The Redskins Will Become the Answer to a Trivia Question on Monday Night
October 3, 2018
by Steve Thomas
In case you’ve been living under a rock or just got back to earth from a journey in an Elon Musk space rocket, the Redskins are matched up against the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football this week. This is the sort of thing – big-time opponent in prime time – that typically doesn’t go well for our beloved Redskins. Perhaps it will be different this year; who knows. We’ll get to our regular game preview material later this week. If you will indulge me for a bit, though, I’d like to talk some Drew Brees.
If you weren’t aware, at this moment, Brees stands at 71,740 total passing yards in his 18 year career, which is over 13 and a half miles of passing. There are only two quarterbacks ahead of him on the all-time passing yardage list, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning. Favre has 71,838 yards and Manning has 71,940 yards, so unless the Redskins can hold Brees to under 200 yards, Brees will become the NFL’s all-time leading passer on Monday night. Brees has produced under 200 yards in a game only 6 times in 162 games since 2008, so barring a miracle, the record is going down this week. Hence, the trivia question: what team did Drew Brees face when he broke the NFL’s all-time passing record? Answer: the Washington Redskins.
It’s not a reflection on the Redskins, obviously; it’s a testament to Brees’ greatness. This guy’s numbers are just unbelievable: 18 seasons, 67.1% career completion percentage, 97.1 career quarterback rating. In the history of the NFL, there have been only 7 seasons in which a quarterback has had a completion percentage of 70% or greater while having at least 300 pass attempts. Brees has three of those 7 and is the only player with more than one such season, including the top season at 72.01% last year (the others are Sam Bradford, Ken Anderson, Steve Young, and Joe Montana; one thing is not like the others). There have only been 9 seasons in which a quarterback has passed for 5,000 or more yards, and Brees has five of them, including the record of 5,476 in 2011 (the others are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Dan Marino, and Matthew Stafford, one each). He’s fourth on the all-time passing touchdown list with 496, behind only Tom Terrific (497), Favre (508), and Manning (539), so it’s not inconceivable that he ends up at the top of that list, too, if he plays at least one more season and outpaces Brady.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m rooting for our Redskins to turn the tide of team history by doing well under the lights and come out of The Big Easy with a victory, but it’s also going to be a pleasure to watch one of the very best to ever toss the pigskin reach such a hallowed milestone. Congrats in advance, Drew, but I hope you lose the game.