by Vincent Verhei

Last week in this space, we talked about Ryan Tannehill's big game against Houston, and why our advanced numbers said maybe it wasn't a big game after all. Here we are seven days later it's time to talk about an even bigger day, and this time the advanced numbers liked it just fine -- though not as much as we thought when we went to bed Sunday night.

As you have probably heard by now, Drew Brees just went off on the New York Giants, and by the end of Sunday he had completed 40 of 50 passes for 511 yards and seven touchdowns, with one interception and no sacks. We were all prepared to run the best DYAR games ever story, and then a funny thing happened: Literally as this essay was being finished Monday evening, the NFL announced that a play in the game which had originally been ruled a Willie Snead catch-and-fumble was instead being changed to a Brees interception. That ended up taking away one completion and 6 yards from Brees, which wouldn't have been a huge deal, but of course they added a pick, and that is a huge deal.

That leaves Brees with a final statline of 39-50-511-7-2. When we re-ran those numbers (which really did put us in a foul mood, believe you me), we found that Brees' DYAR had dropped by about 60. It is worth noting, though, that Brees missed putting another game into our top ten of all time because this pass turned into an interception (and a pick-six at that):

Such is, as Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann used to say on SportsCenter, the fickle middle finger of fate.

So no, this was not the best game of Brees' career, or even a particularly great game by DYAR standards. The raw totals, though, are still spectacular, and they can tell us a lot about both Drew Brees and the Giants' defense:

Brees' seven touchdowns tied an all-time single-game record, the eighth time a quarterback has thrown for seven scores in a game. Brees joins Y.A. Tittle as the only men to throw for 500 yards and seven touchdowns in the same game -- Tittle pulled it off in 1962.

Unofficially, Brees and Tittle are the only men to throw for seven scores without getting sacked. (Sacks were not tracked when Sid Luckman threw for seven scores in 1943, but given what we know about football from that era, it's more likely than not that he hit the turf at some point.) Tittle dropped back 39 times in his seven-TD, 0-sack game, 11 passes fewer than Brees against the Giants on Sunday.

This is the second time Brees has thrown a half-dozen touchdowns in a game (he also did it against Detroit in 2009). Brees is one of eight men since 1960 to throw for six or more scores in a game twice. (Peyton Manning has done it three times.)

It was the tenth time Brees has thrown at least five touchdowns in a game, most in the NFL in more than half a century.

Though passing records seem to be falling every week, seven touchdowns is still very impressive. That's as many touchdowns as five starting quarterbacks (Peyton Manning, Nick Foles, Colin Kaepernick, Teddy Bridgewater, and all the quarterbacks in Dallas) have thrown all season.

Brees spread his seven touchdowns amongst five different receivers. Willie Snead and Brandin Cooks had two each, while Marques Colston, Ben Watson, and C.J. Spiller had one apiece.

Official NFL play-by-play labels all passes as one of six directions: deep left, deep middle, deep right, short left, short middle, and short right. Brees threw touchdowns in five of those categories against the Giants, missing only the short right range. That is something of a fluke, actually. Brees has thrown five short right touchdowns this season -- only Carson Palmer has thrown more.

Brees threw one touchdown on first down, one on third down, and five on second down. Only ten other quarterbacks have thrown five second-down touchdowns all year.

Brees wasn't just throwing short goal-line scores. His seven touchdowns averaged 23.6 yards each, and five gained 20 yards or more. Only eight other quarterbacks have thrown at least five touchdowns of 20 or more yards this year. (One of them, surprisingly, is Tyrod Taylor, who has only started five games.)

Mind you, Brees did some fine work in the red zone too, with three touchdowns of 19 yards or less. Don't write that off as easy either -- that's as many as Colin Kaepernick or Russell Wilson have thrown all year.

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Like all successful quarterbacks, Brees got some help from his receivers. On average, his touchdowns gained 14.0 yards in the air and 9.6 yards after the catch. Cooks had 22 YAC on his 26-yard score; Colston's 53-yard touchdown included 40 yards after the catch.

As you might have guessed, as great as this game looks for Brees and the Saints, it looks just as horrible for the Giants defense. New York gave up seven touchdowns on Sunday; that's as many or more as five defenses (Green Bay, Seattle, Denver, St. Louis, and, pending Monday night, Carolina) have given up all year.

The long touchdowns must be especially bothersome for Giants fans. As mentioned, they surrendered four touchdowns of 20 or more yards to Brees and the Saints. That's more than 21 defenses in the NFL have surrendered all year. Denver hasn't given up a 20-plus-yard touchdown yet.

Before the scoring change, Brees' game came in at 306 DYAR. You can see where that game would have ranked in this piece, which we wrote after Week 8 of last year, when Ben Roethlisberger strafed the Colts for 526 yards and six touchdowns in Week 8. However, while we're on the subject of Mr. Roethlisberger, we need to revisit the Steelers' quarterback and that game against Indianapolis. Here's a sample of what we wrote at the time:

In the DVOA era (which goes back to 1989), Roethlisberger's game against the Colts was: the best passing DYAR and total DYAR a quarterback has ever had in the regular season;

the second-best passing DYAR game a quarterback has ever had if we include the playoffs;

and the third-best total DYAR game a quarterback has ever had if we include the playoffs. And none of that is set in stone. Opponent adjustments can and will change throughout the second half of the season, and depending on what the Colts do from this point forward, Roethlisberger's game could go up or down a few DYAR. Though the top spot in the "best ever game" chart is probably out of reach, it's quite possible that Roethlisberger could climb to second, or fall to fourth.

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Well, guess what? The Colts' pass defense made a big improvement in the second half of 2014, moving from 8.7% through Week 9 to -9.8% from Week 10 onward. And that gave Roethlisberger's Week 8 game a huge boost, and by the end of the year it had passed the playoff performances of Brees and Kurt Warner and set the mark for most passing DYAR in any single game with 391. In total DYAR, Warner still edges Roethlisberger by an amazingly tiny margin (385.2 DYAR to 384.9) because Roethlisberger had -6 DYAR on his only carry of the game. That one run was quarterback keeper on third-and-2 that lost a yard with just over a minute to go and the Steelers up by 17 and happy to kill clock. When we were putting this together this afternoon, we went back and checked to make sure this was not a kneeldown, and it wasn't -- Roethlisberger was definitely trying to gain a first down and failed. And that meaningless garbage time stuff is all that stands between Roethlisberger and the all-time DYAR record. Between that stuff and Brees' perfectly thrown ball that turned into a turnover, we have been reminded that no stats are ever perfect.

Regardless, this single game caused a huge boost in Brees' season-long DYAR and DVOA numbers. He was 14th and 16th in those categories, respectively, after Week 7; now he is seventh and 11th. This game also torpedoed the Giants' defensive rankings. They fell from 12th overall and 14th against the pass to 25th and 28th. (Their run defense actually climbed a spot, from 12th to 11th. So there's that.) Though this was their worst game so far and probably the worst they'll play all year (and if not, we're gonna get some fun headlines), they haven't been very good this season. Their pass defense DVOA has only been below 0.0% twice this year, in Weeks 3 and 7. (Remember, negative DVOA means better pass defense.) The quarterbacks they played in those weeks: Kirk Cousins and Matt Cassel. It's quite doubtful that the Giants defense will improve in the second half of 2015, which means Brees' game is unlikely to climb any higher in the DYAR charts.

Quarterbacks Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 1. Drew Brees NO 39/50 505 7 2 0 248 252 -4 NYG 2. Derek Carr OAK 23/36 333 4 0 0 207 207 0 NYJ Carr completed 64 percent of his passes for 9.3 yards per pass, both the best marks against the Jets by any starter this season -- the latter by about 2.5 yards. And that's underselling how effective he was, because he shut down in garbage time, going 2-of-9 for 18 yards and no first downs in the fourth quarter. The Raiders were ahead by at least two touchdowns for that entire period. 3. Carson Palmer ARI 23/37 374 4 1 1 187 183 3 CLE Palmer only threw three passes up the middle against the Cleveland defense, completing two for 26 yards. He was not especially efficient when throwing to his right (11-of-21 for 136 yards, only six first downs), but deadly throwing to his left (10-of-13 for 212 yards and nine first downs, though he did throw an interception to that side). 4. Tom Brady NE 26/38 356 4 0 2 167 163 3 MIA 5. Peyton Manning DEN 21/29 340 0 1 0 155 155 0 GB Manning was perfect throwing to his tight ends against Green Bay. On passes to Owen Daniels and Virgil Green, he went 6-of-6 for 105 yards, with every completion gaining 10 to 32 yards and a first down. So of course the next day the Broncos traded for Vernon Davis. 6. Eli Manning NYG 30/41 350 6 0 3 143 143 0 NO It says a lot about the New Orleans defense that Eli threw six touchdowns without a pick and didn't even make the top five quarterbacks this week. He took the biggest hit from opponent adjustments in Week 8. Unlike his counterpart on Sunday, Manning's touchdowns mostly came from short distances. He did have one 50-yard bomb to Odell Beckham, but his other five scores all came in the red zone. Inside the Saints' 20, he went 7-of-9 for 48 yards, with the four touchdowns. 7. Philip Rivers SD 28/36 301 3 0 1 110 110 0 BAL The Chargers' screen game wasn't working very well against Baltimore. On passes to receivers at or behind the line of scrimmage, Rivers went 10-of-11, but only gained 29 yards and one first down. On all other passes, he went 18-of-25 for 272 yards with 14 first dwons, plus two DPIs for 16 more yards and two more first downs. 8. Jameis Winston TB 16/29 177 1 0 2 97 76 21 ATL Winston's two runs: a 21-yard gain on second-and-8 and a touchdown on third-and-goal from the 4. 9. Matt Ryan ATL 37/45 397 2 1 1 95 90 5 TB 10. Geno Smith NYJ 27/42 265 2 1 3 82 67 15 OAK Geno's two runs: a 5-yard gain on first-and-10, and a 29-yard gain on second-and-10. 11. Brian Hoyer HOU 24/35 235 2 0 3 68 68 0 TEN 12. Joe Flacco BAL 25/37 319 1 0 3 51 46 5 SD Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 13. Jay Cutler CHI 22/33 211 1 0 1 50 37 13 MIN Cutler's two runs: a 7-yard gain on second-and-6, and a touchdown on second-and-goal from the 4. 14. Alex Smith KC 18/26 145 2 0 3 41 1 40 DET Man, there were a lot of quarterbacks with big days running the ball this week. Smith's four carries each gained at least eight yards and a first down, including a 49-yard gain in the second quarter, a 12-yard touchdown on third-and-10, and a 10-yard gain on third-and-7. 15. Nick Foles STL 14/23 195 1 0 0 23 23 0 SF Foles only threw for five first downs all day. He threw eight passes on third down. The first seven were all incomplete. The last was a 66-yard touchdown to Tavon Austin, which was caught 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage with Austin doing the rest. 16. Josh McCown CLE 18/34 211 3 1 1 18 19 -1 ARI 17. Russell Wilson SEA 19/30 210 1 1 0 16 8 8 DAL In the first three quarters, Wilson was 1-of-6 for 16 yards on third down. Well, at least that one completion was for a first down. In the fourth quarter he went 3-of-3 on third downs for 23 yards with two conversions. He also had two third-down runs in the fourth quarter, one a 10-yard gain on third-and-7, the other a 5-yard gain on third-and-11 to set up the winning field goal. All five of his runs came in the second half, four of them in the fourth quarter. 18. Matt Cassel DAL 13/25 97 0 0 1 -11 -37 26 SEA What is up with the running quarterbacks this week? Cassel had 43 yards on the ground against Seattle, his highest single-game total since he played for New England against the Jets in 2008. His three carries: a 24-yard gain on first-and-10, a 12-yard gain on third-and-6, and an 8-yard gain on second-and-7. So that's three first downs on the ground, which is good. But he only had four first downs in the air, which is bad, and only one of those came in the first half. That's partly because he didn't even try any midrange passes. He had three attempts that traveled at least 26 yards downfield (all incomplete), but didn't try anything else deeper than 7 yards past the line of scrimmage. 19. Cam Newton CAR 16/35 248 2 1 2 -14 7 -22 IND In a week when a lot of quarterbacks had big days running the ball, it was Newton, of all people, who had the least luck. He gained 39 yards and two first downs on ten carries, but three times he was hit for no gain or a loss. Two of those came on second down with 2 yards or less to go, and one of those resulted in a fumble. 20. Aaron Rodgers GB 14/22 77 0 0 3 -18 -32 14 DEN You want to know how good Denver's defense is this year? Rodgers gets the biggest bump from opponent adjustments this week, and he only had 25 dropbacks. Rodgers himself will tell you how good that defense is, because they dominated him like we've almost never seen before. He threw only one pass on Denver's side of the field, a 4-yard gain on third-and-14. He did not pick up a first down outside the Green Bay 40. Oh, but hey, he could still run, with first downs on carries of 14 and 17 yards. 21. Ben Roethlisberger PIT 28/45 262 1 3 3 -19 -19 0 CIN 22. Colin Kaepernick SF 20/41 162 0 0 3 -36 -43 7 STL The 49ers passer struggled to keep drives alive. On third and fourth downs, he went 5-of-15 for 35 yards and only two first downs. That includes five failures with 4 yards or less to go for a first down. He did run for a 9-yard gain on third-and-6, but his other four runs gained a total of 20 yards with no first downs. Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 23. Andy Dalton CIN 23/38 231 1 2 3 -41 -37 -3 PIT The Bengals won a squeaker, but this game never would have been close if Dalton had played better in scoring range. Inside the Pittsburgh 40, he went 3-of-10 for 24 yards with only one first down (a 9-yard touchdown to A.J. Green) with an interception and two sacks. 24. Andrew Luck IND 23/45 231 2 3 2 -42 -49 7 CAR More than half of Luck's dropbacks, and nearly all his first downs, came in the fourth quarter. In the first three quarters, he went 5-of-13 for 34 yards with two first downs, one interception, and one sack. In overtime, he went 1-of-3 for 6 yards with no first downs and an interception. In the fourth, he went 17-of-29 for 178 yards with one sack and 12 first downs. And you can add Luck to the list of quarterbacks with big running days. Lucks' first four carries were all 6-yard gains on first- or second-and-10; his fifth was an 11-yard gain on second-and-4. All told, quarterbacks this week had a 34.0 DVOA on rushing plays, and averaged 7.5 yards per carry, both the highest marks of any week this season. 25. Teddy Bridgewater MIN 17/30 187 1 1 1 -44 -51 7 CHI Bridgewater didn't throw a single pass in the red zone, partly because he stunk so bad just outside that area. Between Chicago's 40- and 20-yard lines, Bridgewater went 1-of-4, and that one completion was a 2-yard loss on third-and-13. 26. Ryan Tannehill MIA 28/44 300 0 2 5 -69 -64 -5 NE It was a pretty terrible day for the Miami quarterback on third downs. On third and fourth downs, he went 5-of-9 for 33 yards and only two conversions, with two sacks and a fumbled snap. Two of those conversions came with the Dolphins down by 15 points or more in the second half. he also had a lot of trouble finishing drives. On New England's half of the field, he went 3-of-8 for 40 yards with as many first downs (two) as sacks. 27. Matthew Stafford DET 22/36 217 1 2 6 -138 -136 -2 KC Stafford was actually very good on midrange and deep passes. On throws that traveled 10 or more yards downfield, he went 8-of-13 for 135 yards, with every completion going for a first down. Anything shorter than that was pretty much a disaster though; he went 14-of-23 for 82 yards with four first downs and two picks. Oh, and he was sacked six times. That's bad. 28. Zach Mettenberger TEN 22/31 171 0 1 7 -148 -148 0 HOU Mettenberger's first third-down pass attempt was a 6-yard gain to Delanie Walker on third-and-1. That was his only third- or fourth-down conversion all day. All told, on the money downs, he went 4-of-10 for 30 yards with an interception and two sacks. He was very good when throwing to his right (8-of-10 for 65 yards, with six first downs), but struggled badly up the middle (7-of-11 for 72 yards, but only two first downs) and to his left (7-of-10 for 34 yards, one first down, one interception). And of course, with seven sacks and a fumble, he often had no chance to throw in any direction at all.

Five Best Running Backs by DYAR (Total) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Latavius Murray OAK 20 113 0 1/2 6 0 50 53 -3 NYJ Murray ran for seven first downs against the Jets, including gains of 12, 12, 25, and 26 yards. That made up for the fact he was stuffed for no gain or a loss five times. 2. Dion Lewis NE 5 19 0 6/9 93 1 47 -4 51 MIA Lewis packed a lot of good (two runs of 10 or more yards) and bad (two runs for a loss) in his five carries. All six of his receptions gained at least 11 yards and a first down, including conversions on third-and-7 and third-and-16. 3. Mark Ingram NO 16 80 0 4/5 39 0 40 22 17 NYG Ingram ran for seven first downs against the Giants, including three runs of 10 yards or more, while being hit for no gain or a loss just three times. Three of his four receptions resulted in furst downs too. 4. C.J. Anderson DEN 14 101 1 1/1 5 0 25 29 -4 GB Anderson came into the week next-to-last in rushing DYAR, but his game against Green Bay showed that he is not done yet. Eight of his 14 carries against the Packers gained 5 yards or more, and three of those gained 18 or more, while only three of his carries lost yardage. 5. Rashad Jennings NYG 10 54 0 2/3 31 0 24 13 12 NO All ten of Jennings' carries came on first down, and all of them gained at least 1 yard, including gains of 12 and 17. His best reception was a 25-yard gain on second-and-10.

Five Best Running Backs by DYAR (Rushing) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Latavius Murray OAK 20 113 0 1/2 6 0 50 53 -3 NYJ 2. C.J. Anderson DEN 14 101 1 1/1 5 0 25 29 -4 GB 3. Mark Ingram NO 16 80 0 4/5 39 0 40 22 17 NYG 4. Adrian Peterson MIN 20 103 0 2/2 6 0 17 19 -2 CHI A week after he was rarely able to get past the line of scrimmage, Peterson was hit for no gain or a loss just twice against Chicago, while running for six first downs, including three gains of 10 yards or more. 5. Joique Bell DET 7 56 0 0/1 0 0 8 16 -7 KC Bell had gains of 32 and 12 yards, and was hit for no gain just once.

Worst Running Back by DYAR (Total) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Chris Johnson ARI 30 107 0 0/1 0 0 -62 -53 -9 CLE In all those carries, Johnson only gained four first downs. Meanwhile, his longest run was only 13 yards, he was stuffed for no gain or a loss four times, and he fumbled twice.

Worst Running Back by DYAR (Rushing) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Chris Johnson ARI 30 107 0 0/1 0 0 -62 -53 -9 CLE

Five Best Wide Receivers and Tight Ends by DYAR Rk Player Team Rec Att Yds Avg TD Total

DYAR Opp 1. Odell Beckham NYG 8 9 130 16.2 3 80 NO Six of Beckham's receptions went for first downs, including touchdowns of 1, 2, and 50 yards. His other two catches were gains of 8 and 9 on first-and-10. 2. Demaryius Thomas DEN 8 11 168 21.0 0 71 GB Six of Thomas' receptions gained at least 14 yards and a first down. THe others were a 6-yard gain on second-and-7 and a 9-yard gain on first-and-10. 3. Benjamin Watson NO 9 10 147 16.3 1 50 NYG Seven of Watson's receptions led to first downs, including conversions on all four of his third-down targets and gains of 20, 25, and 46 yards. 4. Julian Edelman NE 7 9 81 11.6 2 45 MIA As usual, Edelman had a bunch of effective short completions. Though none gained more than 20 yards, two went for touchdowns, two others went for first downs, and all qualified as successful plays. 5. Marques Colston NO 8 9 114 14.2 1 42 NYG Colston's day was much like Edelman's. Seven of his catches gained 12 yards or less, but four of those were first downs, and six were successful plays. Colston did tack on a 50-yard touchdown though.