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Heart-stoppers seem to get Brooks' adrenaline going



Tuesday November 18, 2003


John DeShazier


Throw out the crown-jewel performance, that masterpiece in Atlanta. Four weeks ago, Aaron Brooks found a zone and crafted his best game as a pro, maybe his best ever.

But, while that was as a model game, you don't learn as much about a player whose work is done under ideal conditions. You can't gauge the real intangibles when the resistance is so porous a man can complete 23 of 30 passes for 352 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions.

Take instead the past two Saints games, victories against Tampa Bay (17-14) and the Falcons (23-20 in overtime), and place them on Brooks' mantle. The ones where he and the offense he directs stumbled early and recovered late.

Because those are the ones where a quarterback shows what he's made of, the level of belief he inspires in teammates, whether or not he's capable of digging through the muck to find a gem.

Here's what you have: 13-for-29 for 142 yards and a touchdown, with an interception, against the Buccaneers, and 21-for-37 for 228 yards and no touchdowns, with two interceptions, against the Falcons.

And -- the most important statistic -- two victories, engineered by Brooks, who was spotless when he absolutely had to be, on the drive that produced the game-winning field goal against the Bucs and the one that produced the game-tying field goal, leading to overtime, against the Falcons.

He was 5-of-6 for 41 yards on the eight-play, 43-yard drive to beat Tampa Bay, with a different receiver on the end of each completion. Then, he was 4-of-6 for 82 yards on a drive that began at the Saints' 13-yard line with 6:04 left, was interrupted by a Saints fumble, a Falcons recovery and fumble, and a Saints recovery on the same play, and ended with John Carney's 26-yard field goal to tie the game at 20 with five seconds left.

Not Favre-esque, perhaps. But not bad, either, when you consider the object is to win the game, looks notwithstanding.

"It's about finding a way to win," Brooks said. "When you're in a situation like (against the Bucs and Falcons), the best has got to come out of you. You've got to do whatever the team needs to get down there.

"Whatever we've got to do to keep the drive alive, we've got to get the team in a situation that fits that critical moment."

But it only works if the quarterback rises to the occasion, especially in the two-minute offense. It's only effective if he finds the right receivers, threads the right needles, checks into the right play when necessary.

Otherwise, it all goes to heck, the Saints are a less-than-.500 team and playoff talk goes on hold until next season.

"When the game is on the line, you've got to do it," Brooks said. "You can't sit back and hope."

Now, it's logical and legitimate to ask why Brooks and the offense can be so dull for so long, then so sharp with the game on the line. Optimally, they'd operate at peak efficiency for longer periods of time. Then, there likely wouldn't be a need for heroics. While nail-biters are fine, there isn't a coach or fan in the world that wouldn't prefer to win blowouts instead of heart-stoppers.

But absent that, you want a quarterback who can come through in the clutch, who can shake off early interceptions, bad reads, dropped passes and poor protection and conjure pinpoint accuracy, to sticky-fingered receivers, behind a brick wall of a line.

"You've got to do something to win, that's what you've got to do," Brooks said. "All of our big plays came at the right time. That's what you've got to have at that time."

That's when you learn what, and who, a player is.