Saints-Patriots notes: Fun with Brees and Brady

The Saints look to bounce back from their season-opening loss in Minnesota, but the task is difficult with the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots coming to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Sunday.

Some notes and numbers heading into the home opener:

72.87: In miles, the combined distance of career pass completions by Drew Brees, who has passed for 66,402 yards in his career, and Tom Brady, who has thrown for 61,849 yards. If you strung their completions down I-10 West, it would run from the Superdome to the outskirts of Baton Rouge.

922: The combined touchdown passes by Brees (466) and Brady (456), who rank third and fourth, respectively, in career TD passes.

469: The combined starts for Brady (236) and Brees (233), which rank first and second among active NFL players at all positions. The only other active players with 200 or more career starts – Julius Peppers, Jason Witten, Larry Fitzgerald and New Orleanian Eli Manning, who started his 200th game last Sunday night.

50: Sunday marks 50 years to the day of the first game in Saints franchise history, a 27-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at old Tulane Stadium that famously opened with a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by John Gilliam.

8-18: The Saints’ all-time record against the defending Super Bowl champions. After not facing the reigning champs at home since 2003, this marks the second consecutive year New Orleans will welcome the latest recipients of the Lombardi Trophy.  The Saints have lost six straight games to the defending champs. The list:

3: The number of times in Sean Payton’s 11 years as head coach the Saints have lost without committing a turnover. Monday night was only the third time in 36 turnover-free games under Payton in which the Saints failed to win.

3: The number of games in Drew Brees’ 12 years as the Saints’ starting quarterback in which he has failed to complete at least 50 percent of his pass attempts. The last of those was in his last game against the Patriots, in 2013 in Foxboro.

1: The number of games in Brees’ 12 years in which he has had a perfect passer rating of 158.3. It came in the Patriots’ last visit to New Orleans, in 2009.

17: The number of years since the Saints did not have a home game in prime time. Unless a future game in the Dome is flexed to Sunday Night Football, this will be the first season since 2000 with an all-Sunday afternoon home schedule.