SmashMouth

The only time New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady would face off during the 2012 season would be in Super Bowl XLVII. Anyone expecting a battle for the ages between Brees and Brady during Thursday night's preseason matchup set themselves up for disappointment from the onset.


Drew Brees (9) and the rest of the starters spent most of the night on the sidelines during the preseason game between the New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on Thursday
Neither quarterback looked sharp, and neither quarterback played long.

Brees played in only two series against the Patriots going 1 of 4 passing for four yards as the Saints lost 7-6 to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium. The Saints never earned a first down on either series, but the second series did end with a John Kasay 46-yard field goal to give the Saints a 3-0 first-quarter lead.

"We didn't really get much into a rhythm," Brees said. "It was three-and-out, three-and-out, which is not what we're looking for. ... In preseason games, on every possession you want to move the ball up and down the field. ... You want to look sharp, score points. We were not able to do that with the first group."

Brady also only played in two series in New England's preseason opener going 4 of 7 passing for 30 yards. Brady displayed his frustrations more than once after his offensive line stalled drives with penalties and allowed Saints defensive end Will Smith to drill Brady for a sack-fumble on the first series as linebacker Curtis Lofton recovered the loose ball.

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Rugby Saint II

They practiced against each other throughout the week. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

Vrillon82

most likely.

outside the fact both were really in Vanilla schemes, the defenses since it was the biggest area of improvement for both sides, probably opened up more of the playbook, we seen Gregg Williams do this in preseason as well, could be why both offenses never got going.

I also believe both teams kind of scripted how the night would go as a way to test out the talent, it was a really stale game, I dont think they cared what the offenses really did, their evaluations was the defense.

JPPT1974

Plus they had to play after only four days from the HOF game off. As fatigue will do that to you as well. Defense seemed to win the game out, rather than offense.