The last time the New England Patriots played a regular season game in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome was Nov. 30, 2009.
And Saints quarterback Drew Brees made history.
He completed 18 of 23 passes for 371 yards and five touchdowns in a stunning 38-17 rout of the Patriots. The beat down was so one-sided Pats coach Bill Belichick threw in the towel with 5 minutes left and subbed Brian Hoyer for Tom Brady at quarterback.
It was the greatest passing performance of Brees' stellar career. In fact, it's one of the single greatest passing performances in NFL history.
Some say it might be the best.
Against what many believe to the greatest defensive mind in the game, Brees completed 78 percent of his passes and threw touchdown passes to five different receivers: Marques Colston (20 yards); Darnell Dinkins (2); Devery Henderson (75); Robert Meachem (38); and Pierre Thomas (18).
The five touchdowns remains the most ever allowed by a Bill Belichick-coached defense.
It was only the fifth time in NFL history that a quarterback averaged more than 16 yards per pass attempt in a game.
His perfect 158.3 passer efficiency rating remains the only one of Brees' Hall of Fame career and one of just 31 by any quarterback since the league merger in 1970.
And Brees did it on the Monday Night Football stage against a team widely considered the greatest modern dynasty in the sport.
"Drew that night was off the charts," said former Saints wide receiver Marques Colston, who had four catches for a game-high 121 yards and a touchdown that night. "I remember him hitting Devery on a seam route with nobody close to him. He was just one of those performances you won't forget considering the circumstances."
It wasn't nearly as memorable of a night for Brady. A creative game plan by then-Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams strangled his primary receiving targets, Randy Moss and Wes Welker, forcing Brady to target his third and fourth options. He failed to throw a touchdown pass, was intercepted twice and finished with un-Brady-like 55.0 passer efficiency rating.
Brady said the Patriots "got our butts kicked" when describing the 2009 game earlier this week.
"They were better than us in every phase of the game," Belichick said. "I don't know how to put it any other way."
Added Saints coach Sean Payton that night: "You guys can write about the hierarchies and all that stuff. I thought (Brees) was outstanding tonight. I thought he was special."
The Saints set several team records that night, including a franchise best average of 9.6 yards per play.
The game fell just short of being the most watched event in cable television history. The national rating of 15.0 ranked it second only to the Vikings-Packers Monday night game from earlier that season.
"It was kind of a point validity with how great their team was at the time," said Colston, who will serve as the honorary game captain for today's game between the Saints and Patriots at the Superdome. "We were having a great year and to be able to beat that team on Monday night on prime time kind of cemented in your mind that we were the real deal."
As far as passing performances go, two analytical websites, Cold, Hard, Football Facts and Pro-Football-Reference.com, called it "the greatest regular-season passing performance in modern football history."
The 16.1 yards per passing attempt was the number that leapt off the statistical charts. No quarterback had averaged that high an average in 34 year. The four quarterback who did it before Brees -- Charley Johnson, Sonny Jurgensen, Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas -- are all in the Hall of Fame. And they did it against inferior competition, as NFL analytics expert Kerry J. Bryne noted.
"None of those quarterbacks faced a team with a winning record, let alone one of the great winning organizations in history," Byrne wrote for Sports Illustrated in 2009. "Quarterbacks simply do not average 16 yards per attempt in today's NFL. It hadn't happened in 34 years. It doesn't happen on the big stage of Monday night football. It doesn't happen against Belichick. It doesn't happen against the mighty New England victory machine."
But it did happen for Brees and the Saints in 2009. The greatest season in Saints history punctuated by the greatest performance ever by the franchise's greatest player.