Story of the Streaks

Legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas registered an incredible streak of 47 straight games with a touchdown pass. The mark was long regarded as pro football’s “unbreakable record” as it was never even remotely challenged for a half century. That was, until New Orleans Saints Drew Brees embarked on a string in 2009 that he has managed to keep alive. Brees tied Unitas during Week 4 of the 2012 NFL season. Here is a comparison of the two streaks as they stood when Brees tied the mark. He went on to break the record during a comeback win over the San Diego Chargers on Oct. 7, 2012.

	Johnny Unitas	Drew Brees
Span	Dec. 9, 1956-Dec. 4, 1960	Oct. 18, 2009-Nov. 29, 2012
Streak Details	Game-by-game	Game-by-Game
Win-Loss Record	31-16-0	33-14-0
Longest Winning Streak	8 games	9 games
Streak Broken By	Los Angeles Rams	Atlanta Falcons
Attempts	1,298	1,891
Completions	696	1,302
Yards	10,645	14,803
TD	102	114
INT	61	50
Passer Rating	83.7	101.2
TD Targets	Raymond Berry (38)	Marques Colston (22)
	Lenny Moore (27)	Lance Moore (20)
	Jim Mutscheller (25)	Jimmy Graham (19)
	Alan Ameche (4)	Robert Meacham (19)
	L.G. DuPre (3)	Darren Sproles (9)
	Alex Hawkins (3)	Reggie Bush (4)
	Jerry Richardson (2)	Devery Henderson (4)
		Jeremy Shockey (4)
		Jed Collins (3)
		David Thomas (3)
		Pierre Thomas (3)
		Darnell Dinkins (1)
		Heath Evans (1)
		John Gilmore (1)
		Joe Morgan (1)