NBANCAA BasketballNFL

What The Hell Happened Last Night, Part 1: A Low Point For Drew Brees, A High Point For Gregg Popovich Not Caring

I’m splitting this post in two this morning. First comes what happened in the pros. Later, that college football contest in New Jersey you might have heard something about – the one that’s making it hard for me to get motivated enough to do anything today. But the show must go on. Up, up and away:

Drew Brees should probably just forget last night ever happened.

Drew Brees is one of the NFL’s great quarterbacks. He’s got a chance to retire as one of the best who ever played the game. One game does not a career – or even season – make, etc., etc. And with all that said: games can’t get much worse for a quarterback than the one he had in a 23-13 loss to the Falcons last night. You start looking at the stat line: 28-50, 341 yards – and think, “Hmm, not a great completion percentage, but that’s Brees-like yardage, anyway.”

And then, you get to the really un-Brees-like part: no touchdowns, five interceptions. It’s the first time Brees has been held touchdown-less in a game since 2009, and the first time he’s been picked off five times, well, ever. And it’s not like these were freak plays: most of the picks were simply mistakes by Brees. The Saints were, for a time, rebounding beautifully from their horrible start, winning five of six. Now, they’re 5-7 on the year, and it looks increasingly likely that for the first time since 2008, they’ll miss the playoffs. Bounty scandal punishments can be rough on a franchise.

Oh, and we should probably mention that the Falcons are 11-1. Poor Falcons – they can never get any credit. Is this their breakthrough year?

Gregg Popovich doesn’t care.

In what I can only imagine was some sort of performance art piece, or just a naked attempt to annoy David Stern as much as he possibly can, Gregg Popovich decided he’d give his three best players, plus another key cog in Danny Green, the night off against the Heat last night. Stern was not happy about this. The Spurs will feel his wrath. Popovich, I assume, was too busy not giving one single fuck to pay that wrath much mind.

And here was the crazy thing: the Spurs almost won. The Heat pulled it out 105-100, but considering the Spurs were hilariously shorthanded the Heat had everyone, it has to worry Miami a little bit that they were only able to win by five points, doesn’t it? And in other NBA action, the Warriors pulled out a 106-105 win over the Nuggets… barely.

College basketball upset watch:

Notre Dame knocked off No. 8 Kentucky 64-50. ND, now 7-1, is off to a promising start. UK? Not quite so much. Keep in mind, the Wildcats are, as usual, loaded with freshmen, and the freshman class isn’t as dominant as last year’s. Their best basketball is still ahead of them. But a loss like this suggests the growing pains in the interim might be more serious than you;d expect of a team that started the season ranked No. 3.

It’s Friday. Celebrate.

Unless you’re a Rutgers fan. Then there is nothing to enjoy, ever. More on that in Part 2.

Photos via Getty

Follow @glennrd