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Closing out the New Orleans Saints regular season

By Tony Twillie

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 29: Drew Brees #9 and Taysom Hill #7 of the New Orleans Saints celebrate a touchdown pass during the third quarter during their game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 29: Drew Brees #9 and Taysom Hill #7 of the New Orleans Saints celebrate a touchdown pass during the third quarter during their game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /

Tennessee

Late in the season, injuries begin to mount for every team. The Saints are no different and their depth was being tested as we get to this Week 16 matchup with the Titans.

The Saints by this point actually called in some outside help as three of their four starting defensive backs were out with injuries. Couple that with already having lost Marcus Davenport and Sheldon Rankins for the season with injuries, and the Saints were hurting.

The black and gold spotted Tennessee 14 points in the first quarter. Not a great start, but the panic button wasn’t pressed yet. From that point on, the Saints train really began to rumble down the tracks.

By halftime, they were only down by four points.

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Coming out of the half, they immediately went to work and scored quickly to take a lead they’d never relinquish.

After scoring one more TD to go up by 10, the two teams traded TD’s, but the Saints were always ahead by at least three. This game was highlighted by Michael Thomas’ record performance. Thomas set a new single-season record for receptions, breaking the old mark set by Marvin Harrison.

While the sheer number of catches is amazing, there are two more factors that make Thomas’ record even more astounding.

First, Drew Brees was out for five games this season. So Thomas reached the record with two separate quarterbacks throwing to him. Second, Thomas has caught 149 passes of 185 targets.

That’s an amazing 80.5% catch rate. With that large volume of passes, that’s an astounding number. But it shouldn’t surprise – last season, Thomas pulled in 85% of the passes thrown his way.

And – oh yeah – his 1725 receiving yards set a new Saints team season record breaking the old team record of 1405 set by… you guessed it – Thomas, last season.

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