Saints by the Numbers: Turnover, scoring records as Saints close season

The Saints wrapped up another 13-win season Sunday with a 42-10 victory at Carolina, piling up a handful of team and league records in the process.

Most notable is an NFL record for fewest turnovers in a season. The Saints became the first team in NFL history to finish the regular season with single-digit turnovers, committing just eight (two fumbles lost, six interceptions).

The previous NFL low was 10, set first by the 2010 New England Patriots and tied a year later by the San Francisco 49ers.

More Turnovers: Combined with 23 takeaways, the Saints finished 2019 with a plus-15 turnover margin, their highest mark in 28 years and second-best in the NFL this season.

It is the sixth time in franchise history New Orleans has had a double-digit turnover margin on the positive side. The team record is plus-20, set first in 1971 and tied by the franchise’s first playoff team in 1987. The last Saints team to finish with a margin of at least plus-10 was the Super Bowl champions of 2009 at plus-11.

The top six teams in turnover margin this season are all headed to the playoffs: New England (plus-21), New Orleans, Green Bay (plus-12), Seattle (plus-12), Minnesota (plus-11) and Baltimore (plus-10). Eleven of the 12 playoff teams finished at zero or better in turnover margin; only Philadelphia (minus-3) had more giveaways than takeaways.

28 is Great: The Saints entered Sunday averaging 27.7 points per game, but the 42-point effort lifted New Orleans’ season average to 28.6, third-best in the league.

It is the fourth consecutive year the Saints have averaged at least 28 points per game, the longest streak by any NFL team in the 16-game schedule era.

The Saints have finished in the top four in the league in scoring offense each of those seasons after doing so just four times total in the first 10 years of the Sean Payton/Drew Brees era.

Another Streak Snapped: The Saints set an NFL record in 2011 with 7,474 total yards, which started an NFL-record streak of eight consecutive seasons of at least 6,000 yards of offense.

That streak ended Sunday when New Orleans finished with 5,978 total yards, 22 yards shy of the mark.

The eight-season streak is easily the longest in NFL history. The Steve Young-led San Francisco 49ers offenses of 1992-95 had four consecutive seasons of at least 6,000 yards, and no other franchise has a streak longer than three seasons.

The longest active streak now belongs to the Kansas City Chiefs with three.

The Saints finished 2019 ranked ninth in total yards – remarkably, their lowest ranking of the Payton/Brees era.

Saints Offensive Rankings Since 2006

 
Stuffing the Run: For the second consecutive year, the Saints’ rushing defense ranked in the top five in the NFL.

New Orleans allowed 91.3 yards per game, good for fourth-best in the league but slightly below last year’s 80.2 average allowed, which ranked second in the NFL.

Only a pair of “Dome Patrol”-era defenses rank ahead of what the Saints have done the last two years in stopping the run.

Fewest Rush Yards/Game Allowed, Saints History
Season — Rush Yards (Yards/Game)

1991 — 1,213 (75.8)

2018 — 1,283 (80.2)

1989 — 1,326 (82.9)

2019 — 1,461 (91.3)

1986 — 1,559 (97.4)

1990 — 1,559 (97.4)

Brees Watch: While the offense was 22 yards away from extending a streak, Brees fell 21 yards shy of his 16th consecutive 3,000-yard passing season, though that will come with an asterisk.

Brees, of course, played a little more than 10 games in getting to 2,979 passing yards in 2019.

He also fell one completion short of breaking his own NFL record for completion percentage. Brees ended the season 281 of 378 – a 74.3 percent accuracy clip. A year ago, he completed 74.4 percent of his passes.

Brees led the league in completion percentage for the third straight year and the sixth time overall – third all-time behind Dawson and Sammy Baugh.

Brees had his NFL-record tying 93rd game with three passing touchdowns to finish with 27 TD passes on the season. It’s the 14th time in Brees’ career he’s finished with 25 or more passing TDs, tied with Tom Brady for second in NFL history.

Next Season? Looking ahead to 2020 and what would be Brees’ 20th NFL season, he can quickly check off another record – career pass attempts.

He is just eight attempts behind Brett Favre for the most in league history, which would then give Brees every significant career passing record – completions, attempts, percentage, yards and touchdowns.

Thomas’ Final Numbers: Michael Thomas missed out on one opportunity while extending his NFL record for receptions in a season on Sunday.

Thomas had four receptions for 39 yards against Carolina – the first time in 21 games he has failed to catch at least five passes.

Antonio Brown had back-to-back seasons of five or more catches in an NFL-record 36-game streak with at least five catches. Thomas’ streak is tied for the second-longest in league history.

He ended 2019 with an NFL-record 149 catches for a franchise-record 1,725 yards and nine touchdowns.

Statistical research assistance courtesy Pro Football Reference.