Panthers can't keep up with high-octane Saints

Drew Brees passed for 389 yards and five touchdowns, and the New Orleans Saints set a slew of NFL and club records in a 45-17 blowout of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

The NFL single-season records set by the Saints (13-3), who head into the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak, included offensive yards (7,474), team yards passing (5,347) and first downs (416).

Brees, who was 28 of 35, finished with a record 468 completions this season, breaking Peyton Manning's 2010 mark of 450. He finished the season completing 71.6 percent of his passes, breaking his own 2009 NFL record.

Darren Sproles had 40 yards rushing, 29 yards receiving and 99 yards on kickoff and punt returns to finish the season with an NFL record 2,969 combined yards, easily breaking the previous mark of 2,690, set by Derrick Mason with Tennessee in 2000.

After a strong start that kept Carolina (6-10) competitive through one half, quarterback Can Newton finished 15 of 25 for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception, well below the standard he'd set during an otherwise spectacular rookie season.

The Panthers had come in having won four of five and wanted to go into the offseason on a high. They, instead, were reminded of just how big a gap there is between them and the Saints.

"I have to work both mentally and physically to be a better quarterback," Newton said. "It was embarrassing how we ended that game."

Carolina kept up for much of the first half but wilted over the final two quarters while the Saints set a franchise single-game record with 617 yards of total offense.

"We caught a football team that is on a roll right now," coach Ron Rivera of the Panthers said. "That's a playoff-caliber football team that did that to us."

Marques Colston caught Brees' first two scoring passes, making a spectacular, spinning catch with arms outstretched on the first one from 15 yards out.

Colston's second touchdown went for 42 yards, and he finished with seven catches for 145 yards.

Brees also connected with tight end Jimmy Graham on a 19-yard scoring strike and added touchdown passes of 9 yards to Sproles and 1 yard to fullback Jed Collins.

Graham's touchdown catch was his 11th, matching a club record also reached by Joe Horn in 2004 and Colston in 2007.

Brees surpassed 300 yards passing for the seventh straight game and 13th time this season, both NFL records he already held and simply extended.

The records come one week after Brees passed Dan Marino's 27-yard-old single-season record of 5,084 yards passing.

With six touchdowns against Carolina, the Saints finished with 66 this season, breaking the 2009 record of 64. New Orleans' 547 points smashed the 2009 club record of 510 and was the third highest total in NFL history behind the 2007 Patriots (589) and the 1998 Minnesota Vikings (556).

Both defenses struggled for much of a competitive first half, and each team might have scored more if not for Patrick Robinson's interception of Newton in the Saints' end zone and R.J. Stanford's interception of Brees deep in Panthers territory.

Chris Ivory gave the Saints a 7-0 lead on the opening series of the game with his 35-yard touchdown run.

The Panthers hit right back with Newton's 12-yard timing pass to Steve Smith to tie it. Later, Jonathan Stewart's 29-yard scoring run pulled the Panthers into a tie at 17 with 1:18 to go in the second quarter.

That was too much time for Brees, who connected on his long touchdown pass to Colston with 7 seconds on the clock to make it 24-17 at halftime.

NOTES: Carolina officials said after the game that cornerback Darius Butler had a broken arm, but they did not specify which one; tight end Greg Olsen had a concussion.... Colston set a club record with his fifth 1,000-yard season with the Saints, moving ahead of Joe Horn, who had four.... Saints P Thomas Morstead set a record for punting average in a season at 47.9 yards.... The Saints went 8-0 at home for the first time in franchise history.