore, one for 70 yards.

"It's a dream come true playing with him," said Moore, who had 115 yards. "All we have to do is run our routes. We don't have to worry about doing anything extraordinary."

Brees remained on pace to break Dan Marino's 1984 record of 5,084 yards passing in a season. He has 3,574 yards with five games remaining. He also has the Saints (6-5) feeling better about their hopes of rallying for a playoff spot now that they've won two games in a row for the first time all season.

"There's an old saying, '10 and you're in,"' Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. "We've got to find a way to get to 10 wins and get into the playoffs."

The Packers (5-6) dropped a game behind Minnesota and Chicago in the race for first in the NFC North.

"We didn't slow them down at all tonight," Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. "Give credit to the Saints and the play of their quarterback. He was on fire coming into the game and we didn't cool him off any."

Aaron Rodgers' attempt to keep up with Brees' torrid passing resulted in three interceptions, two by Jason David and one by Kevin Kaesviharn. David returned his first pick to the 3, setting up McAllister's scoring run, which broke Dalton Hilliard's club record set in 1993.

Rodgers was 23 of 41 for 248 yards and touchdown passes of 7 yards to Greg Jennings and 4 yards to Ruvell Martin.