Drew Brees certainly didn’t look 37 years old last week while strafing the Raiders with yet another of his trademark 400-yard passing days.
“No, he most definitely did not,” Giants safety Landon Collins said with a smile Friday, recalling what he saw from the Saints’ record-setting quarterback on film in a 35-34 home loss that was anything but Brees’ fault.
Collins and his defensive teammates know they could be in for a similar roasting Sunday at MetLife Stadium if Big Blue can’t find a way to get Brees out of rhythm.
The Giants don’t have to think too far back to know how painful it is to be picked apart by the six-time NFL passing champion, who is in position Sunday to unseat Peyton Manning for the all-time league record with 15 career games of 400 or more yards through the air.
It was less than a year ago that Brees erupted with one of the best games of his sparkling, 16-year career, blistering the Giants for 505 yards and seven touchdowns in a 52-49 victory in New Orleans in Week 7 that still gives Big Blue defenders who were victimized that day nightmares.
Collins, in fact, jokingly denied even being in uniform that day when asked Friday to recall the Superdome horror show. Brees completed 39 of 50 passes while compiling a 131.7 passer rating.
“I just remember balls being thrown everywhere, I can tell you that much,” said Collins, who was a rookie last season. “Them marching the ball downfield — I’d never come from a defense that had let a team march the ball downfield and just catch it all over the field on you like that. We couldn’t get off the field.”
The Giants’ biggest problem that day was an inability to lay a hand on Brees, who wasn’t sacked and barely felt any pressure at all while dicing up their secondary.
“We couldn’t get him off the spot,” Collins said. “We need to get him moving where he can’t get the full range of the field and get him uncertain to where he’s throwing balls up that we can go get.”
The debacle against Brees might have been the biggest impetus for the Giants’ offseason defensive spending spree that brought cornerback Janoris Jenkins, defensive end Olivier Vernon and tackle Damon Harrison in free agency, as well as the use of a first-round pick on Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple.
“Brees isn’t necessarily the runner that Dak Prescott is, so we can be a little more aggressive in some sorts,” said Harrison, referring to the Cowboys rookie the Giants faced last week in a 20-19 opening win on the road.
“But you have to respect Drew’s arm,” Harrison added. “He has a major league arm, and he can make all the throws and he is not a rookie, so there is not too much that he hasn’t seen.”
The Giants also can take heart in the fact that Brees’ splits both on the road and outdoors are noticeably lopsided against him.
Brees has a career touchdown-to-interception ratio of 254-99 at home and 178-106 on the road, and his career passer rating is more than 12 points lower outdoors (90.3) than it is in a dome (102.6).
Odds are the Giants aren’t going to see the same player Sunday who took the Week 1 NFL lead in four different passing categories with his boffo performance against the Raiders.
The Giants also like to think they’re better prepared.
“I have learned from it, and the guys that played in it definitely learned from that game,” Collins said. “Now that we have the defense that we need, I think it’s going to be a better outcome.”