Sports Then and Now

Drew Brees celebrates with teammate, Devery Henderson after he threw a record-breaking touchdown pass on Sunday. Bress now has a TD pass in 48 straight games – breaking the record set by Johnny Unitas.

As always, it was another exciting week in the NFL with records being broken, upsets being recorded and Tim Tebow leading the Jets to a win. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Nevertheless, it was still another very exciting week in football that made us fans all grateful that we get to watch the game every week – and that the replacement referees are gone for good.

Now’s the part when I reminisce about both the good and the bad that the games had to offer.

First and foremost, Saints quarterback, Drew Brees threw a touchdown pass in his 48th straight game – a new NFL record. The previous record was 47 held by Johnny Unitas. The record-breaking pass was one of four for him on the night and came in the 1st quarter to Devery Henderson from 40 yards out. More importantly, the Saints picked up their first win of the season, 31-24 over the Chargers.

Five teams did not allow a touchdown in their Week 5 games. It’s not surprising that three of them were the Ravens, 49ers and Bears. It is surprising, however, that the other two were the Rams and the Chiefs. The Chiefs were the only team to not allow a touchdown and lose the game. The Ravens beat them, without scoring a touchdown, 9-6.

Two teams – the Bears and the 49ers won by more than 38 points. The 49ers beat the Bills 45-3 and the Bears crushed the Jaguars 41-3.

The Cardinals suffered their first loss of the year, falling to the Rams 17-3 on Thursday night.

San Francisco set a franchise record with 621 yards of total offense in their win against Buffalo. It was also the most yards that the Bills have ever given up. Alex Smith threw for 303 yards and three TD’s. The Bills also became the first team to allow 550+ yards of offense in consecutive weeks since 1950.

The Bears recorded an interception return in their third straight game for the first time in their history. Charles Tillman returned a Blaine Gabbert pick 36 yards in the 2nd quarter to make the score 13-3 Bears.

The Patriots scored 3+ rushing touchdowns in consecutive games for the first time since 1978. Touchdowns were scored by Shane Vereen, Stevan Ridley and Tom Brady. Brady also threw a touchdown pass in his 38th straight game – remaining ten behind Brees for the all-time record.

Green Bay blew an 18-point halftime lead to the Colts and lost the game 30-27. Andrew Luck threw two touchdowns and Reggie Wayne had 212 yards receiving as the Pack blew their largest halftime lead since 1957.

In case you were wondering, the Browns are still winless. They fell to 0-6 after blowing a 14-0 lead against the Super Bowl Champion Giants. Dating back to last season, Cleveland has now lost 11 straight which is tied for the longest losing streak in its franchise history. On the bright side, rookie running back, Trent Richardson, recorded  a rushing touchdown in his fourth straight game.

Both the Falcons and Texans remained undefeated. Matt Ryan engineered another game winning drive in Washington and the Houston defense picked off Mark Sanchez (shocker) in the final minutes of their Monday night win.

Bengals wideout, A.J. Green recorded a touchdown reception in his fourth straight game in his team’s 17-13 loss to the Dolphins.

Robert Griffin III suffered a concussion as he attempted to slide out of bounds during the Redskins’ loss to the Falcons.

Victor Cruz did the Salsa three times, catching three Eli Manning touchdown passes as the Giants beat up on the winless Browns 41-27.

Mike Vick continued to struggle, turning the ball over two more times as the Eagles fell to interstate rival, Pittsburgh 16-14. He’s now turned the ball over nine times in five games.

After four more on Sunday, the Chiefs now lead the league with 19 turnovers.

Wes Welker may be back after catching 13 balls for 104 yards and his first TD of the season on Sunday.

All four teams in the NFC West are above .500 through five weeks. According to Elias, this is the first time that all teams from the same division have been over .500 this late in the season since the AFC South in 2010.

J.J. Watt recorded another sack on Monday night to push his league-leading total to 8.5 on the season. On the down side, the Texans lost starting linebacker, Brian Cushing for the season with a torn ACL.

Finally, in breaking news, Tim Tebow still has not gotten a chance to lead the Jets.

Some information taken from ESPN Stats & Info.

Follow me on Twitter @RealAndyLarmand.